Thomas O. Larkin

Thomas Oliver Larkin (September 16, 1802 - October 27, 1858) was an early American emigrant to Mexico and a signer of the original California Constitution. He was the United States' first and only consul to California.

Early years

Larkin was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the son of Thomas O. Larkin and Hannah Cordis, and a grandson of the Deacon John Larkin who provided the horse for Paul Revere's famous ride. At the age of 15, Larkin went to Boston to apprentice as a bookbinder but decided against the business. In 1821 he sailed to Wilmington, North Carolina, where he worked as a clerk and experienced a disastrous partnership with a dishonest merchant. He visited Bermuda in 1822 and relatives in New England in 1824. In 1825 he opened a store in Duplin, North Carolina. The fortune he made on the store he lost on a sawmill operation, and in 1830 he returned to Massachusetts, destitute. Here he learned that his half-brother, John Bautista Rogers Cooper, needed his assistance with a business in California, and on 1831-09-05 Thomas left Boston on the ship Newcastle. (Larkin's mother was widowed three times. Her third husband was named Richardson.) After a stopover in the Sandwich Islands, he landed in San Francisco, California, in April 1832.

Aboard ship, he met and developed an intimate relationship with Mrs. Rachel Hobson Holmes, who was coming to California to join her husband, Captain A. C. Holmes, a Danish seaman. They traveled together from San Francisco to Monterey where they both boarded at the Cooper house. When Rachel learned she was carrying Thomas’ child, she discreetly moved to Santa Barbara while Thomas remained in Monterey, working with his brother. At Santa Barbara, Rachel gave birth and awaited a dreadful reunion with her husband, but within a few weeks, she learned that her husband had died a year before while at sea en route to Lima.

Meanwhile, Larkin worked as a clerk for John B. R. Cooper until early 1833, when he was able to start a small store of his own and build a "double geared" flour mill, the first of its kind on the West Coast. He was able to invest again in a sawmill, this time in Santa Cruz. He sailed to Santa Barbara and there was reunited with Rachel. They were married there, on board the American bark Volunteer, 1833-06-10. The U. S. Consul for the Sandwich Islands, John Coffin Jones, performed the ceremony and years later when it was discovered he did not have the authority to perform the service, they had to be remarried.

In 1835 he built his wife a house in Monterey that mixed New England and California architectural styles and which is today known as Larkin House. He built the first wharf for ships and was commissioned to rebuild the Monterey Customs House. He engaged in trade with Mexico, the Sandwich Islands and China.

Life in Alta California

As a prominent figure in the occasional capital of a distant province of an occasionally unstable nation, Larkin stood in a position of influence that could easily have been his undoing if he chose the wrong side. The fact that he was able to survive through shifting administrations, is testimony to his skill at dealing with people. Despite being a supporter of Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado, he did not involve himself with Isaac Graham’s rebel army and was not one of those sent to Mexico City in chains in 1840. He loaned money to Alvarado’s successor, Micheltorena, which he lost when the Governor was overthrown by Alvarado in 1844. He never applied for Mexican citizenship, which required conversion to Catholicism. He renewed his visa annually to maintain his legal status. As a non-citizen, he could not legally own land, but he managed to obtain land grants in the names of his children.

In 1842, Monterey was surprised by the troops of U. S. Commodore Thomas ap Catesby Jones, who had become convinced that war had broken out between the U. S. and Mexico. Larkin and William Hartnell worked to smooth over the situation. Jones was induced to submit a written apology to the angry Mexican officials and withdraw his troops. The Commodore was subsequently removed from his command, but U. S.-Mexican relations were not harmed.

The successful conclusion to the affair brought Larkin to the attention of officials in Washington, and in 1843 President Tyler appointed Larkin as the first (and last) American consul to California. The following year he thwarted a British attempt to acquire California while he was assisting the Mexican government in building a smallpox hospital in Monterey.

With the rise of James K. Polk to the Presidency in 1845, war with Mexico seemed unavoidable. Larkin hired William A. Leidesdorff as Vice Consul in San Francisco, thus relieving himself of some of the burden of the office.

The Bear Flag Revolt

Early in 1846, he received instructions from Secretary of State James Buchanan to begin working covertly to assure all concerned that the United States would support any attempt at secession from Mexico. He secretly employed Abel Stearns to work in southern California. He volunteered to go to Mexico City on behalf of the United States to work out a peaceful settlement, but the Polk administration had already declared war by the time his letter arrived in Washington. He had entered into a dialog with General Mariano Vallejo with the goal of arranging a peaceful annexation of California when the Bear Flag Revolt occurred on 1846-06-14 and the General was kidnapped and imprisoned by a band of Americans out of Sutter’s Fort, loosely led by Robert B. Semple.

