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Home , Mayor of San Jose, Mountain man, Rancho Soquel, Thomas Fallon

CAPTAIN OF SANTA CRUZ, SAN JOSE, AND '

a summary of research conducted by Joseph A. King to date, for presentation to the History Aits Advisory Committee of the City of San Jose, , at a meeting at City Hall on Monday, August 27,1990 by Joseph A. King

© copyright 1990 by Joseph A. King, 1161 Nogales St., Lafayette, California 94549.

All rights reserved. No pari of this paper may be reproduced except by journalists and reviewers who might want to quote brief passages in a magazine or newspaper. 1 PREFACE

Two years ago I had never heard of Captain Thomas Fallon. It was while doing research for a chapter in a book about Irish immigration to Canada and America that I first came across his name. While working on the California chapter, I found that no less than three different "Captain" Fallons had been credited by one source or another with having led a rescue mission to the unfortunate , who had experienced terrible tragedy in the snows of the High Sierras during the winter of 1846-47. In attempting to sort out the three historical Captain Fallons, I came across California Cavalier: The Journal of Captain Thomas Fallon, an attractive book by Tom McEnery. It is a fictionalized biography, but it seemed evident that the author had done considerable historical research. There are many footnotes pointing to exact sources of information and, although the author notes that "the Journal is a work of fiction" (Captain Fallon did not actually keep a journal), he also says that it is "as firmly based on an exploration of Thomas Fallon’s life and personal letters as possible." Nevertheless, I had questions about some of the adventures involving historical events that McEnery had credited to Captain Thomas Fallon. For example, I had already established that the actual leader of the 4th rescue mission to the Donners was one Captain William O. ("Le Gros") Fallon, a huge and fabled mountain man, not the Captain Thomas Fallon to whom McEnery had given credit, nor the Captain Jeremiah Fallon, a pioneer Irish settler in Alameda County, who some local histori­ ans (and an inscription on a plaque in the cemetery of old St. Raymond’s Church in Dublin, California) credit with the rescue. The research had become fascinating and I began working tentatively on a paper, "The Three Captain Fallons." In that connection I obtained the address of Tom McEnery from a colleague in Irish studies who informed me, to my surprise, that McEnery was the mayor of the City of San Jose. I wrote Mayor McEnery a letter (Oct. 13, 1988), explaining my project, raising some questions, and asking assistance. Shortly thereafter I was happy to receive a phone call from the mayor. We chatted cordially for perhaps twenty minutes. It was flattering, I thought, that the mayor of a major city would take so much time from a busy schedule ("I always have time for the Captain," he said). It was even more flattering that he suggested we meet for lunch, and I was delighted that he had, so he said, a number of Fallon letters (to and from relatives back East and in Canada) that he had obtained from a descendant. He had genealogical information that no one else had; he said that Fallon’s parents were "Joseph" and "Mary." He was, I thought, the custodian of priceless resources, keys to further research, and he agreed to share them with me, much as I offered to share with him copies of any documents in my possession that might interest him. I suggested we put off our meeting until I prepared for him a bibliogra­ phy/description of items in my possession. He could pick what he wanted, I would make copies, and then we would meet-for him to share with me. I kept my part of the agreement. I spent a few days preparing a rather extensive bibliography with notes, which I mailed to Mayor McEnery on Dec. 10, 1988, with a cover letter. It was evident from the notes that I had some doubts about McEnery’s facts and inter­ pretations of events, and I asked some questions in my accompanying letter. This is routine among scholars who are supposed to "gladly lerne and gladly teche." The mayor never acknowledged receipt, although I wrote him courteous follow-up letters on March 9, 1989 and January 11, 1990. Although disappointed, I charged his silence to the urgencies of his office.

/ 2 Meanwhile, I had put on hold "The Three Captain Fallons" paper, which I had intended to give this year to an annual conference of scholars interested in Irish studies. I was still hopeful that Mayor McEnery would make his Fallon file, espe­ cially the correspondence, available to me. That hope was diminished last June after I learned over the radio that a statue of Thomas Fallon had been commissioned for placement in San Jose’s downtown plaza, and that a number of residents were irate about it. Curious about why San Jose would spend so much money honoring a man who may have been much more of a rascal than a , I got in touch with one of the protestors (an attorney) and provided him with a letter about Fallon I was sending to two or three newspapers in the Bay Area. Subsequently, I was interviewed by a reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle. On the day his article about the Fallon statue controversy appeared (June 11 Chronicle), in which he referred to my research, I finally received a call from Tom McEnery. He was irate, to say the least, and accused me of "damaging the history program in the San Jose schools." We spoke for a few minutes, but it was mostly a heated monologue, and the Mayor never made it clear to me just what specifically he thought was wrong with my research and my conclusions, and just how they could do damage to the pupils in his city. Since then, I have been invited by a member of the San Jose Flistoric Arts Advisory Committee to meet with others at the city hall on the 27th of this month to share research on Captain Thomas Fallon. This paper has been put together rather hurriedly for that purpose, and will be distributed to a very limited number of peo­ ple. It summarizes my own research to date on the life of Thomas Fallon, and I hope it will be a contribution to the dialogue. It is not complete in any sense and should be considered very tentative. I will welcome any corrections and additions before a final draft is prepared. The paper has also been motivated by a desire to respond to the mayor’s view that I am somehow corrupting the youth of San Jose. I will welcome any factual information I can get, especially from Mayor McEnery, who I hope will one day soon make his own files on Fallon accessible to the com­ munity of scholars, perhaps by allowing a university or county library to copy them. Let me add that I happen to be an Irish-American. All of my great-grandpar­ ents were born in Ireland. Seven of them emigrated to America, where they found opportunities and freedoms denied them in the Old World, and where they worked hard and suffered much to lay a foundation that enabled their descendants to lead a much softer life. I am very proud of my Irish and my American heritage, and the values-familial, religious, and other-that have come down to me from those two traditions. I am the author or co-author of two books (and a score of articles) celebrating the Irish experience in America, and another book celebrating Lithuanian immigrants. It is evident, however, that pride in ethnicity sometimes needs to bend to the demands of the historical record. In that respect, I have been led by my research to question the wisdom of apotheosizing Irishman Thomas Fallon in a statue in the main plaza of a major American city. The mayor of that city said (in a letter to the New York Times) that the "event" (the beginning of the American era in California) is being honored, not the "man." But can the huge statue of Fallon, in the eyes of San Jose residents and tourists, really be divorced from the man?

