S4 Ep8 Part 1 Thomas Larkin, Early Years

Thomas Larkin is one of my favorite people from the early California story, and I’ve mentioned him in past episodes. Thomas Larkin inevitably comes up when discussing Yerba Buena’s history, which is also San Francisco's and California’s history. 

I’m excited to share this deep look into Thomas Oliver Larkin’s life, which will take more than one episode to tell. 

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Transcript

Disclaimer

This episode includes commentary and analysis based on the Master thesis titled “Thomas Oliver Larkin, Pioneer Merchant of California, 1832 – 1846”, written in 1959 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Submitted by Virginia H. Baker, 1959, as well as additional books and papers, cited throughout the episode. 

I use excerpts under the doctrine of fair use, 17 U.S.C., Section 107, for research and historical commentary. 

I encourage my dear listeners to locate the link to the thesis in my Buzzsprout transcript for more in-depth study. 

Prologue

Thomas Larkin inevitably comes up when discussing Yerba Buena’s history, which is also San Francisco's and California’s history. 

Larkin is one of my favorite people from the early California story, and I’ve mentioned him in past episodes as a diplomat, crisis negotiator, translator, merchant, secret agent, and counsel to the United States. He played all these roles, and occasionally a few at the same time!

I’m excited to share this deep look into Thomas Oliver Larkin’s life, which will take more than one episode to tell. 

One of Baker’s stated purposes for her thesis was to describe Larkin’s early business career and the factors that led to his success, and that is exactly what we get into in this episode. 

Oh, and Oliver is on vacation this episode. The software company I use has been down all week. 

Are you ready? Here we go. 

Early life

Let’s start with Larkin’s early life. 

Larkin’s United States history begins with his paternal grandmother, who is believed to have arrived on the Mayflower in 1620. Having said that, I’ve also read his family history starts in Massachusetts in 1638, after leaving England. 

The Larkin name was well-respected and known in Massachusetts for a few reasons. His grandfather was active in the Boston Tea Party and fought in the Revolutionary War's Battle of Bunker Hill. 

The horse that Paul Revere rode on that famous day was owned by someone in the Larkin family. (We have political involvement and fighting for justice. Okay.)

Larkin’s mother’s history is equally as interesting in how it formed who Larkin would become. His maternal grandfather was a sea captain and many of those family members were shipmasters. (Aha…)

As early as 1635, Massachusetts endorsed public education, creating a society with highly educated blacksmiths and farmers. So, Larkin was born into a culture of commerce, typical of the time and place.

Before Larkin’s birth, his mother was married to a sea captain. The marriage produced one child, John Rogers Cooper. Her first husband died, but she remarried, and from that second marriage, Thomas Oliver Larkin was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts, on September 16, 1802. This second marriage produced five children, however, only Larkin, his younger brother, and sister survived.

Larkin’s father died in 1808, when Larkin was six years old. But, his mother married a third time, to someone with ten children. Now, Larkin had stepbrothers and sisters in addition to his half-sibling and two full siblings. That’s a lot of birthdays to remember.

Larkin’s stepfather was a wealthy banker with an additional business in leather making. He was very kind to Larkin and happily shared his business knowledge with his young and eager stepson. His stepfather was tight with his finances and interested in the acquisition of money which rubbed off on young Larkin. Well, everything I’ve said so far rubbed off on Larkin, forming the template of his life.

Larkin was a prolific journal keeper and letter writer. Having said that, his writing indicated his education stopped at a certain point, but he enjoyed writing, and his many journals and letters survived time, so I’m able to utilize his words in today’s episode.

I’ll do my best at an 1820 Bostonian accent. That is to say a non-rhotic, leaning on a Southern England accent. Do you know how specific that is?

Moving forward, fifteen-year-old Larkin moved to Boston for an apprenticeship in bookmaking, but realized very quickly, he didn’t like having a manager, or working for someone else, and that “bookmaking was bad business.” 

This is about when his mother died, leaving him with the responsibility of an adult, since his other family didn’t express an interest in taking him. “There went the last of my peace and innocence. Peace be to her, and may I die in peace.”

Since bookmaking wasn’t for Larkin, he tried working in a bookstore. But he disliked selling books even more than making books. 

In 1821, with nothing to lose, Larkin felt the need to start a life outside of New England and set out on an eight-day trip by ship, with six other passengers, to Wilmington, North Carolina. One of those passengers was his friend, F. G. Thurston.

