Update! (Sorry for the brief hiatus, for those who waited, RL got a bit in the way).
1835. The Newcomers; Anglo and European Immigration into California
Krepost Ross & Nueva Helvecia, two of the most renowned early non-Spanish settlements in California
Non-Spanish settlement in California began before México obtained its independence. As early as 1808 the Russian American Fur company operated around Bodega Bay, and in 1812 the company earned a charter from the Spanish government to establish Krepost Ross as a base of operations. But, by the time Governor Figueroa re-chartered the Russian colony in 1832 [1], the “Russians” – the establishment included Finns, Balts, Circassians, Aleuts, and Creoles – were no longer the largest non-Spanish or non-Native group in California. “Anglos” from the United States, Canada, and Britain began to trickle in since the early 1800s, with the Hudson Bay Company, the North West Company, and the American Fur Company all operating in California's periphery. However, it was the completion of the Santa Fe trail opened the floodgates for settlers from the eastern coast of North America pouring into California.
The “Anglos” who came into California were men of different capacities, backgrounds, and inclinations. American “pathfinders” and freelance mountain-men, like Jedediah Smith, were merely passing through surveying the land or expanding the Rocky Mountain fur trade. While others, attracted by the life in the ranchos and the richness of the land, hoped to permanently settle in California.
William Hartnell, who arrived in 1822, opened the first boarding school in Monterrey; the cousins Juan Bautista Alvarado (the martyr) and Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (the liberator) were tutored by him and most historians agree Hartnell had a significant influence on his students’ views and ambitions. Another early arrival, William A. Richardson, helped plan the development of Yerba Buena alongside Commander Padrés and Francisco de Haro. William Wolfskill, an American who settled in Los Ángeles began to cultivate grapevines for wine and established the first commercial vineyard in California. A fourth “William”, William Marcus West arrived from Scotland. After marrying into the Vallejo family, West acquired a large grant north of the Santa Rosa Valley and helped his brother-in-law maintain and man the Presidio Santa Rosa; as such, “
Don Guillermo Marcos” acted as in-between and liaison with the Russians and the Oregon based companies.
Some prominent "
non-Guillermos", include John Forster, who worked as a shipping agent in Los Ángeles and funded the construction of the San Pedro harbor. John Marsh, a Harvard graduate, became the first medical practitioner in California. The Frenchman, Jean-Louis Vignes also settled in Los Ángeles, and opened a commercial vineyard to rival Wolfskill’s [2]. Alexander Leidesdorff, who was of Cuban descent despite his name, was the first black citizen of California and even served as treasurer of Yerba Buena. And most famously, the Swiss-
German pioneer by the name of Johan August Sutter. Hoping to reinforce the frontier against Indian raids and further encroachment by the fur traders, Commander Padrés granted, Sutter a large grant in the Sacramento Valley. Sutter developed a fortified settlement which he christened Nueva Helvecia after his homeland. [3]
Although subtle at first, the growth of American and British business in California began to modify the nature of life for the local Californians. By 1841, James Douglas – a captain for the Hudson Bay Company – noted how
“the twin settlements of Yerba Buena and San Francisco already have the flair of cosmopolitan cities”. And they were barely a decade old! [4] Nueva Helvecia developed almost as fast as a makeshift administrative center for the interior valleys and the gateway for settlers coming from the East.
For the most part, these settlers found a place for themselves in Californian society. Most readily converted to Catholicism, obtained Mexican citizenship, and married into prominent Californian families, and in the process reinvented themselves as part of the local establishment. But not everyone was looking to fully embrace the Californian life. The Russians, centered in the coast north of Bodega Bay, kept to themselves and their fur trading business. A growing number of American settlers arrived with their families and children in wagon trains from across the Rockies and established full-fledged American communities in California separate from the ranchos. Meanwhile, agents of Washington and London, who harbored expansionist ambitions in service of their respective governments, plotted in the custom houses of Monterrey Harbor.
Thomas Oliver Larkin, a prominent American trader in Monterrey remained protestant and was appointed as the American consul to California with orders from Washington to encourage the Californians and American settlers if they ever should declare their independence from México to align themselves with the United States as Texas had done so. Alexander Forbes, a Scottish merchant, hoped to establish a California Company - modeled after the East India Company – as a means for México to settle its debts to Great Britain.