The revolt came as a surprise to Larkin, but a bigger surprise came on 1846-07-07, when Commodore John D. Sloat re-enacted the previous invasion of Monterey and raised the American flag over the Customs House. Commodore Robert Field Stockton replaced Sloat a week later, and Larkin joined the force sailing for southern California to continue the conquest. General Jose Castro and Governor Pío Pico fled south, and the area was occupied without a battle. Stockton appointed Larkin as Naval agent, and Larkin returned to Monterey to obtain much-needed supplies for the armed forces.

The apparently flawless conquest of California soon began to fall apart. Revolts broke out in Los Angeles, and the occupation forces were driven out. Castro returned, and Larkin moved his family to Yerba Buena (San Francisco) as the Californios throughout the province were reorganizing to repel the invaders. He himself was captured outside of the city and forced to ride to Santa Barbara. En route, he witnessed the Battle of Natividad (near Salinas) from General Castro’s side. He was later imprisoned in Los Angeles and was not reunited with his family until after the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga.

Life in the United States

Now free to own land in his own name, Larkin turned his attention to his new opportunities. In partnership with Robert Semple, he established the city at the Carquinez Straits that became Benicia, but Larkin’s business interests were in San Francisco and he sold out his share after a few years. As he took control of his own affairs, his relationship with Leidesdorff fell apart. By the time of the Gold Rush, Larkin had permanently settled in the city by the Bay and was there in time for the economic boom that followed. It was as a representative from San Francisco that he served at the 1849 Constitutional Convention, held in Monterey.

Early in 1850, he built the first brick building in San Francisco at 1116 Stockton Street. Later that same year, he returned to New York and remained there until 1853 for the education of his children. During this time he pressed the Federal government for compensation for money he claimed he had spent on Naval supplies and for work on the Monterey Customs House and the wharf there, without satisfaction.

In his last years, Larkin engaged in land speculation and was thought by some to be the richest man in America. On October 27, 1858, while at Colusa, California, he contracted typhoid fever and died within a week. He was buried in what was the Laurel Hill Cemetery in San Francisco, but is now interred at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California.

The Larkin House is a National Historic Landmark and California Historical Landmark.

Further Genealogical Notes

Rachel M. Hobson was the daughter of Daniel and Eliza Hobson. She was born at Ipswich, Massachusetts 1807-04-30, and died at San Francisco, 1873-10-29.

Children, surnamed Larkin,

1. Isabel Ann, b. at Santa Barbara, Jan. 1833, d. July 1833
2. Thomas Oliver, Jr., b. at Monterey, 1834-04-13, has gone down in history as the first white child born of American parents in California over his forgotten elder sister. He died of pneumonia in San Francisco in July 1898.
3. William Rogers, b. 1835-08-25, d. at Monterey, 1836-01-06.
4. Frederick Hobson, b. 1836-12-23, d. 1869-05-14;
5. Henry Rogers, b. 1838-05-26, d. at Monterey, 1838-11-18.
6. Francis Rogers, b. 1840-01-28, d. 1874-07-28 at San Francisco
7. Carolina Ann, b. Monterey, 1842-03-24, d. 1891; m. 1862-10-02 to William Sampson Tams, son of Sampson and Ann Hennessey (Deas) Tams, b. 1828 at Philadelphia, d. 1913-01-01.
8. Sophia Adeline, b. 1843-06-20, d. 1846-11-28 at San Francisco
9. Alfred Otis, b. at Monterey, 1847-04-10.

References

Sources

• Frank Soule, John H. Gihon, James Nisbet; The annals of San Francisco: containing a summary of the history of the first discovery, settlement, progress, and present condition of California and a complete history of all the important events connected with its great city; to which are added, biographical memoirs of some prominent citizens [New York, 1855] p. 758
• Rayner Wickersham Kelsey, Ph.D., the United States Consulate in California [Berkeley, 1910]
• Eldredge MS Padrone, Monterey, 1836
• Grizzly Bear, May 1928, p. 58
• Rafael Gorney, Diary of Rafael Gorney, in Historical Society of Southern California, Sept. 1963, p. 265
• Rockwell Dennis Hunt, California and Californians [Chicago, 1926] Vol 3:127-8
• Pioneer, v. 13, p. 107, Aug. 1898
• Los Angeles Blue Book, 1956, p. 441
• Los Angeles Herald Express, 1948-07-31
• William Ensign Lincoln, Some descendants of Stephen Lincoln of Wymondham, England... [Pittsburg, 1930]
• Myrtle Garrison, Romance & History of California Ranchos [San Francisco, c. 1935]