Joseph A. King 1161 Nogales St. Lafayette, California 94549 (415) 934-8196 I 3

CAPTAIN THOMAS FALLON OF SANTA CRUZ, SAN JOSE, AND SAN FRANCISCO

by Joseph A. King

BIRTH The place and year of the birth of Thomas Fallon are clouded'in uncertainties. The year is variously indicated on the records as 1808, 1810, 1819, 1823, 1824 (S.F. Call, Riptide, Padroni Gen, U.S. Cen, Gt Reg Vot, CaptFalHouse). The place is given as Ireland (U.S. Cen, Gt Reg Vot, CaptFalHouse); "north of Ireland" (S.F. Call); Co. Cork (McE); New Brunswick (Riptide). He is even listed as American- born on the 1845 Padron General (census) taken in 1845 for the Villa de Branciforte (Santa Cruz), although he was at the time a British subject, and did not obtain citizenship until 1855. McEnery is the only source giving Cork in southernmost Ireland as the birth­ place. He also writes that Fallon had an uncle who served in the North Cork Militia in Wexford, putting down the Irish rebels in the Rising of 1798. I have been unable to confirm this, nor Cork as the birthplace of Fallon. The surname Fallon is very rare in Cork but common in more northern counties, especially Co. Roscommon.

EMIGRATION The year of Fallon’s emigration is also uncertain. An obit notes that he emigrated with parents to London, Ontario, Canada, at the "age of 8 or 9" (S.F. Call). McEnery, perhaps relying on the same questionable source, places Fallon in London by 1827 at age nine.

CANADA McEnery reports that Fallon was apprenticed to saddler John Jennings, a Dublin man, and that the Fallon family lived "a quarter mile down Rideout Street and slightly east on the South Branch of the river...on good land" and that he and a brother "attended regular private school"; that London had a modest Catholic Church and a larger Episcopalian church (St. Paul’s); that he left Ontario upon the death of John Jennings (year not clear); headed westward for Detroit with Frank Jennings (son of the saddler); then to Cincinnati and down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers; was with Gen. Sam Houston at the Battle of San Jacinto during the Texas War of Independence in 1836; strayed through, "most of northern Texas, Colorado, and even into on two occasions." McEnery does not say whether the Fallon family attended the Catholic or the Episcopalian church, but it was most likely the latter. The saddler Jennings to whom Fallon was apprenticed was a Protestant, as were most of the Irish-born in the London settlement. The 1841-42 census indicates that, among the Irish in this Ontario town, 572 were members of the Anglican church (Episcopalian), 125 were Roman Catholic, and 48 were Presbyterian. In later years, Thomas was a vestryman in the Episcopal Church in San Jose, California. If Thomas Fallon left London after the death of John Jennings (McE), that would have to be after 1842, as John is enumerated on the 1841-42 census for the town. If Thomas Fallon left after the

^Sources of information are noted in abbreviated form in parentheses. The abbreviations can be readily matched up with items in the alphabetized bibliography appended to this paper. 4 death of Jennings, he could not have played a role in the Texas War of Indepen­ dence in the 1830s. (McEnery, in a footnote, mentions that his alleged roles in Texas and later with Fremont were contested in an article in the Alta California newspaper, date not given.) I have been unable to confirm any of McEnery’s data on Fallon’s Canadian period.

NEW ORLEANS * Carrie Lodge, a niece of Fallon’s wife Carmel, recalled in her old age that Thomas Fallon "was an actor [and the] company that he was working with disbanded in , they got bankrupt, and he picked up the trade of saddlemaker and came here [California]" (Calciano, interview). I have not been able to confirm this.

THE MURDER OF XERVIER Russell B. Sage, a mountain man whose path crossed Fremont’s in July of 1843, wrote this in his own journal:

July lllk [1843], witnessed the death of an old mountaineer at Fort Lancaster [aka Ft. LuptonJ, who came to his end from the effects of a pistol wound received in a drunken frolic on the 4th. The ball entered the back about two inches below the heart, severely fracturing the vertebrae and nearly severing the spinal marrow. He lived just one week succeeding the occurrence, but meanwhile suffered more than the agonies of death. His body below the wound was entirely devoid of feeling or use from the first, and, as death preyed upon him by piecemeal, he would often implore us with most piteous and heart-melting appeals kindly to ease his miseries by hastening his end. The murderer [Sage’s underscoring] was left at large, and in two or three weeks subsequent accompanied Capt. Fremont to Oregon. (Ilafcn & Hafcn, editing and quoting Sage)

Fremont also refers to this incident in his journal, but does not name the assailant:

A French engage, at Lupton’s fort, had been shot in the back on the 4th of July, and died during our absence to the Arkansas. The wife of the murdered man, an Indian woman of the Snake nation, de­ sirous, like Naomi of old, to return to her people, requested and obtained permission to travel with my party to the neighborhood of Bear river, where she expected to meet with some of their villages...she carried with her two children, pretty little half-breeds.

