Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Forster, John
- Abstract:
- John Forster was an Englishman who moved to Los Angeles in the 1830s, and become a Mexican citizen with substantial property. This manuscript contains reminiscences of his experiences in California, with an emphasis on the battles between American and Californio forces in Southern California during the Mexican War. Dictated to Thomas Savage.
- Extent:
- 0.5 linear feet (1 box)
- Language:
- Materials are in English.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], John Forster Pioneer data from 1832 (Collection 170/078). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
At the end of the 19th century, Hubert Bancroft and his close associates engaged in an oral history project to record the experiences of Californios who had inhabited California prior to the American annexation. As part of this project, Thomas Savage interviewed John Forster at his home in San Juan Capistrano in early 1878. After an explanatory note by Savage, Forster's dictation begins with a short description of his early life in England and Mexico. He then describes the political scene in Los Angeles in the 1830s, and the activities of contemporaries such as Manuel Micheltorena, Pio Pico, Juan Bautista Alvarado, Jose Castro, and Carlos Antonio Carrillo. Then, the content shifts almost entirely to the skirmishes between American and Mexican forces during the Mexican War, 1846-1848. Forster describes the battles of Los Angeles, San Diego, San Pascual, Rancho Dominguez, and Chino. The interview ends abruptly with the Treaty of Cahuenga and the surrender of Pio Pico.
- Biographical / historical:
-
Born in 1815, in Liverpool, England, John Forster grew up to become one of the largest landowners in all of California. At the age of 17, Forster was working for his uncle, James Johnson, in Guaymas, Mexico. He became the captain of one of his uncle's ships, and in 1836, became a Mexican citizen. Forster moved to Los Angeles, where he worked as a shipping agent at San Pedro. He was also Captain of the Port of San Pedro. In 1837 he married Dona Ysidora Pico, sister of Pio Pico, governor of California.
Forster began acquiring land in the 1840s. Governor Pico granted him the lands of Rancho Trabuco and Rancho Mission Viejo, in addition to his holdings of Rancho San Felipe and Rancho de la Nacion, in what is now San Diego County. In 1844 Forster purchased the old Mission San Juan Capistrano for $710, where he made his home until Mission was given back to the Catholic Church in 1864.
In 1846 the United States and Mexico were at war, and Governor Pico fled to Mexico, leaving Forster in charge of Pico's rancho, Santa Margarita y las Flores (the area which is now Camp Pendleton). On his return to California, Pico borrowed large sums of money from Forster to cover his gambling debts. In 1864 Forster offered to pay $14,000 and assume all of Pico's debts, in return for the deed to Rancho Santa Margarita y las Flores. The Picos agreed and Forster became the largest landowner in California, eventually holding over 200,000 acres. Forster's capital was drained through subsequent efforts to fence his estates, attract settlers, and maintain his livestock through a severe drought. When Forster died in 1882, his estate was in shambles, and his sons were forced to sell the properties.
- Acquisition information:
- Ex libris Joseph Gregg Layne.
- Processing information:
-
Processed by Citlali Sosa-Riddell, with assistance from Laurel McPhee, in the Center For Primary Research and Training (CFPRT).
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides a standard level of preservation and access for all collections and, when time and resources permit, conducts more intensive processing. These materials have been arranged and described according to national and local standards and best practices.
We are committed to providing ethical, inclusive, and anti-racist description of the materials we steward, and to remediating existing description of our materials that contains language that may be offensive or cause harm. We invite you to submit feedback about how our collections are described, and how they could be described more accurately, by filling out the form located on our website: Report Problematic Content and Description in UCLA's library collections and archives.
- Physical location:
- Stored off-site. All requests to access special collections material must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Physical description:
- 39 leaves : paper, 2 ports. ; 23 x 17 cm. Layout: Average of 38 lines per page. Script: Typescript. Binding: Brown quarter cloth binding with leather spine; spine stamped in gilt.
- Rules or conventions:
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Indexed terms
- Subjects:
- Manuscripts.
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
- Terms of access:
-
Property rights to the objects belong to UCLA Library Special Collections. All other rights, including copyright, are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC Regents do not hold the copyright.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], John Forster Pioneer data from 1832 (Collection 170/078). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, University of California, Los Angeles.
- Location of this collection:
-
A1713 Charles E. Young Research LibraryBox 951575Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575, US
- Contact:
- (310) 825-4988