Juan Temple
Juan Temple | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | August 14, 1796 |
| Died | May 31, 1866 |
| Spouse | Rafaela Cota |
DonJuan Temple(néJonathan; August 14, 1796 – May 31, 1866) was aCalifornianranchero and merchant. Born in Massachusetts, he emigrated toAlta Californiain 1827, becoming aMexicancitizen, adopting theSpanish languageand aSpanish name,and eventually marrying into a prominentCaliforniofamily. After acquiringRancho Los Cerritosin 1843, he became one of the largest landowners inLos Angeles County.[1]
Biography[edit]
Jonathan Temple was born inReading, Massachusetts,to Jonathan Temple Sr. and Lucinda Pratt. From at least 1823, Temple was a merchant living in theHawaiian Islands.
In 1827 he migrated to thePueblo de San Diegoin MexicanAlta California.Temple was baptized a Roman Catholic, made a Mexican citizen, and began to go by the name Juan. In 1827 Temple moved north to thePueblo de Los Ángeles,where he opened the pueblo's first general store, a business he operated for almost thirty years.[2]His younger brother.Francisco P. Templejoined him there later.
Juan Temple married Rafaela Cota (1812–1887) in 1830, and they had one daughter, Francisca Temple (1831–1893).[3]In 1836, Temple hosted the first vigilance committee to form in California at his Los Ángeles residence. The committee later executed two lovers accused of the murder of the woman's husband, thereby committing the firstlynchingin California.
Rancho Los Cerritos[edit]
In 1843, he purchasedRancho Los Cerritosfrom his wife's relatives, theCota family.His 1844adobesurvives as part of theLos Cerritos Ranch HouseNational Historic Landmarksite. Both Temple and his ranch house played roles in theMexican-American War.Temple created a thriving cattle ranch and prospered, becoming afterAbel Stearns,the wealthiest man in post-statehoodLos Angeles County.
During the 1840s, Temple was active in ship-bound trade throughout the coasts of Alta California and central Mexico, and owned extensive lands betweenAcapulcoandMazatlán.In 1856, by providing, through his son-in-law, Gregorio de Ajuria (1819–1861), the funds to finance thePlan of AyutlaremovingAntonio López de Santa Annaas Mexico's president/dictator, he became the lessor of the Mexican national mint, a concession held by him and his daughter until 1893, when the mint was nationalized byPorfirio Díaz.
Post-statehood[edit]
Temple was also one of Los Angeles’ first developers, constructing such landmarks as the originalTemple Blockand theClocktower Courthouse, Market and Theater,which later served as city and county administrative headquarters, contained the countycourthouse,and featured the first true theater in southern California. He also served as the firstalcalde(or mayor) of Los Angeles after capture of the pueblo by the United States during theMexican-American Warand served on the first American-period common (city) council. In 1849, after Los Angeles was ordered by California's military governor to conduct a survey, but couldn't pay for the work, Temple paid for theOrdSurvey out of his own funds, and then was repaid by the sale of lots created in the survey.Temple Street (Los Angeles)was developed by him as a modest one-block dirt lane in the 1850s.
The ill-fated timing of his construction projects in late 1850s Los Angeles, which was in an economic downturn, was exacerbated by aflood in 1861-62and drought from 1862 to 1865 that almost destroyed the cattle industry, then the backbone of the local economy.
San Francisco[edit]
Temple moved toSan Francisco.Juan Temple lived his last years in San Francisco where he died in 1866, two months after selling Rancho Los Cerritos toFlint, Bixby & Cofor $20,000, or less than a dollar an acre, during a prolonged depressed real estate market.
Rafaela Cota de Temple moved toParisto join her widowed daughter (Gregorio de Ajuria having died insane in Paris in 1861), and died there in the 1887.
See also[edit]
- Workman and Temple Family
- Pliny Fisk Temple (Francisco P. Temple or F.P.T )(February 13, 1822–April 27, 1880)
- Josephine M. Workman–Mona Darkfeather(January 13, 1883–September 3, 1977)
- Boyle-Workman family
- William H. Workman(January 1, 1839–February 21, 1918)
- Boyle Workman(September 20, 1868–December 25, 1942)
- Workman and Temple Family Homestead Museum
References[edit]
- ^James Miller Guinn "A History of California and an Extended History of Los Angeles and Environs", Vol. II, 1915
- ^Newmark, Marco (1942). "Pioneer Merchants of Los Angeles".Historical Society of Southern California:77.
- ^Jonathan Temple ancestry
- Paul R. Spitzzeri, "The Workman and Temple Families of Southern California, 1830-1930," (Dallas: Seligson Publishing Company,) 2008.
External links[edit]
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- California pioneers
- Businesspeople from Los Angeles
- Landowners from California
- 19th-century American landowners
- Los Angeles Common Council (1850–1889) members
- 19th-century American politicians
- 1796 births
- 1866 deaths
- Foreign residents of Mexican California
- American people of the Mexican–American War
- History of Los Angeles
- History of Los Angeles County, California
- Naturalized citizens of Mexican California
- People of the Conquest of California
- People from Boyle Heights, Los Angeles
- Politicians from Los Angeles
- Politicians from Long Beach, California
- Businesspeople from Long Beach, California
- People from Reading, Massachusetts
- People from Los Angeles County, California
- 19th-century people from California
- 19th century in Los Angeles
- 19th-century American businesspeople
- Expatriates in the Hawaiian Kingdom
- Immigrants to Mexico