Francisco Temple

Background

Francisco Pliny Fisk (FPF) Temple was born in Reading, Massachusetts was the youngest of a family of ten children. As his half-brother Jonathan"s junior by 26 years, he was born after Jonathan went to sea and moved to California.

Career

He started for Alta California a Mexican territory, by the way of Cape Horn, arriving at Los Angeles in the summer of 1841. Between 1841 and 1849 he was a Clerk in Jonathan Temple"s Store in Los Los Angeles Pliny had been nicknamed "Templito," or "Little Temple" as by the natives because of his short height of five feet, four inches (163 cm).

Phiny Fisk Temple had been baptized in the Catholic faith at the San Gabriel Mission shortly prior to accepting the Christian name of F. Temple.

In 1845, Temple married Antonia Margarita Workman (July 26, 1830–January 24, 1892) the daughter of William Workman and his Taos Native American wife Maria Nicolasa Urioste de Valencia. They had 12 children.

In 1851, Workman gave Temple an undivided half share in Rancho Louisiana Merced located 12 miles (19 km) east of Los Angeles where he made his home. He planted a vineyard of 30,000 vines, 30 acres (120,000 m²) of fruit trees, and a garden.

Temple became involved with real estate, and with breeding and selling cattle.

In 1850 he was elected to be the Los Angeles city treasurer, and in 1852 he served on the first Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. In 1875, when nearly every bank in the state closed its doors for a time, Temple & Workman Bank went bankrupt due to mismanagement. Both men lost everything.

Temple never recovered from the financial disaster, and Workman committed suicide a year later.

On April 27, 1880, Temple died and is buried in the Workman and Temple family El Campo Santo Cemetery.

Connections

partnership:

Isaias West. Hellman