Theodore Talbot of Kentucky, who traveled with the Thomas "Broken Hand" Fitzpatrick contingent of the Fremont party and who kept a diary, identified the killer as "Thomas Fallon, a hand belonging to St. Vrain’s Fort" [a private fur-trading post in what is now northern Colorado]. Later in July, Fallon was hired by Fitzpatrick as a "voyageur," i.e., scout or laborer, at the lowest pay per diem. Vouchers for the expedition indicate that he was paid off for his services from Ft. St. Vrain to New Helvetia (Sutter’s Fort) at $0.45 per diem for 123 days; 24 July to 24 Nov. 1843, and at $0.63-2/3 per diem for 111 days, 25 Nov. 1843 to 14 March 1844, a total of $129.35. By contrast, Alex Godoy received $918, Fitzpatrick $309, Charles Preuss $2,292, $885, Basil Lajeunesse $164. In Fallon’s later accounts to journalists, family members, and compilers of local histories (and in McEnery’s fictionalized biography), Fallon is portrayed as an important member of the Fremont Expedition of 1843-44, but this is not borne out by the evidence. Captain Fremont was very generous in mentioning many names of 5 his party members and their contributions, but never does he mention Thomas Fallon, except in the payoff vouchers. Fallon claimed that he was "the first white man who ever saw Lake Tahoe" (Carson Trib). But Fremont gave a vivid account of the actual first sighting with his cartographer Charles Preuss-from a mountaintop on Feb. 14, 1844. At the time, the Fitzpatrick party with the mules and supplies was a day or two behind (although Fitzpatrick had paid a visit to the scouting group the day before). Fallon is not among the eight members of the advance scouting party mentioned by Fremont. -' Nevertheless, surely, all members of the party deserve hero accolades. It was a dreadful winter crossing in the snows. Fremont’s advance group arrived at Sutter’s Fort on March 6, 1844, with the Fitzpatrick group still in the mountains, having had to kill all the mules and other animals for food, and close to starvation. They were finally brought in by a rescue party. Thomas Fallon must have been among these heroic stragglers, barely alive, brought into the Fort. They had accomplished the feat of crossing the High Sierras in the dead of winter.

BRANCIFORTE, 1845 Fallon’s first appearance of record as a resident of California is on the census for the Villa de Branciforte, Nov. 30, 1845. This census lists 294 Mexican citizens and 56 "estranjeros" (aliens). Among the aliens is "Felan, Tomas," whose age is given as 26, American, unmarried. Among the citizens are Miguel Lodge (carpenter) and Martina Castro, soon to be Fallon’s in-laws, and their family. Lodge was an Irishman from Dublin, Martina the daughter of Joaquin Castro and Antonia Amador. In 1833 and 1844, Lodge’s enterprising Mexican wife had success­ fully petitioned authorities for title to two large pieces of land known as Rancho Soquel (1,668 acres) and adjoining Rancho Soquel Augmentacion (32,702 acres). It was said that the smaller holding, Rancho Soquel, was two miles long and one-half league, or approximately a mile and a half, wide (Parrish). In 1850, after the death of her husband in the Mother Lode, Martina Lodge deeded one-ninth of her property to each of her surviving eight children, keeping one share for herself (Parrish). Sharing in this good fortune was her daughter Carmelita and, of course, her husband Thomas Fallon, whom she had married about 1848.

THE RAISING OF TFIE STARS & STRIPES In a bloodless coup on July 14, 1846, Thomas Fallon headed a band of nineteen men from Santa Cruz in raising the U.S. flag at San Jose. As a self-styled "captain," he conducted this action after he had requested the permission of U.S. Navy authorities, and asked that they provide him with a flag for that purpose, to replace a flag that had been "cut down before we came here, but I hope it never shall happen again." Fallon’s offer, addressed to Commander J.B. Montgomery on the U.S.Portsmouth in San Francisco Bay, was accepted by him and Commodore J.D. Sloat in (the head of U.S. Naval forces in the Pacific), and the flag was provided. Fallon wrote to Sloat on July 16th that he had hoisted the flag on July 14. The correspondence concerning the raising of the flag and other matters is reprinted in California Historical Society Quarterly 8 (1929), pp. 71-77. Mexican General Jos6 Castro’s forces had previously fled southward. Mean­ while, the "California Battalion," originally a rag-tag unit of "Bear Flaggers" orga­ nized unofficially by Fremont and others, became a U.S. Army unit on July 23, Commodore Robert F. Stockton appointing Fremont as Major. Fallon’s men joined 6

them. They were shipped to southern California, beginning on July 26, where they soon occupied the pueblos of and Los Angeles. The stars and stripes was hoisted without resistance at San Diego on July 29, even before the arrival of a por­ tion of the California Battalion. The flag was raised at Los Angeles on August 13, without resistance and with the California Battalion among the United States forces present. Although he styled himself a "Captain," and later in life a "Major," the roster of the battalion lists him as unranked and company of the battalion in which he served unascertained. The unit was disbanded and all the four hundred men in it were released by April 19,1847 (SocCalPioneers, Rosters).

LEADER OF RESCUE MISSION TO DONNER PARTY? McEnery in California Cavalier portrays Thomas Fallon as the leader of the 4th rescue mission to Donner Party survivors in the spring of 1847. However, this is not true. The members of all rescue parties have been accurately documented in a number of published sources. The actual leader of the 4th rescue was William O. (aka "Le Gros" and "Big") Fallon, a mountain man who was among those who had raised the Bear Flag of an independent California at Sonoma. He and his compan­ ions entered into an agreement with Alcalde John Sinclair at Suiter’s Fort. Sinclair was guardian of the surviving children of the two Donner brothers. The agreement entitled the rescue party to one-half of any money and property that they might find at the mountain camp (Hall). That William O., not Thomas Fallon, led the rescue mission is a matter that cannot really be disputed. Coincidentally, William O. Fallon, like Thomas, served in the California Bat­ talion, and their paths crossed many times at Sutter’s Fort where entries of arrivals and departures made on the ledger by Sutter’s clerks sometimes confused the two (Morgan). McEnery is not the first person to have confused these two Captain Fallons.

LEASE OF ORCHARD BY OLD SANTA CRUZ MISSION Allow me to go into some detail in the cases of Anzar vs Fallon and Llebaria vs Fallon. I do this not only because of the light it may shed on Fallon’s character, but also on how land was taken into the possession of wily Anglo planters and specula­ tors, aided by lawyers-and also how Spanish clerics might sell or lease land that, by Spanish law, was held in trust for the Indian population. The courtroom could be a place where litigation dragged along for years, as the letter and spirit of the treaty with Mexico, in which the United States agreed to respect Mexican land grants, was violated. On January 11, 1848, Fr. Jose A. Anzar, head of the Northern California Missions and a resident of San Juan Bautista, leased the orchard by the old mission at Santa Cruz to Thomas Fallon. The lease was for four years. Fallon was to pay Anzar one-half of the money received from "the fruit of the trees." The lease was renewable at the option of the priest if the leaseholder "behaved well." Fallon took up residence on the property with his newly acquired wife, Carmelita Lodge. Fr. Anzar’s copy of the lease, signed by himself, Fallon, and witnesses, is in the Bancroft Library, C-B 421, Box 4, Folder 442, Santa Cruz Mission. Over the next four years, according to later estimates by plaintiffs Frs. Anzar and Llebaria in suits against Fallon, Fallon sold off his fruit for about $6,000 per year, but paid Anzar only $150 total over the years. From time to time, Fallon I 7

