Pioneers
The California Pioneer Project is a special project sponsored by CAGenWeb that maintains links to resources on California pioneers. They also have indexes to biographies and histories by county. Here’s the shortcut to the San Luis Obispo County Indexes.
The Society of California Pioneers The Society of California Pioneers is California’s oldest historical organization, founded in 1850 by pre-Gold Rush pioneers. In 1900, founding members of the society were asked to write down what they remembered about arriving and settling in California. The result was 153 documents providing first-hand accounts of the migration west prior to 1850 and descriptions of life in California up until 1904. See their Autobiographies and Reminiscences of Early Pioneers page to search via the Online Archive of California by name, subject, date, and keywords.
Pioneer Card Index The Pioneer Card Index is a index that covers all the names that are in the Pioneer Card File at the California State History Library in Sacramento. The Pioneer Card File consists of biographical information on Californians who arrived before, after, and during the gold rush.
California pioneer register and index, 1542-1848: including Inhabitants of California, 1769-1800, and list of pioneers by Hubert Howe Bancroft, 1900. Two examples from this book are transcribed below. The references are to the History of California, by the same author, vol. i.-v., followed by the page number.
Wilson (John), 1826, Scotch shipmaster and trader on the roll of the Soc. Cal. Pion. as having arrived in April ’26, and who in ’37 claimed a residence of 12 years; the 1st original record being ’28, when he was master of the Thos Nowlan. iii. 149. In ’31-7 he was mr of the Ayacucho; of the Index ’38-9, ’41-3; of the Fly ’40; of the Juanita in ’44-5. iii. 381; iv. 101, 104, 566. Before ’36 he married Ramona Carrillo de Pacheco, and from that time considered Sta B. his home; naturalized in ’37, and from ’39 to ’47 a partner of James Scott; about ’41 engaged in otter-hunting. In ’45 Capt. W. took some part in the troubles with Micheltorena. iv. 498; and with Scott was the purchaser of the S. Luis Ob. estate, and grantee of the ranchos Cañada del Chorro and Cañada de los Osos, where he spent the rest of his life. iv. 553, 655, 658-9; v. 375, 558, 566. He died in ’60 at the age of 65, leaving a widow, still living in ’85, a son John who settled in England, and a daughter. There were few of the old pioneers better known or more respected than Capt. John Wilson.
Source: California Pioneer Register and Index, 1542-1848, p777. Transcribed for the CAGenWeb Project by Cathy Portz.
[Under listing for Romualdo Pacheco, her first husband...] The widow married Capt. John Wilson of S. Luis Obispo, and still lives in ’85. There were two sons b. in ’30, ’31, both of whom in ’38 were sent to Honolulu to be educated, iv. 103, and remained there several years. Of one of them, Mariano, I have no later record than that he was a clerk for Wm H. Davis at S.F. in ’43-4. The other son, Romualdo, born about a month before his father’s death, after his return from Sandw. Isl. spent some years on the Sterling and other vessels as supercargo’s clerk, but in ’48 settled on his mother’s land in S. Luis Ob. From ’53 he was almost constantly in office, holding the positions of assemblyman, state senator, county judge, county treasurer, brigadier-gen. of militia, lieut-governor, and acting governor; denied seat in congress ’76; elected in ’78 and ’80, serving out both terms. In ’78-82 he was a stock-broker in S.F.; and has since lived in Mexico and Texas to ’85. His wife was Mary McIntire, married in ’63, and there was one surviving child in ’82. In respect of official positions, Gov. Pacheco has been more prominent since ’48 than any other native Californian; and his record as a citizen, in respect of character, attainments, and social standing, has been a good one.
Source: California Pioneer Register and Index, 1542-1848, p764. Transcribed for the CAGenWeb Project by Cathy Portz.
More info on Captain John Wilson and The Wilson Adobe
OLD FAMILIES
John M. Price
John M. Price came to California in 1830. He was born in Bristol, England, in 1810. From there he went to sea at the age of fifteen and before he was eighteen was on a whaling vessel in the Pacific. With a companion he ran away while on shore in western Mexico to escape the brutal treatment of his captain. For six or seven years Mr. Price worked on the cattle ranches of the Salinas valley, in what is now Monterey county. He then came down and went to work on the Nipomo for William Dana, being paid fifteen dollars per month. Alvarado, the Mexican governor, had made promises to an American, Isaac Graham, who had helped him win over Guiterrez as governor of the state. Those promises Alvarado now refused to fulfil and determined to rid himself of Graham and all the other Americans. On one pretext or another he induced “the foreigners” to come by twos and threes to Monterey, when he arrested them and threw them into prison, until he had one hundred sixty prisoners. He placed them on a ship and started them to Mexico, stopping at Santa Barbara.