Somewhat Ironically, Larkin is credited for developing the first architectural style native to California. A skilled carpenter, the consul build himself a two-storied house that combined the adobe walls and tile roofs of Spanish colonial architecture, with the general layout and wood-framed windows of plantations from the Southern United States, and a veranda in the style of the French Caribbean. The style itself expressed the fusion of people occurring up and down the California coast. And very soon every rancher and settler wanted a house
“al estilo de Larkin’s”. [5]
Thomas Larkin's stylish home in Monterrey
While most of the changes were welcomed by the local Californians, as they reaped the rewards of increased trade and enjoyed the amenities that came with an increasingly cosmopolitan society, the central government in Mexico City had a very different plan in mind for California.
The Padrés and De Híjar colony was only the first part of a larger plan set forth by the central government to reel in their control over the far northwestern provinces. It would be a cold day in hell before President Antonio López de Santa Anna would allow California to catch the whims of independence. To this measure, his Excellency handed over the governorship of California to someone with firm loyalties firmly seated in México City. The General Manuel Micheltorena traveled to California leading a force of 200 men to show those quarrelsome ranchers who called the shots. Micheltorrena established, two new outposts to act as inland customs houses: the Presidio Sacramento, in the outskirts of Nueva Helvecia, and a Portezuela further north to guard the border with the Oregon Country [6].
The second part of the plan involved reinforcing the presence of the Catholic Church in the northwestern province. At the time, the Mexican constitution upheld the Catholic Church as the sole official faith and membership in the Church was required to become a citizen. Although this wasn’t ignored by the authorities in California it wasn’t forcefully upheld either; land grants were issued to non-citizens as long as the appropriate bribe was paid, taking away the main incentive to convert.
Exasperated by this lack of conviction, Father Francisco García Diego y Moreno, better known as Father Diego, induced the government in México City to petition the Pope to create California a bishopric in order to preserve the Church in California. In 1836, Pope Gregory XVI withdrew California from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Sonora and appointed Father Diego as the first Bishop of the Two Californias. [7] Although the Mission San Diego de Alcalá was chosen as the official bishopric see, Father Diego chose the Mission Santa Barbara as his residence; he opened the first seminary in California on the Mission’s grounds and in a short time, the villa that supplied the nearby Presidio flowered into a town and Santa Barbara was upgraded to the status of Pueblo. [8]
Father Diego had many lofty goals for California, including the building of a majestic basilica in Monterrey. Unfortunately, in February 1842, President Santa Anna confiscated the Pious Fund of Las Californias to pay off debts incurred during the French Intervention. The bishop received no aid and he was obliged to depend upon the contributions from the settlers in the territory. Not surprisingly, the relationship between the California Bishopric and the Mexican government rapidly deteriorated. And despite Governor Micheltorena’s iron-fisted effort, it became increasingly obvious Mexico City was losing its grip in California. It was only a matter of who would rule in their stead: the Americans, the British, or the local Californians. In 1842 few would have placed a bet on the latter.
[1] The charter is to operate in the fur trade, so it doesn’t affect Fort Ross, which was mostly a farming community assisting the trapping operations in Bodega Bay and the Russian River. In OTL the charter was not renewed, so the importance of Fort Ross, declined until it was sold to John Sutter in 1841. This means that the other Russian settlements are still semi-operational in TTL as well. I won’t cover many details on the update, but I will make a map of the Russian settlements of TTL.
[2] Jean-Louis Vignes, known as “Don Juan Aliso”, got the credit for the first commercial vineyard in OTL. In TTL "Don Guillermo Matalobos", who has a cooler name, gets the credit in TTL.
[3] Nueva Helvetia became Sacramento in OTL. It won’t be the capital in TTL (wait and see there), but still a very prominent city in the Central Valley.
[4] Yerba Buena is the town that was planned near the Mission. San Francisco is the settlement that sprung up near the embarcadero (docks) south of the Presidio. Like in OTL, San Francisco will be the more common name, since the Mission, the Presidio, the Bay, and the Peninsula were all named after or dedicated to St Francis before the founding of Yerba Buena.
[5] Monterey Colonial, as seen on the picture. But there will be more surviving examples and revivals in TTL.
[6] Probably near OTL’s Yreka.
[7] Very similar to OTL. However, the Diocese was won’t split into American and Mexican sections, as Baja will remain part of California.
[8] Father Diego also chose Santa Barbara as his headquarters in OTL as well. But the seminary was built in the nearby Santa Inés. Here he opts to keep it in Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is just a tad more developed than OTL at this point (as is San Pedro in LA), due to the existence of the offshore Presidio and Mission in Santa Catalina.
Note: I’m not sure how much it comes across in the updates, but there is basically both a larger presence of the Mexican government in TTL compared to OTL (additional presidios, additional forces, and no-local governors) and greater resentment on behalf of the local population, which in turn coordinates their efforts to resist the central government more so than in OTL.