Wilmington, North Carolina Clerk

From Robert Parker’s “A Yankee in North Carolina”, written for the North Carolina Historical Review in 1937 he quotes Larkin from a letter:

“Volume Information.” California Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 16, no. 1, 1937. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/25160682. Accessed 4 June 2025.

"Here then I found myself before I had time to consider the consequences, in a strange place, a still stranger people. Not an acquaintance in the State excepting my fellow passengers, one of whom left Boston to take fate by the wing, and share the humors and reverses of fortune in company with me. We had started for the South to rise or fall together, and at the South, we now found ourselves in a town without inhabitants enough to make a funeral.” 

Larkin arrived to a recent exodus of (to be honest, white) people because of a yellow fever outbreak. But Larkin stayed and found a job as a clerk in a merchant's store. 

Very quickly, Larkin noticed the machinery purchased and used to manufacture local rice, corn, and timber was transported from the North to sell in the South. Why not make the machinery here instead of buying it from somewhere else, he noted? Also, it costs the person more to transport the machinery than what he made selling it to the store. 

Another observation Larkin made was that the merchants from the North brought fancy stationery and writing tools to sell in the South, which were important items to New Englanders, where education was pushed. But, those items weren’t as desired in the South for various reasons. At a young age, Larkin had a keen business eye and realized, you have to research the customer's wants and ensure you can make a profit selling it. 

“Merchants ship goods to the South without knowing thing of the nature of the Market. Great care should be taken in every place to know what goods is wanted before they ship. "Stationery and fancy articles are often shipped to the South. Sold at auction at a 1000 pr ct less than cost and shipped back again, on consignment."

Beyond critiquing merchant selling tactics, Larkin was a young man in a town that didn’t fit who he was or how he was raised. The town didn’t have a library or a bookstore, which he was accustomed to seeing everywhere in the Boston area. He missed books. But, at least the town had theatre. 

Every Christmas the local theater, which he felt was being generous to call it that, would put on “…a miserable production”. “Some of the actors were deserving of praise, but they would have given a more finished performance if they had abstained from chewing tobacco and spitting it on the floor while attempting to act.” I see his point. From bookmaking to book selling to store clerking, and watching bad acting in a boring town. 

Supercargo Bermuda

The now ambitious 20-year-old Larkin looked to change direction again and took a job as a supercargo on the ship to Bermuda. A supercargo is a merchant ship owner’s representative, responsible for overseeing the cargo and its sale. There were lots of very successful super cargos, so why not try it?

Larkin bought into the business with his own and borrowed money, which he felt would be worth the experience gained. The captain offered $20 monthly pay and 2 ½ % commission on all cargo sales. $20 in 1822 is $546 today. Not a lot of money, but if all goes well, the experience will make up for that? Let’s find out.

Well, his boss, Captain Chase, would regularly get drunk and verbally threaten the lives of his shipmates and the passengers, while pulling the trigger on his empty gun, as he screamed crazed, drunken sentences.

Larkin abandoned this voyage two months later and was never paid his $20 monthly salary or commission, lost his entire investment, and was now in debt. Larkin didn’t go to college, but he was studying at the school of hard knocks. At the age of 20, he had already lived a full life!

Larkin was not deterred by this setback, so he borrowed money again to open a merchant store with his friend, Thurston. If you recall, Thurston was one of the passengers on the ship voyage to North Carolina.

The two friends learned a lot about maintaining a merchant store, but the store only broke even, which is why they decided to end the business. “At the end of two years, we dissolved, with no profits, but considerable experience to go upon in the future." They ended on what Larkin thought were good terms, and in good shape, given the minimal debt each owed their debtors.

It's 1824, and 22-year-old Larkin, now with more experience and knowledge, opened another merchant store in Wilmington, North Carolina, this time with his 16 year old full brother, William. By now, Larkin understood the Southern customer and knew what to purchase from the North to sell in the South. And, the store did very well. 

But, just as things were going well, something silently and quickly changed for Larkin when he tried to borrow money from his regular creditors. He was repeatedly denied when he asked to borrow money. What happened? 

His Boston creditors had blacklisted him based on information they received, which based on what they said, Larkin suspected was information from Thurston. Larkin assured the creditors this information was false and challenged them to do their research. 