Sanford" leased the same orchard to one Miguel Bea for six months. One-half of the fruit was to go to Fr. Anzar, while one-half of any grain crop planted and one- quarter of the fruit was to go to Fallon and Sanford. On Dec. 13, 1848, an agree­ ment was signed with Miguel Bea (whose surname sometimes appears on docu­ ments as "Villa" and even "Vega") to maintain the property, including the house of Thomas Fallon, for eleven months. On Sept. 1, 1852, Fr. Anzar, represented by Attorney D.S. Gregory, brought suit against Fallon in the District Court, Co. of Santa Cruz, to quit the property; and on Sept. 15 a summons was issued in the case of Anzar vs. Fallon for Fallon to appear in the District Court in ten days to respond to Anzar’s claim for $10,000 in rents for the orchard and $6,000 damages to the property. On Sept. 21, 1852, according to a receipt later produced by Fallon’s attorneys, Anzar acknowledged receiving $500 from Fallon, releasing Fallon from all past obligations, with the stipulation that the priest would be allowed to re-possess the orchard. In later depositions for his own attorneys and those of the plaintiff, Fallon kept changing his story. In one or another deposition, Fallon stated that the priest had transferred all his rights to him for $1,000 (for which Fallon could not produce a re­ ceipt); that Fallon then transferred possession of the orchard to neighbor John Mattison under a contract with Fallon (Fallon later, in a May 1854 deposition, denied having any such agreement with Mattison); and that in Sept. 1853, Fallon sold his rights to the place to Henry W. Peck. Meanwhile, on Oct. 10, 1853, Fr. Anzar had deeded to Fr. Juan F. Llebaria full title to the orchard, including all profits that the mission "ought to have had." Llebaria went forward then with his own suit against Fallon in 4th District Court, San Francisco. He sued for $2,500 plus costs (later increased as a consequence of new information on Fallon’s profits), for Fallon’s use of the property from Oct. 1, 1852 to Sept. 1, 1853. In a Nov. 19, 1953 deposition on behalf of Fr. Llebaria, Fr. Anzar said that he had attempted to take possession of the orchard after the 1852 settlement with Fallon, but found the property occupied by Fallon’s family and servants. He esti­ mated that Fallon’s profits were from $4,000 to $5,000 per year during the five years of his occupancy. On Dec. 8, 1853, Llebaria’s attorney wrote Fallon ordering him to give up possession of the property. Fallon seems to have had no trouble finding business associates to testify on his behalf. Some of them quite definitely perjured themselves in depositions, much as Fallon himself did. Gabriel Gunn, although granting that the value of the orchard was four to six thousand dollars per year, claimed that he was present during the negotiations between Fallon and Anzar in 1852 when Anzar signed off for only $500. He said the agreement he witnessed was that Anzar and Llebaria would have no further claims against Fallon and that they agreed to relinquish "all their rights as the pretended owners of the garden [orchard]." He claimed that Patrick Breen had also witnessed the agreement. In a later deposition, Mr. Breen, a survivor of the Donner Party (he kept a famous diary of the ordeal) and a person respected for his veracity, categorically denied having been present. Gunn claimed that Irish-born Breen acted as an interpreter, a claim also denied by Breen who said that he himself needed an interpreter when conversing with Fr. Anzar, who could neither read nor write English. Breen was asked this question: "Did he [Fallon] state anything to you about Padre Anzar’s having been taken in, in making the agreement?" Breen’s 8 answer: "I think he did. I think he said that Anzar did not understand what he was doing in the affair about the orchard." In various depositions, Fallon from time to time denied ever having leased the orchard from Anzar (despite the evidence of Anzar’s copy of the document); denied ever having made any profits whatsoever from the orchard; claimed to have given Anzar money on account from time to time but "I can’t recollect when" and could produce no receipts. One Fallon deposition, much of which was clearly perjured testimony, revealed a total lack of memory about production and sale of fruits, or any proceeds from sub-leases or sales, from the orchard from 1848 to 1853. Fallon even denied any knowledge of having signed in 1848 the four-year lease, even when presented with Fr. Anzar’s copy of that agreement! And so Fallon, who was represented by the prestigious San Francisco law firm of Halleck, Peachy & Billings, kept the priests in the courts. I do not know the final outcome of the suits, or whether they were ever settled. My search has been limited to the files of Fallon’s law firm that were acquired by Bancroft Library (.Anzar vs Fallon, Llebaria vs Fallon). The records of the 4th District Court, San Francisco, should also be searched.

FALLON’S FIRST MARRIAGE The marriage record of Thomas Fallon to Carmelita Lodge has, to the best of my knowledge, not been located or cited in any published research. It probably occurred about 1847-48. It does not, however, appear on the old registers of Missions San Jose, Santa Clara, or Santa Cruz, according to historian Fr. Francis F. Guest, who kindly searched these registers at my request. The other two possibili­ ties are Missions San Juan Bautista and Carmel, which I am presently having searched. If Fallon was a non-Catholic, the marriage entry would note it, unless Fallon (who had no small skills at dissembling) claimed he was Catholic in order to marry into the well-to-do Lodge and Castro families.

