Papers of the Hein family
Photograph of the exterior of the Brooklyn Branch of Hagedorn Family Hotel located at 298 Graham St. Brooklyn, NY, circa 1900.
Collection area: Arizona and Southwest
Collection dates: 1860-1900 bulk (bulk 1890-1900)
The collection contains the Hein family papers, a German American family, who were early settlers in Skull Valley, Arizona. The collection consists mainly of letters in English and German with various members of the Hagedorn and Loske families. The letters exchanged between these branches of the family and their Loske relatives gives an extremely interesting portrayal of the life in the Arizona Territory , and the letters give a good picture of economic condition during this period. There are fifty nine letters, nineteen documents and four photographs. These materials are in various sizes, principally from Skull Valley and Prescott, Arizona Territory, but with a few other letters from Gewersdorf, Germany, New York, and Galveston, 1887-1899.
The William Hagedorns family was a German family who came to the United States in the 1880's; one branch settling in Brooklyn, another emigrating to the far-disant Arizona Territory, where they bought part-interest in the Prescott Coal Development Company and established themselves in Skull Valley, Arizona. The Hagedorm prospecting for coal was not successful, and it is possible to trace through the letters the rise and fall of the aspirations of the family with regard to getting rich off coal production. The Hagedorn family returned to their more prosperous hotel business Brooklyn after the unfortunate experience in the Far West.
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