Dedications

Since 2011, ARG has extensively researched H.W. Crabb’s To-Kalon estate, including the history of the property’s ownership and use and the surrounding Oakville community. ARG was initially retained to research the history of the residence within the property. ARG determined the house was built in the 1870s by William Baldridge. Baldridge participated in the Bear Flag Revolt and Mexican-American War, which led to the transition of California from Mexico to the United States in the mid-nineteenth century. As a pioneer settler of Oakville, he acquired a land patent from the federal government in 1870 and built a residence within his property shortly thereafter. The Baldridge property was part of To-Kalon estate under Crabb’s ownership for ten years (1889 until Crabb’s death in 1899).

ARG has conducted research at a wide array of repositories and compiled a database of deeds, historic photographs, maps, newspaper articles, and other primary and secondary documents regarding H.W. Crabb’s To-Kalon estate (see Table 1 below)

Table 1.

Physical and Digital Repositories Accessed by ARG

Physical Repositories

Napa County Recorder’s Office
Napa County Assessor’s Office
Napa County Historical Society Research Library
Napa County Landmarks
Napa Wine Library (within the St. Helena Public Library)
St. Helena Historical Society
Sonoma County Library History and Genealogy Library
Hayward Area Historical Society
The Bancroft Library
California Historical Society
California Society of Pioneers
California State Archives
The Huntington Library
University of California, Davis Special Collections
University of California, Berkeley Earth Sciences and Map Library
University of California, Santa Barbara
San Francisco Public Library History Center
USDA Agricultural Library

Digital Repositories

Online Archive of California
Internet Archive
California Digital Newspaper Collection
San Francisco Chronicle Historical Database
Napa County Newspapers Database (Napa County Library)
Chronicling America Newspaper Database (Library of Congress)
Newspapers.com
Library of Congress Digital Collections
Ancestry.com
JSTOR
USGS Earth Explorer
USGS Historical Topographic Map Explorer
David Rumsey Map Collection
Napa County Library - Napa County Newspapers
Vintner, Jeremy Nickel's "History of To-Kalon"
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