SUTTER’S FORT, 1846-47 Entries of arrivals and departures kept by Sutter’s clerks indicate that Thomas Fallon of the "pueblo" [San Jose] was busy traveling back and forth between San Jose and Bear Creek north of Sutter’s Fort, between Mar. 8, 1846 and Sept. 30, 1847. The items are printed in New Helvetia Diary. Mar. 8, 1846 arrival: "Ofallon from the Upper Pueblo"; Mar. 20, 1846 departure: "Shadden, Williams, Kayser & Fallon for bear creek; Mar. 30, 1846 arrival: "T. Fallon" [and others named] "from up the valley"; May 6, 1846 arrival: "Fallon & Bracenbridge from the Pueblo [San Jose]"; May 8, 1846 departure: "Bracenbridge & Fallon for bear creek": Sept. 23, 1847 arrival: "Ths. fallen & J. Savage...from the pueblo de San Jose"; Sept. 28, 1847 departure: "Messrs. Murphy, Ths. Fallen, here and left again"; Sept. 30, 1847 arrival: "Ths. Fallon arrived and left again." Two of these entries (Mar. 8 and 20, 1846) are indexed in New Helvetia Diaty ("Persons at the Fort") under "W.O. Fallon" but it would seem the index confused William O. with Thomas who had business at both San Jose and Bear Creek. Bancroft (v. VI, 16) reports the activities of Thomas Fallon in the area of the Feather and Yuba rivers early on, before the gold rush: "Charles Roether had in 1845 located himself on Honcut Creek, and near him are now Edward A. Farwell and Thomas Fallon" and (footnote) "The former on a grant claimed by Huber; the two latter on Farwell’s ranch." In connection with the later "dry diggings" in what is 9

now Placer and El Dorado counties, Bancroft (v. VI, 86) says: "...dry diggings [were] first discovered by Kelsey and party...next among the discoverers were Isbel, and Daniel and John Murphy, who were connected with Capt. Weber’s trading estab­ lishments, Murray and Fallon of San Jose, and McKensey and Aram of Monterey. (Bancroft’s source was Carson's Early Recollections, p. 5, with further reference to Oakland Transcript of April 13, 1873 and Oakland Alameda Co. Gazette for April 19, 1873.)

1850 CENSUS The 1850 U.S. Census for the Town of Santa Cruz listed this family: Fallen, Thos., 27, merchant, $8,000 (value of real estate), born in Ireland; Carmel, 20, born in California; Mary, 2, also California). Thomas Fallon is not listed on the statewide index for the special 1852 California State Census, nor in enumerations for the town of Santa Cruz on that census.

NEW ORLEANS In October 1852, Fr. Llebaria filed suit against Fallon regarding Fallon’s con­ tinued occupancy, beyond the terms of his lease and without having paid the rent, of the mission orchard at Santa Cruz. The suit seems to have motivated Fallon to leave Santa Cruz to get away from the lawyers. His friend Gabriel Gunn testified that sometime in October 1852 Fallon left Santa Cruz and went "to his farm below" [Soquel? San Juan?], and lived there until he sailed for eastern parts. In any case, Fallon was still in California the following October, 1853, when he signed a deposi­ tion at "Daly’s Ranch, Cosumnes River" [south of what is now Sacramento] that he had sold his rights to the mission orchard to Henry W. Peck, who was his brother-in- law. On Dec. 8, Llebaria’s attorney served notice on Fallon to vacate the orchard property. This seems to have provoked Fallon to sail out of San Francisco for New Orleans with his family, with intentions to settle in Texas. He never got to Texas. At New Orleans, his three children succumbed to typhoid fever. By May of 1854, when he signed a deposition in the Llebaria vs Fallon case, he was back in California. McEnery notes in a June 21, 1854 fictional journal entry by Captain Fallon, that Fallon was attempting at the time to negotiate a "compromise" with Llebaria. But the documents I have obtained do not support that. In a June 1854 deposition (and in another at about that time, which I am having copied at Bancroft Library), Fallon denied that he had any obligation at all to either Anzar or Llebaria-and even that he had ever entered into a lease agreement for the orchard!

SAN JOSE PERIOD Thomas Fallon achieved prominence in San Jose business and politics in the 1850s and 1860s, but I have not done the research of city and county records neces­ sary to present a balanced picture. What information I have is mainly from some sources at Bancroft Library, and telephone conversations with Clyde Arbuckle, San Jose City Historian, who has been most generous on several occasions in sharing his research with me. Fallon served on the "Common Council" (city council) in 1856-57; ran for State Senator and lost by 326 votes; was elected county treasurer for a one- year term in 1857 (1867?); served as mayor for one-year, from April 18, 1859 to April 11, 1860; was a vestryman for the Trinity Episcopal Church in San Jose for nine terms between 1865 and 1875 (exceptions were years 1867 and 1872); was 10

divorced by Carmel in the 1860s "as a result of his amours" according to several accounts. Delphin Delmas, a graduate of Santa Clara College, served as Carmel’s attorney. Carmel received a $30,000 settlement (Arb). Thomas Fallon became a naturalized citizen of the U.S. on August 18, 1855 in San Francisco, according to data in the Great Register of Voters for the City of San Jose for the year 1877. The Great Register for that year also shows that Fallon first registered to vote on July 26, 1866, age 42, birthplace Ireland, occupation "capitalist - income from investments." His place of residence is given as San Pedro & San Augustine, San Jose, 1st Ward, Voting No. 1679 (Arb). The information from the Great Register was given me by Clyde Arbuckle over the phone, and I may have garbled it as a consequence. Could Fallon have registered for the first time in San Jose in 1866, when he had been elected to various offices in that city in the decade before that?

SUCCESSFUL FRUIT GROWER Thomas Fallon was one of twelve people in attendance at the organizational meeting in San Jose on August 13, 1853 of the Pioneer Horticultural Society. The following year this organization became the Santa Clara County Agricultural Society at a meeting in the City Hall on May 6, 1854 (James). One history of San Jose notes that "Early orchardists made money. Fallon [in 1857] got $800 for the crop from 15 pear trees planted in a 20-foot square back of his home at San Pedro and San Augustine" (James). On Oct. 21, 1856, at the California State Fair held in San Jose, Fallon won monetary awards of $20 for the best and largest variety of pears, $15 for specimens of apricots, $10 for watermelons, and $10 for muskmellons (SJ. Merc). The Apr. 25, 1867 edition of the San Jose Mercwy reported the scandal of the Santa Clara County Treasurer Abijah McCall, who "left for parts unknown about Wednes­ day last, with about twenty thousand dollars of public money." Wisely, Thomas Fallon, who once held the treasurer post, was not among the score and more prominent citizens of the city who had posted bonds for the treasurer. If a slight digression will be permitted, the McCall incident was not the first instance of overt corruption in San Jose city government. In January 1853 William Aikenhead embezzled $15,000 from the county treasury and "fled before doubts were cast on his claim of having been robbed" (James).

