S4 Ep10 Part 3 Larkin Arrives in California

Larkin’s decision to move to Monterey, in Mexico’s California, was to work with his very successful half-brother, Bostonian John Rogers Cooper, who made his fortune in the sea otter trade that was transitioning to the hide and tallow trade. 

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Transcript

A Few Acknowledgements

‌Thank you, Michele in San Francisco, and Marnie in Monterey, for your contributions to the Monkey Block project! Both have been listeners for over two years and I’m happy to know they are still along for the ride. Thank you for your continued support. And Jules in Orange County! A regular contributor, indeed! Ellen in San Francisco sent a very kind email to Monkey Block’s Gmail account. She said she’s obsessed with my podcast! 

Knowing our effort is appreciated is encouragement to keep doing what I’m doing. So thank you, Michelle, Marnie, Jules and Ellen. 

Disclaimer

This episode features commentary and analysis mostly from Hague, H., and Langum, D. (1995). Thomas O. Larkin A Life of Patriotism and Profit in Old California. University of Oklahoma Press. 

And from the Master thesis by Virginia H. Baker Thomas Oliver Larkin, Pioneer Merchant of California, 1832 – 1846, 1959, University of Massachusetts Amherst 

And, there are other sources which I will mention as I go.

Used under the doctrine of fair use, 17 U.S.C., Section 107, for research and historical commentary. The cited sources are in my Buzzsprout transcript for further study. 

Are you ready? Here we go. 

Prologue

By the late 1820s, Boston ships were well known for commerce on the West Coast. (That translates to smuggling on the West coast as early as 1795 as part of the India, China, and Pacific Sea Otter trade.)

Visiting merchant/cargo ships from Boston were so common on the West Coast that Californios thought ‘Boston’ and the ‘United States’ were synonymous. And, I mention this because … 

Larkin’s decision to move to Monterey, in Mexico’s California, was to work with his very successful half-brother, Bostonian John Rogers Cooper, who made his fortune in the sea otter trade that was transitioning to the hide and tallow trade. 

<swoosh>

It’s 1831, on the East Coast, and Larkin’s failed North Carolina businesses haunted him, his reputation was soiled with potential business associates and creditors, as well as others. 

Robert J Parker’s 1936 “California Bound: Larkin in 1831”, said one of the main reasons Larkin was looking to leave the East Coast was because Larkin and his cousin, Ebenezer Childs, were not particularly cared for or respected by more than a few family members. 

Larkin was too free-spirited for his Protestant family and their New England sensibilities. He liked to drink, gamble, and visit the theatre, where he courted the scandalous theatre ladies. And, even more surprisingly, Larkin regularly pursued women who were already spoken for. Larkin you little trouble maker.

Larkin and his cousin were outcasts, which explains why they were so close, and also explains why John Rogers Cooper, Larkin’s half-brother, asked other family members to help him in Monterey, without ever asking Larkin or Childs. (In the last episode, I mentioned how strange I found that, but I believe this is the explanation.)

Larkin’s decision to leave the United States was not his first or second choice. It happened by virtue of his other options failing to materialize. 

Whatever he touched turned to ruble. Larkin understood (the failed aspects) of shipping as a supercargo, running two unsuccessful stores and merchandising, securing loans that he still owed, and dealing with creditors, running a disastrous sawmill that left him in considerable debt, and the difficult human relations aspects of having business partners. 

On the East Coast, Larkin was a small fish in a big pond, poor in money but rich in experience. 

Larkin’s cheeky personality and past disappointments, the very things he was running away from, would be of use in California and make him very popular with Californios. 

Sidenote, by 1831 Hawaii was shifting from its place as a stopping point between the ‘California and China’ trade route, to a stopping point on the ‘California to East Coast’ trade route. As a result, Californios changed their taste from Chinese to East Coast goods, such as furniture, sewing details, clothes, shoes, boots, belts, and handkerchiefs. 

Planning the Voyage

29 year old Larkin began planning his move to Mexico by May 1831. His dream of staying in Boston, with a farm, near his sister, and married to a rich cousin was gone, gone, gone. 

Much to Larkin’s displeasure, there weren’t many passenger ships leaving Boston for California, just several cargo ships (as part of the East Coast to Hawaii to California trade route). Being the only passenger on a cargo ship for seven months wasn’t Larkin’s idea of a good time. He hoped for a vessel with passengers and books to pass the time. And, he would have neither.

