History of California 1801 to 1824

By Hubert Howe Bancroft

This book is the second volume of a multi-volume epic history of California by an eminent historian.  It is tedious and should be read with a general knowledge of early California.  A seasoned Homestead Museum docent with a good background in California history will find the book both useful and informative.

There is an intriguing story of a Russian Chamberlain Nikolai Petrovich Rezanoff who arrived in San Francisco in 1806 and fell madly on love with Dona Concepcion Arguello.  Rezanoff had more than connubial bliss on his mind, since her father was the Commandant of San Francisco.  He was set to return to Russia and return to California for the wedding.  Dona Concepcion waited in vain.  Rezanoff had died en route to Moscow and Dona Concepcion joined a nunnery and administered to the sick and poor.

During this period, the mission system was completed with the construction of the mission at Sonoma.  The twenty-one missions (listed by Walter Temple on the mission walkway around La Casa Nueva) were near the coast and supported the coastal presidios and pueblos.  Spain, and then Mexico, was slow to explore and settle the interior, where Native Americans found refuge from the mission priests.

Also, this period saw the onset of foreign visitors arriving by sea.  Laws prohibiting foreign trade were difficult to enforce and smugglers traded with the Californios from San Diego to San Francisco.  As previously noted, Russians settled north of San Francisco at Fort Ross and English fur traders populated what is now western Canada.  The Onis-Adams Treaty of 1819 would set the northern boundary of New Spain at the 42nd parallel, which is the current northern boundary of California.

California was far from the political tumult of Mexico City, which culminated in the start of the Mexican revolution on September 16, 1810 and Mexico’s ultimate independence.  Californios remained above the fray and operated somewhat independently from Mexico City.  The revolution also began the groundswell for the secularization of mission property.  This release of property to Mexican citizens enabled John Rowland and William Workman to become major landowners in southern California.