Meanwhile, Larkin confronted Thurston, and Thurston profusely denied being the source of the information and “pleaded his long love, the support we had been to each other, the service I had been to him, the favors I had granted.” 

But, as the saying goes, “The lady, or man, in this case, doth protest too much”. It turned out that Larkin’s suspicions were correct. Thurston was trying to ruin Larkin’s name with creditors. How do we know? One of the creditors told Larkin that yes, Thurston was telling people not to loan money to Larkin because he was undependable, along with other less favorable comments about Larkin as a person. 

After some investigation of their own, the creditors wrote to Larkin apologizing for refusing to loan him money based on false information. 

But, Thurston wasn’t done. Next, he attacked Larkin’s moral and ethical reputation with Larkin’s cousins and friends back home, who believed Thurston and wrote angry and disapproving letters to Larkin. The business claims were easy for Larkin to disprove, but receiving angry letters from family and friends was more painful and difficult to deal with. 

And, the hurt of wondering why someone he considered a friend would turn on him and try to ruin not just his livelihood, but also his character, left Larkin deeply wounded. Was Thurston jealous of Larkin’s success after closing their store? Was he just jealous of Larkin altogether? No one knows.

In 1824, Larkin finally made a trip back to his hometown of Charlestown, near Boston, after spending a year recuperating. “Amid Boston and her million houses, can there be one that waits my coming and whose eye will brighten when I come?” Unfortunately, his visit was very disappointing. His distant family and friends whom he remembered fondly and held dear in his heart and mind since leaving home at the age of 15 had no recollection of him, and that hit Larkin hard. He held his childhood memories and the associated people close to his heart all these years, but his home didn’t remember him. Not friends, not some family, not employers. He walked past family on the street, and they didn’t recognize him. He went to their homes to say hello, and people didn’t remember his name when they answered the door. 

A very broken Larkin knew, after this visit, he had no home. The people of his childhood didn’t remember him. He was clearly never thought about or mentioned. After his immediate family died (his mother, his father), he didn’t just ‘think’ was alone in this world. He was alone, except for his younger brother. At least he still had William. He was not close with his full sister.

“My presence will not enhance their pleasures, not my absence lessen it. An inward cry, exclaimed to be and think for yourself, on your own exertions and resources depend, be happy while you can, think not of others, only while with them. As the door shuts them from your sight, so shut them from your memory.” (Oh, that’s really sad. I have nothing to base on this one, but I wonder if Thurston’s smear campaign conveniently made people forget who Larkin was? That’s speculation on my part.)

In 1825, Thurston wasn’t done. Thurston visited Larkin’s immediate family in Massachusetts and continued the smear campaign. He told them of Larkin’s moral failings “by means of female conveyance” (that means employing women for …) and that Larkin was “not only ruined in business, but in both body and soul”. The offered proof was that Larkin liked to attend the theater, which he attended with Thurston, specifically to meet women. For context, the theater was associated with accommodating women. Oh, and that Larkin frequented gambling houses seven days a week. (Thurston sounds salty and Larkin sounds like he would do just fine in Mexico’s Alta California.) 

It's true, Larkin enjoyed his time in the South. He wrote about cigars, cards and wine, but in moderation, noting other people’s abuses. And, according to his own words, Larkin’s prime form of entertainment was women. I won’t relay the details, but Larkin knew women referred to him (and these are his own words), “…a lady’s man, who can have any of his choice”. But, Larkin liked a specific type of woman. One who was already spoken for because she had a boyfriend, or was married. Seriously. He said this about himself. 

One of his wilder stories is joining a wedding reception, uninvited, and dancing all night with the bride and even kissing her at the end of the celebration! 

It makes you wonder if some of Thurston’s accusations weren’t true. But that’s the thing about gaslighting. There is one kernel of truth among the lies. 

And then, Larkin’s health failed him. Larkin had an illness that came up when he was young, and carried on for the rest of his life. It might have been asthma. It might have been rheumatism. No one knows. Interestingly, Larkin wrote very little about his health issues, despite writing extensively about everything else. 

And then, another blow. Later that year, Larkin’s younger brother, William, died, and this devastated Larkin. He was very close to his younger brother. “If I never grieved before, I now did. Thought I had distress and drank from its dregs. At this time, I found I had never tasted of it before.”