One day in May, 1840, a band of soldiers arrived at the Dana ranch and arrested Price. He was taken to Santa Barbara and placed with the other prisoners. At Monterey it was debated whether shooting the prisoners would not be best; but a vessel, the “Don Quixote,” came into port, and the captain learned Alvarado’s plan and induced him to send the captives to San Blas for trial. The “Don Quixote” followed the ship having on board the prisoners. At Santa Barbara, they were taken off the vessel and put in prison there, where one, an Englishman, died from the cruel treatment they were all subjected to. After a few days at Santa Barbara, the men were taken back to the ship and the vessels sailed for Tepic. Here an appeal was made to the American consul, who seemed to do nothing; then the English consul was asked to interfere. He got the prisoners released, and allowed $3.50 per week for rations.
The men now demanded compensation of the Mexican government and after months were offered $400.00 each, and all to be set free at San Blas. All but fifteen accepted these terms. Among the latter was Price. These men demanded to be returned to their homes and compensated in full for their losses and sufferings. They were settled with, and returned to Monterey after six months’ absence. In 1846, Mr. Price lived in an old adobe near where the town of Arroyo Grande is. Fremont, on his way from San Luis Obispo to Los Angeles, stopped at the ranch, but after a short parley went on. “Uncle Johnnie Price” was the friend of all, and during his latter years dressed in a neat gray suit and silk hat. He was a familiar figure on the streets of Arroyo Grande, where the writer first met him in 1900, still hale and hearty. He owned 7,000 acres at Pismo and held many public offices which will be mentioned later. He died at his home, June 4, 1902, at the age of eighty-two. He is buried in the Catholic cemetery at Arroyo Grande.
William G. Dana
On the Nipomo lived William G. Dana and his family. Mr. Dana was born in Massachusetts in 1797. He came of a fine family, among them ministers, statesmen, authors, poets and men of the sea. At the age of eighteen, he went to China on board his uncle’s vessel. He determined to enter the trade with China and India and later we find him captain of the “Waverly,” plying between this coast, the Sandwich islands and the Orient. In 1825 he established a store at Santa Barbara. The handsome young American fell in love with Doña Maria Josefa Carrillo, daughter of a wealthy Spanish family of Santa Barbara, and he applied to Mexico for citizenship. Things did not move fast enough to suit the ardent lover, so he applied to the governor of California for permission to marry the lady at once. The governor said he must wait five months, or until his papers of naturalization were forwarded. In August, 1828, the marriage was celebrated with great ceremony. The same year he built the first vessel ever launched in California. The place where it slipped into the sea still bears the name Goleta (schooner). In 1835 he secured the Nipomo (foot of the hill) grant and in 1839 came there to live. A big adobe house of thirteen rooms was built, and a lavish hospitality characterized the Dana home. Often marauding bands of Tulare Indians had to be driven off or suffered to drive off the cattle. Mr. Dana established a soap factory, furniture factory, looms for weaving and blacksmith shops. He sold his goods to neighboring ranches, and to the Santa Ynez and La Purisima missions.
He brought home from his voyage quantities of sandal and other valuable woods. From these he made beautiful furniture, tables, bedsteads and wardrobes. Mr. Dana held the office of Prefecto under the Mexican rule. At the first election for state officers in 1849, he received a large vote for state senator; but some informalities awarded the election to Don Pablo de la Guerra. In 1851 he was the first county treasurer elected. Twenty-one children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Dana. He died February 12, 1858, and is buried in the Catholic cemetery at San Luis Obispo, where a fine monument marks his resting-place.
Francis Ziba Branch
Francis Ziba Branch was born in New York, July 24, 1802. His father died before he could remember him, and as soon as he was able the boy had to become self-supporting. He went to work on the Erie canal, then on the Great Lakes and Mississippi river boats. At St. Louis he joined a party of one hundred fifty men, with eighty-two ox-drawn wagons, bound for Santa Fe, N. M. Later Mr. Branch joined a party under William Wolfskill, bound for California. In this state Mr. Branch engaged in hunting the sea otter. He made enough capital to set up a store at Santa Barbara. In 1835 he married Doña Manuela Corlona. In 1837 he received his great land grants on the Arroyo and the Santa Manuela, amounting to almost 17,000 acres. Later he became owner of the Huer-Huero and Pismo grants. He came to live upon his Arroyo grant and built a large adobe house. To protect his stock from Indians and bears, he kept his horses in a large corral. A bell was kept on one of the animals to warn him if they were disturbed. One night the steady tinkling of the bell aroused his suspicions. He went out and found an Indian steadily ringing the bell, while the corral was empty of horses. The rifle ball he sent after the thief missed, but soon Price, Sparks, Dana, Branch and others organized against the thieves, and more than one met his dues at the hands of the ranchers.
