Ceaseless Propaganda

One of California's most ardent supporters against Mexican rule was a Harvard graduate and self proclaimed doctor named John Marsh.  Marsh arrived from Missouri and became successful in Los Angeles before buying a large tract of land in the San Joaquin Valley in the 1830s. (see his house in left photo!) He believed that American migration would increase the value of his property so much that he began a campaign to convince his friends in Independence about the perfect life in California.

The town's newspapers picked up the story and began to tell of how California was the life for any farmer tired of low prices and high debts.  According to the Marsh's stories, no man need to stoop to manual labor out in California when the Indians could do it for little or no pay.  He wrote, "the only thing we lack here is a good Government.  What we want most is more people.  If we had 50 families we could do exactly as we please without any fear of being troubled."  (California was still under Mexican rule.)

Marsh's propaganda about the "good life" in California was supplemented by sailor and writer Richard Henry Dana, by explorers Joseph Walker, Jed Smith, and James Ohio Pattie.  By 1814 these men had turned a tiny group of traders and merchants into a steady overland migration of farm families from Missouri to California.

By 1842 Monterey, for example, was a small but prosperous shipping center for American hide buyers. Richard Dana called Monterey, "the  most civilized  looking place in California" in 1840.
Some of that original "civilization" stood well into the 20th century...California's first theater, American consul's house, court house, and the royal presidio chapel (which is still standing and the only presidio chapel still in existence in California).

Next time...Ranch life in California
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Today in Pioneer History:  "On November 28, 1520, after sailing through the dangerous straits below South America that now bear his name, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan enters the Pacific Ocean with three ships, becoming the first European explorer to reach the Pacific from the Atlantic