Warren Fish Company Records, 1869-1947, bulk 1899-1920

 

Collection context

Summary

Abstract:
Accounting journals, cash books, cash journals, checkbook stubs, daybooks, delivery records, fish checkbook stubs, fish sales, fish journals, fish receipt books, ship account books, ship supply transfer records, trial balances, and details on various accounts held by the Baylen Street Wharf Company, which was later absorbed by the Warren Fish Company.
Extent:
107.30 Linear Feet
Language:
English
Preferred citation:

[Title of Item], [Date of Item], Warren Fish Company Records, Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. https://purl.lib.fsu.edu/fa/MSS-1986-029

Background

Scope and content:

The Warren Fish Company Records document the operations of a large commercial fishery operation that handled and shipped red snapper and grouper in the Pensacola area during the late 19th and 20th Centuries. The collection is comprised of the following series: accounting journals, cash books, cash journals, checkbook stubs, daybook stubs, order and delivery records, fish journals, fish receipt books, ship supply books, transfer journals, which listed amounts transferred from various journals to general ledgers, and trial balances. Trial balance books were used to alert bookkeepers to possible errors in their account books. In addition, there are account books kept by the Baylen Street Wharf Company. This collection also includes Andrew Fuller Warren's account book for Boston, from March 6, 1869, to May 24, 1871. These records can be used by historians and business historians studying the growth of one of the nation's longest operating commercial fishing enterprises.

Biographical / historical:

According to the Friends of St. Johns Historic Cemetery in Pensacola (FL), Andrew Fuller Warren, co-founder of the Warren Fish Company, was born in 1842 in Massachusetts, attended school in Boston (MA), and graduated from Brown University in 1863. During the Civil War, he served in the 10th Rhode Island Volunteers, and was later employed in the shipping business in Boston. In 1871, Warren came to Pensacola to work for the Pensacola Fish Company, an outgrowth of the city's first ice factory, and soon became a partner in the Company. In 1873, Warren returned to New England to marry Fannie Clark Stearns of Bath (ME). His brother-in-law, Silas Stearns, joined them in Pensacola, and in 1880, they established Warren and Company, a partnership. Later, the name was changed to the Warren Fish Company.

Acquisition information:
The Warren Fish Company Records were acquired from the Warren Fish Company in 1954.
Custodial history:

Norman L. Kilpatrick, Director of Libraries at Florida State University (FSU) and Secretary of FSU's Southern Business History Center, in a letter (July 9, 1954) to Frances W. Taylor, President of the Warren Fish Company, thanked Taylor for sending 95 volumes of its business records, which Kilpatrick felt would be very helpful to students in history or business. These records were subsequently transferred to the FSU Libraries from the Southern Business History Center.

Processing information:

A preliminary finding aid to the collection was completed in 1989. The finding aid was updated in 2006.

Arrangement:

Each series is arranged chronologically.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open to all researchers.

This collection is in an offsite storage location. Please contact lib-specialcollections@fsu.edu with requests for access or for more information.

Terms of access:

Copyright has not been transferred to the Florida State University Libraries.

All requests for permission to quote, publish, broadcast or otherwise reproduce from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Associate Dean for Special Collections & Archives. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Florida State University Libraries as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the researcher.

Preferred citation:

[Title of Item], [Date of Item], Warren Fish Company Records, Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University Libraries, Tallahassee, Florida. https://purl.lib.fsu.edu/fa/MSS-1986-029

Location of this collection:
116 Honors Way
Tallahassee
FL
32306-2047
USA