From the book “Thomas O. Larkin, A Life of Patriotism and Profit in Old California”, they detail the next part of Larkin’s journey. 

The ticket from Boston to Monterey cost $300 ($11,200 in today’s money). Larkin borrowed $150 in cash from his stepfather, and his half-brother, John Rogers Cooper, would pay the other $150 when he arrived in Monterey. 

Larkin’s stepfather and uncle each loaned Larkin $100 ($3,700 in today’s money), which is interesting considering Larkin’s stepfather did not care for Larkin, yet loaned him money to start over somewhere else. 

Oliver: I’m sure the stepfather knew he’d never see that money again.

Girlina: And, I’m sure he was paying to make a family headache go away.

Since this was a cargo ship, Larkin used $50 of more borrowed money from his uncle ($1,900 in today's money) to purchase cargo he planned to sell when he arrived in Hawaii for a layover. His cargo consisted of several boots, shoes, trousers, a barrel of rice, kegs of gun powder, one rifle, a small boat and a wagon harness. (That’s some bulky stuff.) 

Let’s add up the borrowed money, $300 + 200 + 50 = $550, or $20,500 in today’s money. And, that does not take into account his outstanding business debt.

September 2nd, Larkin received his passport, which described him as 29 years old, five feet seven inches tall, dark-complexioned, with dark eyes and black hair, and a scar on his right wrist and above his left knee. 

Without any other passengers to pass the time with, Larkin planned to study Spanish along the way. 

The Ship Newcastle Departs Boston

Three days later, on September 5th, 1831, Larkin sailed away for what he believed would be the last time he would see US soil. As the vessel sailed away from the Boston harbor, Larkin left his debt, his reputation, and his failed dreams and set sail for what would be an uneventful seven-month journey to the “jumping-off place of the world” as Larkin called California.

Larkin mostly stuck to his plan of learning Spanish, but there was one other passenger on the cargo ship. Mrs. Rachel Hobson Holmes, the wife of Captain John A.C. Holmes. Rachel was leaving Massachusetts to meet her husband, who, like Larkin’s half-brother, solely worked out of the West Coast as part of the trade business. 

Oliver: A married woman?

Girlina: Indeed.

A Stop in Hawaii

The Newcastle landed in Hilo Hawaii, in February 1832 and was docked for several weeks. I don’t know if there was a cosmic shift or a rare planetary alignment that day, but the ‘Larkin’ who stepped off that ship was someone new. 

Larkin sold his cargo in Hawaii for $373 ($13,900 in today’s money), making more than half of what he borrowed. But more importantly, he made business connections, reinventing himself as the new, more sophisticated and trustworthy businessman and salesman, Thomas Oliver Larkin from Boston. Despite being a small fish in a big pond back home, his short time in Hawaii convinced others he was capable of becoming a big fish. 

Alpheus Basil Thompson, of Yerba Buena’s Thompson’s Cove, was one of the people charmed by Larkin. Thompson wrote a letter to John Rogers Cooper regarding Larkin, on March 2, 1832, “We are much pleased with him here, and believe he will be of great service to you.”

John Toney also wrote to Cooper that he “recommends Mr. Larkin to your most implicit confidence and hope you will listen to his advice.” (Okay.)

And, another prominent trader wrote to Cooper, “Larkin’s capability is well known. I have no doubt he will be of much service to you.”

Wow. Larkin left North Carolina and Boston bankrupt and in debt... I have no idea what he said or how many drinks he bought, but he knocked it out of the park in Hawaii. I’m guessing he exhibited deft negotiation skills when selling his cargo in Hawaii…? That’s speculation on my part.

On To Monterey

The Newcastle made a quick stop in the District of San Francisco, as it was called in 1832. There is erroneous information in one book about Larkin that says Larkin stayed in the Pueblo de Yerba Buena. But in 1832 only a failed potato patch lived there until 1835, when the pueblo was established. The reality is that Larkin likely saw the San Francisco Presidio or maybe the Mission. Also, before the discovery of the Larkin Letters, in the late 1950s, history believed Larkin arrived in California in 1833. But, neither of those things is true. Larkin did not stay in the Pueblo de Yerba Buena and he did not arrive in California in 1833. 

From Virgina Baker’s thesis, and based on the Larkin Letters, when the Newcastle, arrived in Monterey, on April 13, 1832, you could count all the New Englanders living in Monterey on both hands without using all your fingers; Alpheus Basil Thomspon, Abel Stearns, John Temple, Nathan Spear, Henry Fithch, Alfred Robinson, and John Rogers Cooper. All. Men.