Bears were a great pest, killing the stock, and Mr. Branch related how, on one occasion, a bear killed a cow and partly ate the carcass. A pit was arranged, covered with brush, and in this Branch and a companion hid, hoping to get bruin the following night when he or she returned to finish the cow. It proved to be “she” and her cub. Branch shot the cub, and the cries of her child enraged the mother beyond telling. She tore around the dead body, leaping at the trees, tearing great strips of bark from them. Neither of the men in the pit dared reload and fire, so they stayed till morning, when the maddened creature left. On another occasion Mr. Branch said he saw nine bears at one time eating berries in the thickets on the hillside. He had his rifle and had gone out intending to shoot a bear if he saw one. To shoot nine was more than he wanted to tackle, so he quietly “got out."
Michael Daugherty, “Old Mike,” was a valued servant on the place; and one time when a bear had killed a calf, he skinned the calf, put on the skin with head and horns attached, and “lay” for the bear. He also got it when it came back to finish the calf. In a copy of the San Luis Tribune, 1877, Hal Williams writes of a visit to the Branch estate. In the old adobe house one room was used for a school room; and fifteen children, mostly scions of the Branch family, were being taught there. In another room Old Mike, now blind and eighty years of age, was being cared for. He said one day, while talking to Williams, “I don’t know where old man Branch has gone, but wherever he is, he wants Mike.” A few months later, November 3, 1877, Old Mike went to his master.
Mr. Branch at one time was the wealthiest man in the county, owning 37,000 acres of land and great herds of cattle and horses; but the dry years of 1862-63-64 almost ruined him and many others. In the beginning of 1863 he had 20,000 head of large cattle; before the close of 1864 he could gather less than 800 alive. Early in 1863 a cattle buyer from the north offered him twenty-eight dollars a head for his cattle; Branch refused and the deal was off. By failing to sell at the price of fered, he lost $96,000. He was a man well liked and was elected treasurer of the county and supervisor of his district. He died May 8, 1874, and is buried in the family burying ground on the Santa Manuela ranch. His descendants still live on portions of the old grants and in the towns of Arroyo Grande and San Luis Obispo.
Isaac J. Sparks
Mr. Sparks was born in Maine in 1804. With his father he went west and finally went to St. Louis, leaving there in 1831, with a party bound for Santa Fe. He had many adventures on the way, but finally reached California in February, getting into Los Angeles, February 10, 1832. Here trouble awaited him; for by the laws, no one without a passport was allowed, and he was made a prisoner. He soon escaped; and without a cent in his pocket, but still possessed of a gun, he started to reach the coast at San Pedro. He shot a sea otter and thus began a business that he followed for years, reaping a rich harvest from it. The business then often yielded from seventy to one hundred thirty otter skins a year to each hunter, and the skins sold for from twenty-five to forty-five dollars each. He had, by 1848, established a large business, and had his headquarters at Santa Barbara. He decided to go further north for otter and took four boats and twenty men to Cape Mendocino. Hostile Indians drove them off and they returned to Yerba Buena. Here the gold excitement demoralized his crew; they sought the mines and Sparks returned to Santa Barbara and engaged in storekeeping. He was the first postmaster at that place under the United States government. He was a firm friend of the American cause in California, and of Fremont. He advanced $25,000 worth of supplies in cattle, horses and other things to the army, and appealed in vain to the government for payment. He erected the first fine brick building in Santa Barbara. Mr. Sparks obtained from the Mexican government two grants, the Huasna and Pismo. The latter he sold to John M. Price and the Huasna he gave to his three daughters, as previously mentioned.
Francis E. Quintana
Francisco Estevan Quintana came here from Mexico in 1843. He purchased 6,000 acres of land, owned much town property and was one of the pioneer business men of San Luis Obispo. His son, Pedro Quintana, lives in a fine home in this city at the present time [1917]. Francisco E. Quintana died in 1880, at the age of seventy-nine years.
In a previous chapter Captain John Wilson and family were mentioned. The members of those prominent early Spanish families that once lived here are now few and fast passing away. Mrs. Ramona Hillard, daughter of Doña Ramona Carrillo Wilson, died in 1913, and is buried here. Mrs. Estafana Esquar, daughter of Governor Alvarado, and wife of E. Esquar, at one time superior judge of Monterey, died at her home in San Luis Obispo in September, 1916. Mrs. Esquar would tell of looking on with all the others at Monterey when the Mexican flag went down and the Stars and Stripes went up. She had resided here for sixty years and was eighty-four when she died. At her wedding the military band from the U. S. battleship “Savannah,” lying in the harbor, came out in all their pomp of uniform and furnished music for the occasion. Officers in full regalia and all the grandees attended the ceremony.