Even three decades after William’s passing, Larkin paid to ensure his brother’s gravestone was tended to from the other side of the country. 

To add salt to the wound, a few days after burying his brother, Larkin received more angry letters from his step sister and other family members regarding his infamous behavior, according to Thurston. (Again, I have to wonder if people in his hometown pretended not to remember Larkin.)

It’s still 1825, and Larkin is 23. (Wow, he’s still pretty young.) He decided he needed a change. He intentionally moved to where he could keep to himself. A big change from how he lived before. So, he moved to Rockfish, North Carolina, bought a plantation, opened a merchant store, while he was Justice of the Peace, and held a post office position of some sort. This is my interpretation, but it seemed he kept himself too busy to feel anything.

His merchant store had some success, but for unknown reasons, he left the merchant business and started a sawmill business that failed spectacularly and left him in moderate debt. 

Larkin’s self-captured history goes mostly dark from 1826 - 1831. He didn’t write many letters or keep a journal, which was unusual for Larkin. But the few letters he wrote provide some insight. Most researchers believe Larkin fell into a depressed state during these years.

This next detail highlights the complexities of the time and place. Warning. Sometimes history ‘is’. You can choose to like it or dislike it, but it still ‘is’. And, I won’t rewrite or retell history because I like someone. 

Larkin’s views on slavery were well-documented in his previous journals. He noted how harshly some slaves were treated, while others were treated much better. In 1826 Larkin wrote, “Only slaves could live on a rice plantation, two feet deep in the mud and water and covered with every kind of insect whose stings would draw blood from every vein.”

After spending time in the south, Larkin felt “the north didn’t understand both sides of the issue,” but believed in his heart that slavery would eventually be abolished, and that “the North and South would someday come to daggers' end with each other”.

From Harlan Hague and David J Langum’s book, “Thomas O. Larkin A Life of Patriotism and Profit in Old California” wrote that Larkin, the Bostonian by birth, was neither a young southern apologist nor a New England abolitionist. Larkin understood the perceived (hm) economic necessity of slavery to the southern economy.

Remember that plantation he purchased? Based on a 1830 North Carolina census, Larkin was listed as the head of a household that consisted of two male slaves, over 36 and under 55, two female slaves over ten and under twenty-four, and two male slaves under the age of ten. 

Let’s summarize Larkin’s life until this point. He lost his father, his mother, and his brother. His ex friend and business partner spread rumors that almost ruined him financially and cost him family relationships. He has no home to return to. He felt broken and alone in this world. 

Now 29, Larkin saw himself as old with nothing to show for his years. Goodness knows he’s lived a full life. Two lives worth of experience if you ask me. He had a handful of failed businesses and moderate debt from them. He knew he couldn’t keep doing what he was doing. 

After considerable reflection, during his dark phase, he felt he had three less-than-ideal but self-preserving choices left in life, and he knew in which order the choices ranked. 

1.      Move to Boston and marry a distant cousin who could pay off his debt, which was $2,500 ($84,000 today). (That’s his transactional option that risks marrying for money and hoping he can learn to love her.)

2.      Get a Post Office job in Washing DC with his step-brother from his mother’s third marriage and settle down. (Stable option, also utilizing family connections. The risk here is again working for someone and having a manager, which is against his personality. But, he’s desperate.)

 3.      Move to Monterey, in Mexico’s Alta California where his half-brother, from his mother’s first marriage, lived. (This was the least desirable of his choices, and involved the most physical risk, and unknowns in what was considered the edge of the earth. The farthest west.)

Staying in North Carolina was killing his soul. There was nothing for him there, either emotionally or financially. 

Boston, his hometown only in name, felt empty, but maybe a rich distant cousin could pay his debt, and he could learn to settle down and be happy with one woman? Maybe a post office job was the way to go.

But, leaving the United States, considering how poorly he felt about Mexico, based on the east coast stereotypes about Mexico and Mexicans, was very low on his list. He didn’t know Spanish, he had no idea what life was like there, what he heard wasn’t pleasant and the travel to get there involved risk. Also, he had very little personal experience with his half-brother who moved to Alta California 10 years ago. 

Three different choices, each risks something different. Which option do you think Larkin initially pursues? Let that sink in for a month, because this is where I’m going to end this episode, which I will pick up in episode #2. 

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Thank you for listening. This is Monkey Block. Retelling forgotten stories from San Francisco’s golden past.