Larkin’s Life in Monterey with Captain Cooper

Quickly, Larkin became known as “Yanqui el Bostono” or “Señor Larquin” and started helping his half-brother with the accounting and, more importantly, paying outstanding bills. Aside from statements made by a few authors, it’s thought that the two brothers didn’t get along. The proof was that one year later, Larkin opened his own store. I’m not convinced that’s the smoking gun that proves they didn’t get along. That’s someone else’s speculation, which I’m not sure I buy. But, I’ll get into that later.

The Other Passenger

I’ve spent a lot of time talking about Larkin, but there was that other passenger on the ship. Rachel Hobson Holmes.

Oliver: The married woman?

Girlina: Indeed. 

Upon arrival in Monterey, Mrs. Holmes was informed that her husband would not be there for her arrival, as he was believed to be delayed conducting business in Peru. The idea was for her husband to meet her in Monterey and take her to Santa Barbara, where he lived. But that wasn’t going to happen right away.

There were no hotels in Monterey, and Rachel needed a place to stay while she waited for her husband. So, John Rogers Cooper allowed Rachel to stay at his Monterey home, with his wife and children, and his newly arrived half-brother, Thomas Larkin. In that moment, Rachel Hobson Holmes became the first female US citizen to live in California. 

The Unexpected News

The dates are fuzzy here, so I’ll do my best to tell this next part of the story. 

What Rachel didn’t know when she arrived in April, was that she would wait for her husband maybe one, two, or three months, before discovering he died on March 8th, 1832, the month before her arrival in Monterey. While sailing from Acapulco to South America, her husband died of a fever and left her money. 

Oliver: A married woman who just inherited money? 

Girlina: Larkin’s famous words, “All love and no capital will never do for me”. 

There were whispered rumors regarding the relationship between Larkin and Rachel from the day they landed. To the outsider, it seemed chivalrous. A woman needed a place to stay as she waited for her husband, so she stayed with the family of a friend she met on the voyage. 

After learning she had become a widow, at some point in that three-month window, Rachel moved to Santa Barbara, leaving Larkin in Monterey.

Oliver: Dear Listeners, do we think this is the end of their friendship?! 

Rachel stayed in Santa Barbara for a little over a year. And, Larkin must have stayed in contact, because … the American Protestant couple married 14 months later, on June 10th, 1833, on an American ship anchored outside of Santa Barbara. 

Why Santa Barbara? That’s where Rachel lived. And, why on a ship? Because non-Mexican citizens and non Catholics couldn’t legally marry in Mexico. So, this American ship, anchored outside of Santa Barbara, offered a way to have a Protestant marriage by an American consul to Hawaii. 

The only problem, as they discovered two decades later, was that their marriage was not legally recognized because a consul cannot marry people. So, they would have to remarry twenty years later for legal purposes. 

The First Child

The married couple stayed in Santa Barbara for about six months before permanently relocating to Monterey to start their life together. 

About one year after their first ‘marriage’, and literally two years to the date, of arriving in Monterey, on April 13th, 1834, Rachel gave birth to Thomas Oliver Larkin Junior, the first foreign child born in Mexico’s California, with both parents being non-Mexican citizens. 

The Rumor

Regarding the nature of Larkin and Rachel’s early relationship, whispers continued for over 130 years. No one officially researched it, until... 

In 1960, as part of writing his book, John A. Hawgood, author of “First and Last Consul: Thomas O Larkin and the Americanization of California”, met with Thomas Larkin’s granddaughter, Mrs. Alice Larkin Toulmin, for tea at the Palace Hotel. In this conversation, Toulmin wanted to settle the rumor about her grandfather and grandmother and asked Hawgood to research the long-standing rumor. So it was with her permission that he did just that. 

They met, three years later, in 1963, at the Palace Hotel again, along with her cousin, Francis Molera, the granddaughter of John Rogers Cooper, to reveal his findings.

He researched the records at the Santa Barbara Mission, which is interesting considering both parents were Protestant and United States citizens. He found the Mission register held a baptism record for a child born out of wedlock to Thomas Larkin and Rachel Hobson Holmes, “little Isobel” who was born January 31st, 1833. (Isobel was a misspelling of Isabel.) He also found Isabel’s burial certificate, #308 at the Mission. Baby Isabel only lived five months. This might explain why they stayed in Santa Barbara after their marriage.

