History of Santa Cruz County (Harrison-1892)
History of Santa Cruz County, California, by Edward Sanford Harrison was published in 1892. The book is available as a free ebook from Google Books. Following Elliott's Santa Cruz County, Calif. Illustrations, with Historical Sketch (1879 book), Harrison's book is the next-earliest general history of the county.
The 1892 version was preceded in 1890 by a slim edition proclaiming on its front cover that it was "Published for the Board of Supervisors by E. S. Harrison" (see cover image at right). That smaller edition lacked the individual biographies and portraits that comprise a large portion of the 1892 edition. The historical and descriptive text was also done in much less depth.
In 1982, the Santa Cruz Historical Society published a straight reprint of the 1890 edition (now out of print, but held by the MAH archives library), without any editing of the original manuscript. Two notable features: 1) many front and back pages are filled with 1890 advertising by local businesses, and 2) front and back cover images were created by local artist Frank Heath (front cover at right).
Several local writers composed individual chapters that were compiled into the book:
- E. L. Williams contributed Ch.2, "THE EARLY HISTORY OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTY" and Ch.3, "NARRATIVE OF A MISSION INDIAN, ETC." (translated from an interview)
- Ed. Martin contributed Ch.4, "RECOLLECTIONS OF FORTY YEARS IN SANTA CRUZ COUNTY"
- C. L. Anderson contributed Ch.6, "GEOLOGY OR THE ANCIENT HISTORY OF SANTA CRUZ"; Ch.7, "THE GARDENS OF THE SEASHORE"; Ch.8 "THE FISHES CF MONTEREY BAY"; Ch.9, "CATALOGUE OF FLOWERING PLANTS AND FERNS OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTY"; Ch.12 "OUR FEATHERED SONGSTERS"
- "R. C. McGREGOR AND L. H. FISKE" contributed "CHAPTER XI. ANNOTATED LIST OF THE LAND AND WATER BIRDS OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTY"
- Following the history chapters are approx. 100 short biographies and descriptive articles.
- 44 individual portrait photo engravings, 14 group photo engravings, and 43 engravings of county scenes. Unfortunately, none of these images were reproduced well by the Google Books scans.