Source: History of San Luis Obispo County and Environs, California, pp52-55. Transcribed for the CAGenWeb Project by Cathy Portz.
Michael W. Phelan
The son of one of the pioneer families of San Luis Obispo County, and a man who has entered into the active affairs of his native section, as well as maintained the most helpful participation in the progress of the state, Michael W. Phelan, of Los Berros, was born on the old home place two miles north of Cambria, October 12, 1864. He attended school in the building that had been erected by his father for use as a schoolhouse, one of the first common schools started in the county; and after finishing the course, he went to Oakland and took supplementary work in St. Mary’s college, graduating in 1885.
After that he returned to his father’s ranch and, under his direction, learned the details of a successful farmer’s life. Dairying and stock-raising were the principal industries, and in 1894, with a brother-in-law, A. McAlister, he engaged in the stock business on Carissa plains, renting property consisting of 5,500 acres, on which the “painted rocks” are located. There for sixteen years he did business on a large scale, when he and his partner sold the lease to the Miller & Lux corporation.
In 1906, Mr. Phelan bought five hundred acres near Los Berros, settled on his purchase and, leasing one thousand acres of the Dana tract and three thousand acres from Mrs. Kate Bosse, engaged in the stock business with growing success. Besides doing well financially, he has built up a reputation for fair dealing and good management, and today is one of the well-known stockmen of the county, being an expert judge of cattle who is often sought to pass judgment on stock. Mr. Phelan is interested in the home estate and in other tracts in various parts of the county.
At Los Berros, April 18, 1900, occurred the marriage of Michael W. Phelan and Miss Mary C. Donovan, a native of Monterey county, and they have three children—Dan J., Donald W. and Cyril A. M. Phelan.
Source: History of San Luis Obispo County and Environs, California, p609. Transcribed for the CAGenWeb Project by Cathy Portz.
Joseph and Joseph Clarke Welsh
A native son of the Golden West and a representative of one of the pioneer families of San Luis Obispo County, J. C. Welsh was born in the Los Osos valley, December 29, 1869. His father, Joseph Welsh, was a native of Ireland, born in Monaghan county in 1836, and his grandfather, Thomas Welsh, was born there also, and was a farmer. Joseph Welsh was reared in his native county until a young man, when he made up his mind that he could better his condition by coming to this country; and accordingly, in 1860, he arrived in California by way of Panama and went to work near the town of Bloomfield, Sonoma county. After four or five years he went to Tomales, Marin county, and leased land and farmed for several years, meeting with fair success.
Learning that acreage could be bought very cheaply in San Luis Obispo County, as one of the large grants was being subdivided, he came here in 1869, and with a partner, Levi Young, bought from W. W. Stowe 2,120 acres on the Los Osos and began farming, raising sheep and cattle, continuing this four years. The partners agreed then to divide their property and Mr. Welsh continued alone until 1876, when he made a trip back to Ireland and took charge of the home place, which had been farmed by his father for many years. He remained there until 1884, when he sold out, settled his business affairs and returned to California; and once again he engaged in ranching on a place in Clark valley until 1912, when he retired to San Luis Obispo, living here until his death, July 20, 1913.
Mr. Welsh had made a trip back to Ireland to claim his bride, Charlotte McCullagh, of Scotch descent, but a native of county Monaghan, where she was born May 30, 1838; and they were married on June 3, 1865, returning at once to California. They had two children, one of whom was Thomas M., who married Miss Agnes Lewis and had three daughters, Floride, Lois and Jean, residing in this county; and the other and younger was Joseph C. Welsh.
Joseph Clarke Welsh was educated in the schools of San Luis Obispo County and of Ireland, whither he had been taken by his parents. Return ing to California, he lived at home until he was of age, assisting his father with the work on the farm. Later, with his brother Thomas M., as a partner, he leased the home place and for nearly six years was engaged in dairying and general farming. In 1897, he purchased his brother’s interest and continued alone. In the meantime, he had bought four hundred acres of land. He farmed on a large scale until 1913, when he retired to San Luis Obispo.
On November 10, 1897, Mr. Welsh was united in marriage with Miss Lyda Findley, who was born in Washington, D. C., December 12, 1876. They have one child, a daughter, Mary Lucille. In 1914. Mr. Welsh secured the conract to carry mail from San Luis Obispo to San Simeon, and is still engaged in that occupation. He represents that sturdy type of manhood everywhere discernible in the upbuilders of this country, and wherever he is known he is respected.
Source: History of San Luis Obispo County and Environs, California, pp458-459. Transcribed for the CAGenWeb Project by Cathy Portz.