Mapping the Dates

This changes the original Larkin story as we understood it and rewrites some of California’s historical firsts. After landing in Monterey, Rachel either week one, or week two of her arrival, and became pregnant. What I don’t know is if she knew about her husband’s death month one, two or three into her pregnancy. 

She relocated to Santa Barbara to carry out her pregnancy away from Larkin and the eyes of other Montereynos. 

Did she move to Santa Barbara knowingly pregnant and believing she had a husband to explain her condition to. Or, maybe a pregnant Rachel moved to Santa Barbara knowing her husband had died. 

If Rachel gave birth January 31st, 1833, that means she was pregnant mid to late April 1832. Did their romance start on the ship? Or when they landed in Monterey? Who knows? But, for sure Rachel was pregnant and thought her husband was coming for her at some point in her first three months in California. 

Larkin, Larkin, Larkin…

Oliver: Can you imagine the conversations in that household? 

John Rogers Cooper was now a Mexican citizen and a Catholic, going by Juan Baustica Rogers Cooper. After receiving the two guests in his home, he finds himself in the middle of a situationship. 

“And how, pray tell, will you explain this to your husband, Rachel?” 

And, “Nicely executed, Larkin. Impressive. No wonder the family spoke of you in such terms.” 

I made that up, but I’m willing to bet there was some amount of discussion around it.

While Larkin’s stepfather was willing to pay to make a family headache go away, think of the regret Cooper must have instantly felt when he realized the baggage his half-brother came with. 

But, think of Rache’s relief, being two or three months pregnant, and discovering her husband had died. I mean, that’s terrible … But, oh thank goodness! Now she didn’t have to face her husband and explain the pregnancy. 

And, imagine Larkin’s joy when he realized the woman he impregnated had inherited between $3 – 4,000 (that’s $115,000 – 150,000)! I’m telling you, the stars rearranged in Larkin’s favor.

“All love and no capital will never do for me.”

Not as joyous for either Larkin or Rachel, baby Isabel died one month after her parents married, and that marriage may have been for the sake of their dying daughter, to ensure her parents were married before her death. So, Isabel died July 1833.

One More Fact

While that is an interesting side story, until 1963, Thomas Larkin Junior, born in 1834, was credited with being the first Native child of Alta California with two foreign parents. But, based on Hawgood’s discovery in 1963, California history was updated to acknowledge Isabel as the first child with that distinction. Larkin Junior was the first male. And the first to survive infancy. However, the distinction of being the first native child born to foreign parents in Mexico’s California is still retained in the Larkin family, either with little Isabel or with Larkin Junior.

And let’s be honest. The reason Larkin was able to open a store one year after arriving in California, and building quite the two story house in Monterey, was directly because he married a woman who had inherited money, and not only because he didn’t get along with his brother. Both things could be true, but for certain we know Rachel’s inheritance made the large house and store possible.

Also, Larkin family’s claim to Rachel Hobsin Holmes being the first female Yanqui to live in Mexico’s California still stands. 

Oliver: That would have been true regardless of whom Rachel was married to. 

The Larkin’s would go on to have eight children. Five survived into adulthood. (I don’t know if Isable is counted in that eight.) Larkin, from what I can tell, became a devoted father and husband and nary another rumor about his younger ways.

Based on how society once worked, it’s not a coincidence that the rumor was left out of the early writings about Thomas Larkin. It was improper to capture less holy parts of people’s past for three generations after the person’s death. Then, the dirt could be released. And, that’s what happened in this case. 

The Epilogue

I’m surprised by the pre-California life of Thomas Larkin captured in my last three episodes, versus the California Larkin who appeared several times in my podcast. Larkin was a dominant character in Season 2 Episode 5 The Accidental Annexation, where he helped smooth over a very delicate mistake the United States made. With the Freemon Affair Season 2 Episode 11 where he calmed the Mexican governor over Freemont’s bold acts of defiance, and Episode 9 with his direct involvement with the Bear Flag Revolt. He’s in almost every episode of Season 2. Episode 2, 5 ,8, 9, 11, 12 and 13. Basically, Season 2 if you want to go back and listen.

Larkin, the young man, before California, was a different man from the man I became familiar with regarding California history. The extent to which he reinvented himself in that seven-month journey to California was amazing, and I didn’t expect his backstory to be what it was. 

Oliver: I’m sure becoming a father and a husband helped.

That’s fair, but the change started before that. 