NEVADA VISIT In September 1875, Fallon and his wife (presumably Carmel at that date) and one daughter traveled to on a pleasure trip. In Carson City he was treated as a VIP and interviewed by a reporter for the Tribune (Sept. 16, reprinted in Sacramento Daily Union and Record, Sept. 25). Fallon, now a self-styled "Major," regaled the journalist with tales of his escapades with the Fremont Party, including his first sighting of Lake Tahoe and his participation later on "in all the battles against the native Californians." He told the reporter that he intended to make another Nevada trip to examine certain fluming properties. A local businessman, with knowledge of Fallon’s California properties, said that Fallon was the owner of "thousands of acres covered with redwood trees...needing only fluming facilities to bring the wood to market." The reporter described Fallon as "a most genial gentleman...and although a man past middle age, is still as full of activity as many a boy of 18." 11

SECOND MARRIAGE According to McEnery, the final decree dissolving the marriage of Thomas and Carmel Fallon was issued by Judge Belden of the 20th District Court on Feb. 3, 1877. On June 28 of that year, Fallon and Samantha Steinhoff were married at the First Presbyterian Church in San Francisco. This marriage also ended up in divorce, about 1882.

BREACH OF PROMISE SUIT T Mrs. Elmira Dunbar, claiming to be Fallon’s mistress, went to court in a $35,000 breach of promise suit against him in March, 1885. The jury trial was held in the Superior Court of San Jose, the venue having been changed from San Francisco (S.F. Call). After 45 minutes of deliberation, the jury returned with a verdict for Mrs. Dunbar for $10,000 (S.F. Call, March 8). Whether she ever received the set­ tlement is unknown. Fallon died seven months later.

DEATH A long obituary headed "Death of Captain Fallon - Close of the Adventurous Career of One of California’s Pioneers," appeared in the San Francisco Morning Call, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 1885. The obit gives Fallon’s year of birth as 1808 in the "north of Ireland" and mentions that he traveled from Canada at an early age and "joined the forces of General Houston" and that "after the close of the contest he remained in Texas until 1843, when he started for California, arriving in the spring of the following year, with Fremont’s expedition, which he had joined on the road." The obit describes his raising of the flag in San Jose in 1846; his marriage to the daughter of Michael Lodge; his trip to Texas in 1852, and, on his way back to Cali­ fornia, the loss of his three children to typhoid fever at New Orleans; his service as in 1859. "During the last eight or ten years he has had no settled place of residence, spending much time in traveling," but the "last two years were spent almost continuously in this city [San Francisco]." The obit notes that Fallon had ten children, five now living, three sons and two daughters, namely: Mrs. John T. Malone (Annie), wife of the actor, and Mrs. Matthew Britton (Isabelle) of Redwood City; two sons, William and Alfred of Los Angeles, and Frederick, attending St. Joseph’s Academy, Oakland. The cause of death is given as "kidney trouble" of a one-year duration. "His end on Sunday last is described by those who were present as singularly peaceful and painless, the sufferer retaining full con­ sciousness until the last. Captain Fallon was a prominent Mason, well advanced in the degrees and his funeral to-morrow will be under the auspices of the Knights Templar, of which order he was a member." It has been said that Fallon Place in San Francisco was named after Thomas Fallon (Henry C. Carlisle, San Francisco Street Names, pamphlet, American Trust Company, 1954), but I have not confirmed this.

LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT Litigation over Fallon’s considerable estate, estimated variously at $100,000- $300,000, continued into the 1920s. His children William, Alfred, Annie, and Isabelle contested Fallon’s choice of Henry Kenitzer (sp?), D.D. Payne and Adolph Pfeister as his executors, claiming their father was not of sound mind at the time he signed the instructions to the three aforementioned "confidential advisors" (S.F. Call, Dec. 19, 1885 and Mar. 31, 1886). Daughter Annie gave testimony of her 12 father’s bizarre behavior, including vivid accounts of his threatening her (she lived with her father and stepmother) with knives and guns from time to time, in drunken rages, even claiming that neither she nor Isabelle was his blood child. Annie’s testimony, however, detailed and even credible as it may appear, may be questioned as being self-interested. In fact, twenty-six years later Annie authored an article about her father for The (Aug. 19, 1912), in which she expresses nothing but admiration for her father and his adventurous life. (The arti­ cle is full of egregious errors regarding names, dates, family genealogy, and histori­ cal events in which Fallon took part.)

CONCLUSION The life of Thomas Fallon may not provide a particularly wholesome model for the school children of San Jose, for whom a new curriculum on local history, so I am told, is being prepared. One can say that Thomas Fallon was a murderer, a perjurer, an adulterer, a drunk, an opportunist, and a braggard. Yet one can also say much about the man that is attractive. He lived in a rougher age than our own and had the boldness of spirit to venture far from home as a young man into the wilderness of the West. Fie crossed the High Sierras with Fremont in the dead of winter of 1843-44, a feat that few human beings, even the native Indians, had done before. He put himself to useful work as a saddler in Branciforte/Santa Cruz. He married a fine and beautiful lady who bore him many children. He experienced great personal tragedy with the loss of the first three children to the ravages of fever in New Orleans. Yet he kept his head high as he returned to California to compete in the tough struggle for existence in a community devoid of welfare statism. He did indeed raise the Stars and Stripes by the old jail in San Jose in 1846, an act for which he should not be criticized. It was, as Mayor McEnery has said, an event symbolizing the beginning of the American era in California, and who among us would turn back the clock? Who would deny that history is the saga of more technologically advanced cultures inserting their dominance over cultures less advanced (the Yanks over the Spanish, the rich and advanced Spanish culture over Stone Age Indian culture, and before that the more advanced Indian cultures over less advanced Indian cultures into the pre-historic past)? It is a story of humanity mixed with cruelty and kindness, sadness and joy, tragedy and progress. If you will forgive another digression, it is a story of Californians providing op­ portunities for over twenty million people, in a land which, before the arrival of the Spanish sailing ships in San Diego in 1769, was inhabited by only about 130,000 Indians (ICroeber’s figures, perhaps more accurate than those of later demographers with an anti-Hispanic and anti-Anglo ax to grind). The Stone Age Indians had a life expectancy of about 25 for the males and 30 for the females, according to archae- oloical evidence, but I am getting into another argument, which will be countered by those who prefer the "" view of things and feel guilty about Spanish and Anglo colonization of America. Thomas Fallon was much more than a predator, land speculator, and "capitalist - income from investment," as he once described himself for the record. It is evident that he took great pride in his cultivation of the land and in the fruits of that land. Yes, Fallon took advantage of two priests, yet those priests were after all attempting to profit from land which was originally recognized by Spanish law to be the property of the Indians, and to be held in trust for them by the missionary fathers until such time as they had acquired the skills to function in the new culture. 13

