(Illustration By G. Ruiz. California Historical Society, S...)
Illustration By G. Ruiz. California Historical Society, Special Publication No. 16. California Historical Society Quarterly, V16, No. 1-4.
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(U.S. Consul at Monterey from 1844 to 1848, Thomas Larkin ...)
U.S. Consul at Monterey from 1844 to 1848, Thomas Larkin is well-known to any student of California history. Larkin achieved immortality because his office became the nerve center of American activities in California before the Mexican War and because he left behind a voluminous and revealing correspondence. In this volume, John Hawgood has brought together some of Larkin's most interesting letters, many of which were published in George Hammond's ten volume Larkin Papers. When First and Last Consul appeared in 1962 scholars received it warmly because the letters provided a long-needed corrective to Reuben Underhill's biography of Larkin; because Hawgood's choice of letters shed considerable light on commercial and political affairs in California when Larkin was consul; and because Hawgood's narrative provided a unity to the Larkin letters that made the book a pleasure to read.
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Larkin was born on September 16, 1802 in Charlestown, Massachusetts, the son of Thomas O. Larkin and Ann Rogers, and a grandson of the Deacon John Larkin who provided the horse for Paul Revere's famous ride. Larkin's mother was widowed three times - her first husband was named Cooper and her third husband was named Amariah Childs, a renown spice mill owner and banker in Lynn, Massachusetts.
Orphaned at the age of 16, he served an apprenticeship as a bookmaker.
In 1821, discouraged by the scant commercial opportunities he saw in New England, he moved to Wilmington, North Carolina. There and in South Carolina during the next 10 years he operated stores and a sawmill.
In 1831, convinced that he would never become wealthy in the Carolinas, Larkin sailed for California to become a clerk to his half brother, John Cooper, a ship captain living in Monterey. He arrived in April 1832 and within a year opened his own store, prospering in the hide and tallow trade.
Soon he had his own flour mill and was trading with Mexico and Hawaii, dealing in flour, lumber, potatoes, horses, and furs. He also pioneered land speculation in California.
In 1844 Larkin was appointed American consul at Monterey, a position he held until 1848. He qualified for the consulship because, unlike many other American immigrants, he had never been naturalized a Mexican citizen.
Larkin held other governmental positions in California. He was a naval storekeeper (1847 - 1848) and a Navy agent (1847 - 1849). These two jobs were routine, but his appointment as a confidential agent (1846 - 1848) brought him into the conflict for California.
Soon after his arrival in California, Larkin had decided the province should become American; he strongly distrusted British and French intentions there.
As confidential agent, he had instructions from President James K. Polk to warn Californians of any attempt to transfer jurisdiction of the province to England or to France and to encourage the Californians in "that love of liberty and independence" so common among Americans. In short, he was to promote a revolution that would eventually bring annexation. Larkin followed his instructions very well.
He died in San Francisco on October 27, 1858, of typhoid fever, having lived to see California admitted to the Union.
In April 1846 he began inducing Americans in California to think of independence, and in July they declared the Bear Flag Republic. This revolt soon became part of larger war between the United States and Mexico; it ended with American acquisition of California. Larkin served his state as a member of the constitutional convention of 1849, then retired from public life to devote himself to business.
(Illustration By G. Ruiz. California Historical Society, S...)
(U.S. Consul at Monterey from 1844 to 1848, Thomas Larkin ...)
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 United States 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.