Larkin arrived on borrowed money and with limited education. He never became a Mexican citizen or married into California wealth, like his half-brother, and so many foreign men, as an easy path to success in Mexico. Granted, getting Rachel pregnant helped determine some of that. But the couple took the more difficult road on this one by never giving up their US citizenship to become Mexican citizens, which would have made land ownership a lot easier. (You couldn’t have dual citizenship then.)

29 year old Larkin hated the idea of learning Spanish and forgetting English. And living among Mexicans in Mexico. He set out to marry a wealthy person and become a successful businessman. He slipped on a banana peel and achieved so much more than that. 

Larkin became a wealthy landowner, businessman, crisis negotiator in more than one U.S. diplomatic mishap with Mexico, an American Consul, a U.S. secret agent, and can be credited, more than John Charles Freemont, as the reason the United States was interested in purchasing California.

Paul W. Gates, from “The Land Business of Thomas O Larkin” sums up Larkin’s life.

“He arrived in California in 1832 with less education and fewer resources than most of the others, neither gave up his American citizenship nor married into the local aristocracy, yet was to have the greatest impact of all the men upon the growing center of Americanism on the coast.”

Larkin’s California story is well documented and captured in Season 2 of my podcast, but he goes on to achieve phenomenal wealth during the gold rush and moves to San Francisco, in 1848, with his wife and children. He started several businesses: a shipping, banking, real estate and an importing business in San Francisco. 

I encourage you to continue your research, maybe visit the well-preserved Larkin House and store in Old Monterey, and the Custom House, where his legacy looms large, and appreciate Larkin as the full person, you now understand him to be. The Custom House is where the Accidental Annexation took place, if you look for the flag pole.

Humans are complex, with early chapters that might surprise you, proving a person’s past is not indicative of who they may become, and you would never guess their history based on what you know of them today. 

Larkin arrived in California at the right time, with the right experience and attitude, and successfully walked away from his cheeky lifestyle on the East Coast. Cheers to reinventing yourself. Arriving in California in debt and out of options, he died in San Francisco as the richest, or the second richest man, in California (at least based on asset value). The thrill loving young man who once couldn’t make a venture succeed on the East Coast, died as a huge success in San Francisco.

Thomas Larkin, you capture the essence of what it means to be one of San Francisco’s beautiful dreamers. May you rest in peace at Cypress Lawn in Colma, California, with your wife, Rachel. The two of you had quite a relationship and story! 

If you enjoyed this series on Larkin, you can support the Monkey Block project by writing a positive review. Or, you can contribute by making a one-time donation or becoming a monthly contributor at www.buymeacoffee.com/monkeyblocksf. 

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You can find my transcript and cited sources at https://monkeyblocksf.buzzsprout.com. Or stay up to date on https://www.facebook.com/MonkeyBlockSF/.

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

Gates, Paul W. “The Land Business of Thomas O. Larkin.” California Historical Quarterly 54, no. 4 (1975): 323–44. https://doi.org/10.2307/25157594.

“First and Last Consul Thomas Oliver Larkin and the Americanization of California, A Selection of Letters edited by John A. Hawgood” second edition, 1970

Hague, H., and Langum, D. (1995). Thomas O. Larkin A Life of Patriotism and Profit in Old California. University of Oklahoma Press. 

"The Jumping off Place of the World": California and the Transformation of Thomas O. Larkin Author(s): Harlan Hague Source: California History, Winter, 1991/1992, Vol. 70, No. 4 (Winter, 1991/1992), pp. 352-365  Published by: University of California Press in association with the California Historical Society Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/25158589 

Master thesis by Virginia H. Baker Thomas Oliver Larkin, Pioneer Merchant of California, 1832 – 1846, 1959, University of Massachusetts Amherst 

Internet Archive The Larkin Papers

https://archive.org/details/larkenpapersforh0002lark/page/8/mode/2up?view=theater

JSTOR Building the Larkin House

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25160738

Parker, Robert J. “California Bound: Larkin in 1831.” Pacific Historical Review, vol. 7, no. 4, 1938, pp. 363–70. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/3633985. 

Parker, Robert J., and Thomas Oliver Larkin. “Thomas Oliver Larkin in 1831: A Letter from North Carolina.” California Historical Society Quarterly, vol. 16, no. 3, 1937, pp. 263–70. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/25160727.

And First and Last Consul Thomas Oliver Larkin and the Americanization of California – A Selection of Letters’ edited by John A. Hawgood, Pacific Books, Publishers, Palo Alto, California 1970.