Fallon also served his community in various civic offices, and he served his church, Trinity Episcopalian, as a vestryman for many years. May I say finally that the great peril of research to the scholar is that he can be forced, if he is honest, to challenge his own preconceptions. My own view of Thomas Fallon has been shifting back and forth, even as I have prepared this paper. In the balance, I think that Fallon is still more rascal than hero, more sinner than saint, but I have to admit I am having some doubts and am uncomfortable with my own prior judgments. Perhaps in assuming the role of devil’s advocate in recent public statements, I have overstated my case. Thomas Fallon was a mortal man like all of us and a creature of his age and time, like all of us. And he perhaps was as much a hero as a rascal, like most of us. I can say a prayer for Captain Thomas Fallon and hope that his soul is at peace and that, wherever his soul is, Fallon will say a prayer for me, the inheritor of a life much softer and safer than this tough pioneer could ever have dreamed possible.

SELECTED SOURCES

"Captain Thomas Fallon’s House - 175 Saint John Street," pp. 137-38, biographical sketch of Fallon (more accurate and credible than sketches appearing elsewhere). Copies of the pages, one of which contains a portrait of Fallon, were provided me by a correspondent who did not identify the source. Anzarvs Fallon, litigation concerning the orchard at Mission Santa Cruz, 1848-1854. Bancroft Library ms. file C-B 421, Box 4, folders 442-48, and also file 76/65c depositions. Sec also Llebaria vs Fallon. Arbuckle, Clyde. Mr. Arbuckle generously provided me with information on Fallon’s career in politics in San Jose and with data on his naturalization from the Great Register of Voters. Mr. Arbuckle remembers talking to Fanny Montgomery, a former postmistress, many years ago, and she re­ membered Thomas Fallon as "a very courteous man who put on a good show." Bancroft, Hubert H. The , v. Ill, pp. 733-34, "Pioneer Register and Index," and further references to Thomas Fallon, vols. IV, 453; V, 137, 245, 246; VI, 16, 86. See 77le Zamorano Index to History of California by Hubert Howe Bancroft, ed. by Everett G. Hagen and Anna Marie Hagen, 2 vols., University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 1985. Calciana, Elizabeth S., "The Martina Castro Lodge Family," an interview conducted with Carrie Lodge at Santa Cruz, California in 1965. Typewritten ms., University of California at Santa Cruz, Bancroft Library C-D 4103. See pp. 40-41 for references to Thomas Fallon. Also contains genealogical chart (often in error) of Caslro/Lodge family. Californian (newspaper), Monterey, California, March 20, 1847, account of events of the war in California, including Fallon’s raising the flag at San Jose. Carson Tribune, Sept. 16, 1875, reprint in Sacramento Daily Union & Record, 25 Sept. 1875, p. 3, "A Pioneer Indeed," interview with "Major" Thomas Fallon. Dillon, Willard F. The Irish in London, Ontario, 1826-1861. M.A. thesis for University of Western Ontario, 1963, List of inhabitants of London, 1842, compiled from Census of 1841-42, including listing for John Jennings. Egan, Ferol. Fremont: Explorer for a Restless Nation. Garden City, N. Y., 1977. Historian Egan says that Thomas Fallon killed Xervier with a "quick thrust of a knife," but all primary sources I have checked say that Fallon fired a gun. Fallon, Anita, "Raised the Flag in San Jose in 1846," The Grizzly Bear, v. X, April 1912, pp. 1-2. An often inaccurate account of Fallon’s life by his daughter. Fitzgerald, Margaret E. and Joseph A. King. The Uncounted Irish in Canada and the United States. P.D. Meany Publishers, Toronto, 1990. Fremont, Capt. John C. The Expeditions of John Charles Fremont, v. 1, Travels from 1838 to 1844, cd. by Donald Jackson and Mary Lee Spence. Urbana, Illinois, 1970. Includes Financial Records, 1 14

