Collection is open for research.
Beginning in the late 1870s, Peter French and Hugh J. Glenn purchased large tracts of grazing land in southeastern Oregon's Harney County. Their ranch, which was eventually owned by the French-Glenn Live Stock Company, covered around 140,000 acres, bordering on Malheur Lake on the north and following the Dundar and Blitzen valleys. Some of the land was planted in alfalfa, oats, and barley. It was divided into five parts: the "P" Ranch Division, the Catlow Valley Division, the Diamond Division, the Happy Valley Division, and the Sod-House Division. The company's headquarters were located in Chico, California, and its general manager was F. C. Lusk.
In 1891, the company took out a large mortgage with the German Savings and Loan Society of San Francisco, and in 1898 it entered an additional mortgage agreement with California land speculator Henry Miller. In 1905, the company's holdings were sold to the California and Oregon Land Company, headed by Portland banker Henry Ladd Corbett.
French-Glenn Live Stock Company records, Mss 1379, Oregon Historical Society Research Library
The collection includes legal records, land ownership records, information on cattle, a map of holdings in Harney County, and documents relating to a loan from the German Savings and Loan Society. Also included are probate records relating to the estates of Royal and Nancy Glenn, documents concerning the Henry Miller mortgage, and documents on the sale of the company's holdings.
The Oregon Historical Society owns the materials in the Research Library and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. The Society does not necessarily hold copyright to all materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from copyright owners.