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Ernest Frederick Kellner Papers

 Collection
Identifier: MSS-278-BC

Scope and Content

The Kellner Papers are documents relating to E.F. Kellner's mercantile and mining businesses in Globe, Arizona, 1876-1917. The collection includes letters written to Kellner by business acquaintances in Arizona, California, New Mexico, and Texas concerning shipments of goods, livestock orders, and other items needed in Globe. Legal documents pertaining to Kellner's business career, the E.F. Kellner and Co. and E.F. Kellner's Store are also archived in the collection (1863-1912). There are papers describing a lawsuit levied by Kellner against the Old Dominion Copper Mining and Smelting Company (1895). The collection also includes the articles of incorporation of the Globe Bank and Savings Company (1907), lease documents, and deeds to land and mining properties owned by Kellner. There are several newspaper clippings concerning Kellner's home in Santa Barbara, California, and mementos relating to Kellner's European vacations (1909-1915). One file relates specifically to the Bennett family and contains the Bennett family genealogy, business and personal letters between Joseph and his brother Nehemiah Bennett, invitations, and flyers (1854-1887).

This collection was formerly called the Bennett-Kellner Family Papers.

Dates

  • 1854-1917

Language of Materials

English

Access Restrictions

Collection is open for research.

Copy Restrictions

Limited duplication of CSWR material is allowed for research purposes. User is responsible for compliance with all copyright, privacy, and libel laws. Permission is required for publication or distribution.

Biography/History

Ernest Frederick Kellner, merchant and miner, was born on May 25th 1849, in New Braunfels, Texas. Kellner's mercantile career began in 1869 when he started a store in San Antonio, Texas. By 1874, Kellner was providing supplies to Fort Selden, the U.S. Army Fort near Silver City, New Mexico. In 1876, his business grew into a partnership with J.B. Morril in Silver City. Together, Kellner and Morril established stores in Silver City, N.M., and Globe, Arizona. This arrangement dissolved in 1878, at which time Kellner took over the Arizona half of the business and moved to central Arizona. He opened stores in McMillen and Richmond Basin, Arizona, and established a milling operation, lumber yard, and Miners' Bank in Globe. Kellner got sick in 1882 and, after a three month tour of Europe to recuperate, he returned to Globe to sell his stores in McMillen and Richmond Basin and to end his Miners' Bank. In their place, Kellner established a successful and well-known outfitting store called the New York Store in Globe. It became the exclusive outfitter to the Dominion Copper Mining and Smelting Company, a major Arizona copper company.

Kellner's businesses were founded on supplying the cattle and other mining operations that flourished in Arizona at the end of the nineteenth century. In Globe, Kellner operated under the business name of E.F. Kellner and Company, and outfitted miners, provided lumber, and delivered supplies to mining camps. Kellner's other area operations included the E.F. Kellner's Store, a grocery store, in Phoenix, Arizona. Kellner also had his hand in owning and running mining operations. He owned, for example, a stake in the Lost Gulch Gold Mines and Mills, near Globe. Kellner was a founding director of the Globe Bank and Savings Company, incorporated in 1907.

Kellner married Mary Walker Bennett in December 1857. Mary Bennett was the daughter of Nehemiah V. Bennett, a New Mexican and the principal of a girl's seminary in Jackson, Louisiana. Nehemiah's brother Joseph F. Bennett was a businessman and politician who owned the Bennett Mine in the Organ Mountains, northwest of Las Cruces, New Mexico. This mine later merged with a nearby mining operation and became known as the Stephenson-Bennett Consolidated Mine. Kellner and Mary Bennett had five children, including a son, E.F. Kellner, Jr., who became involved in his father's business enterprises after Kellner's long-time manager J.W. Ransom retired in 1900. Throughout his life, Kellner took several trips to Europe to recover from various illnesses. He died at his mansion in Venice, California, in 1915.

Extent

1 box (.35 cu. ft.)

Abstract

The Kellner papers relate to the mercantile businesses and mining ventures of pioneering Globe, Arizona merchant Ernest Frederick Kellner. Some documents pertain to the family businesses of Kellner's in-laws, the Bennett's.

Separated Material

Jules Bawmann Sketch of Prescott, Arizona, 1891 has been transferred to Pictorial Collections.

Relevant Secondary Sources

  • Bigando, Robert. Globe, Arizona:The Life and Times of a Western Mining Town, 1864-1917. Globe, Arizona: American Globe Publishing Company, 1989.
  • Miller, Darlis A. "Carleton's California Column: A Chapter in New Mexico's Mining History, New Mexico Historical Review. 53:5-38.
  • Woody, Clara T. and Milton L. Schwartz. Globe, Arizona: Early Times in a Little World of Copper and Cattle. Tucson: Arizona Historical Society, 1977.
  • Elliott, Wallace W. The History of Arizona Territory, Showing its Resources and Advantages. Flagstaff, Ariz.: Northland Press, 1964:294-295.
Title
Finding Aid of the Ernest Frederick Kellner Papers, 1854-1917
Status
Edited Full Draft
Author
Processed by Tad McIlwraith
Date
©2000
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Finding aid is in English

Revision Statements

  • June 28, 2004: PUBLIC "-//University of New Mexico::Center for Southwest Research//TEXT (US::NmU::MSS 278 BC::Ernest Frederick Kellner Papers)//EN" "nmu1mss278bc.sgml" converted from EAD 1.0 to 2002 by v1to02.xsl (sy2003-10-15).

Repository Details

Part of the UNM Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections Repository

Contact:
University of New Mexico Center for Southwest Research & Special Collections
University Libraries, MSC05 3020
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque NM 87131
505-277-6451