Jan. 1843 - 31 Dec. 1844, indicating Fallon’s pay, p. 453; and p. 657 fn, discharge of Fallon at Sutler’s Fort. Great Register of Voters, 1877, San Jose, 1st Ward, notes that Fallon was naturalized as U.S. citizen in San Francisco on Aug. 18,1855. Hafen, LeRoy R. and Ann W. Hafen. Rufus B. Sage: His Letters and Papers 1836-1847 with an Annotated Reprint of his "Scenes in the ..." Glendale, California, 1945. See v. II, pp. 268-69 for note on killing of Xervier (source Talbot). ______. The Far West and Rockies: General Analytical Index to the Fifteen Volume Series and Supplement to "Journals of Forty Niners. Glendale, California, 1961. Reference to Thomas Fallon, V, p. 269. Hall, Carroll D. ed. Dormer Miscellany. San Francisco, 1947. Copy of document with signature of William O. Fallon on agreement to undertake rescue mission to Donners. Hall, Frederick. The History of San Jose and Surroundings with Biographical Sketches of Early Settlers. San Francisco, 1871. See pp. 44,146-153, 372-73 for items on Thomas Fallon. Harlow, Neal. California Conquered: War and Peace on the Pacific 1846-1850. Berkeley, California, 1982. See p. 129, mention of Thomas Fallon. Hoover, Mildred B., et al. Historic Spots in California, 3rd ed. revised by William N. Abeloe. Stanford University Press, 1966. Indexed references to Thomas Fallon, to Lodge and Castro families, and to Rancho Soquel and Rancho Soquel Augmentation. James, William F. and George H. McMurry. History of Sail Jose, California. San Jose, 1933. See p. 93 for note on Fallon as mayor, and pp. 63 for description of Fallon raising the flag at San Jose, and note that Stokes had raised a flag before Fallon’s arrival, but it had been cut down and carried away by "hostile natives." ICing, Joseph A. See Fitzgerald, Margaret E. Llebaria vs Fallon, litigation concerning the orchard at Mission Santa Cruz. See item "Anzar vs Fallon." McEnery, Thomas. California Cavalier: The Journal of Captain Thomas Fallon. San Jose, 1978. A fictional diary, but purportedly based on historical documents. Morgan, Dale L. and Eleanor T. Harris, eds. The Rocky Mountain Journals of William Marshall Anderson. Huntington Library, San Marino, California, 1967. References to Thomas Fallon being confused with William O. Fallon, pp. 296 and 299. New Helvetia Diary: A Record of Events Kept by John A. Sutler and his Clerks at New Helvetia, California, from September 9, 1845 to May 28, 1848. San Francisco, The Grabhorn Press in arrangement with the California Society of Pioneers, 1939. Items indicating Fallon’s arrivals and departures at Sutler’s Fort, some entries confusing Thomas Fallon with William O. Fallon. Northrup, Marie E., Spanish-Mexican Families of Early California: 1769-1850, Southern California Genealogical Society, Burbank, 2 vols., 1976 and 1984. Genealogies of the Castro family of Martina Castro Lodge, mother-in-law of Thomas Fallon, v. 2, pp. 48-52. Padron General los liabilantes..." A census of Villa de Branciforle dated Nov. 30, 1845, in Spanish and copied verbatim by one of Bancroft’s researchers. Bancroft ms. C-R 9, carton 3. "Tomas Fclan" is listed among 56 eslranjeros. Parrish, Narcissa L. "The Early History of the Santa Cruz Region," M.A. thesis, University of California at Berkeley, 1925. Land petitions of Martina Castro Lodge. Pfremmer, Patricia. Santa Cruz 1850-1976: A Selected Bibliography Based on Resources in the Library of the University of California at Santa Cruz. University of California at Santa Cruz, 1976. Copy at Bancroft, Z-1262 S48 C3. Ramey, Earl, "The Beginnings of Marysville," California Historical Society Quarterly 14 (1935), p. 205, item about Thomas Fallon on Honcut Creek. Riptide, v. 22, no. 43, Oct. 19,1950, p. 37, biographical sketch and portrait of Thomas Fallon. San Francisco Call, Oct. 27, 1885, article on the death of Captain Fallon; Mar. 5 and Mar. 8, 1885, on breach of promise suit filed against Fallon by Mrs. Elmira Dunbar; Oct. 27, 1885, Fallon obituary; Dec. 19, 1885, Nov. 4, 1885, and Mar. 31, 1886, items on court action by Fallon’s children, chal­ lenging Fallon’s chosen executors. San Jose Mercury, 21 Oct. 1856. Awards to Thomas Fallon for best fruit at California State Fair in San Jose. Reprint of page in Centennial Edition of this newspaper. 15

Society of California Pioneers: Publication for the Year 1950, ed. by Helen S. Giffen. San Francisco, 1951. Contains roster of California Battalion, 1846-47. Talbot, Theodore. The Journals of Theodore Talbot, 1843 and 1849-1852, ed. with notes by Charles Carey. Portland, Oregon, 1931. See p. 24 for description of killing of Xervier by Fallon, p. 28, for note on hiring of Fallon for the Fitzpatrick contingent of the Fremont Party. Trinity Parish, San Jose, California: Advent, 1860, to Easier, 1983, pp. 82-83 has list of vestryman, 1860s and 1870s, including Thomas Fallon; same information in Seventy-five Years in the Life of Trinity Episcopal Church 1861-1936, Diamond Jubilee Edition, 1936. Bancroft F869 S33 S103 and F869 S33 S105. United Stales Census of 1850, State of California. Town of Santa Cruz. Fallon houshold, Oct. 11,1850. Winther, Oscar O. "The Story of San Jose, 1777-1869," California Historical Society Quarterly 14 (1935), p. 148, mention of Fallon.

SOME ITEMS ABOUT THE FALLON STATUE CONTROVERSY

Bishop, Katherine, "San Jose Journal: When Raising the Flag Is Sure to Cause a Storm," New York Times International Edition, July 5,1990. Crumpley, Elsa, "Open Letter to Tom McEnery, Mayor of San Jose," La Oferta Review, June 7,1990. Evans, Karen Y., "Historians Debate Fallon Statue," El Observador (newspaper, Santa Clara County?) June 17,1990. Clipping in author’s file. Farragher, Thomas, "Mayor Prepared to Retreat: Lengthy Uproar Delays Fallon Vote," San Jose Mercury News, June 8,1990, Section B. Kramer, Pamela, "Statue is Lighting [sic] Rod for Criticism of Mayor, San Jose Mercury News, June 7, 1990. McEnery, Tom, Mayor. Letter in New York Times, Aug. 15, 1990 (written July 24), critical of article on Fallon Statue Controversy that had appeared in July 5 Times. See Bishop, Katherine. Medina, Michael, "Public Decries Fallon Statue," El Observador (newspaper, Santa Clara County?"). Clipping in author’s file. Reynolds, Yolanda, "Fallon Issue Dominates Hispanic Media Press Conference," La Oferta Review, May 23,1990. ______. "Fallon Statue: Questions Yet to be Answered," La Oferta ReWew(newspaper), San Jose, June 13,1990. ______. "Fallon Statue: A Revision of History?", La Oferta Review, April 4,1990. ______. Long piece on Fallon statue that was to appear in La Oferta Review, July 11, 1990 (I have copy of manuscript only). Sylvester, David A., "Statue Plan Stirs Furor in San Jose," San Francisco Chronicle, June 22,1990. Historians debate Fallon statue By Karen Y. Evans San Jose-When tiie Lotna Priela "We should have the true On July 14, 1846, Fallon, under tK earthquake hit last October 17, the ok founders of San Jose Stoat's orders, raised die American K should have (commemorated downtown), who flag over llie Juzgado. been paying attention. It was an are all of Mexican or Spanish Hispanic critics say the 'N omen. origins. Or a multi-cultural center controversy over the slalue exists