Title: Helen P. Long Collection

Creator: Long, Helen P.

Extent: Number of containers: 23 boxes

Repository: The Huntington Library

Language: English.

Collection is open to qualified researches by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information please go to following URL. 

In order to quote from, publish, or reproduce any of the manuscripts or visual materials, researchers must obtain formal permission from the office of the Library Director. In most instances, permission is given by the Huntington as owner of the physical property rights only, and researchers must also obtain permission from the holder of the literary rights In some instances, the Huntington owns the literary rights, as well as the physical property rights. Researchers may contact the appropriate curator for further information.

[Identification of item], Helen P. Long Collection, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

The collection consists mainly of the original correspondence (1839-1869) to and from José Matías Moreno, with the bulk of it coming in the 1850s and 1860s when Moreno was an important agent, merchant, and political figure in San Diego and Baja California. There is also some later material dealing with the subsequent history of his Rancho Guadalupe in northern Baja California.

José Matías Moreno was born about 1818 in Baja California, the son of a Scottish whaler and a Mexican mother. As a youth he participated in various revolutionary movements, and eventually became the secretary to Governor Pio Pico in Alta California in 1845. A strong supporter of Mexico all his life, he fled to Baja California with Pico in 1846 in the face of American forces to continue the fight there against the U.S. After the war he came to San Diego, where he married the natural daughter of Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, thereby becoming related to many of the major californio families. He was vocal in his opposition to the californios who had backed the U.S. in the war, and defended the interests of his fellow Hispanics in their dealings with American Anglo businessmen. At the same time he acted as an agent, promoting the development of Baja California and soliciting American capital. He was also long active in Mexican internal politics in Baja and served in 1861-1862 as political chief of the border region of the territory for the Mexican government. His frequent extended absences from home resulted in an extensive correspondence (c.80 letters) with his wife which lasted throughout their marriage until his death in 1869.

Subject matter: history of San Diego County and northern Baja California; politics in Baja California and American economic and political influence there; filibustering; ranchos and land sales; commerce and shipping along the California coast; mining; social and domestic history of the californios; Rancho Guadalupe

Significant persons: J.B. Alvarado; Henry S. Burton; María Amparo Ruiz de Burton; José Castro; A.F. Coronel; Cave Johnson Couts; Feliciano Ruiz de Esparza; John Forster; Felix Gilbert; Benjamin Hayes; Benito Juarez; Joseph Yves Limantour; Juan Mendoza; Jacques Antoine Moerenhaut; José Matías Moreno; Augustín Olvera; Andrés Pico; Pio Pico; Teodoro Riveroll; William S. Rosecrans; Ignacio del Valle; Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo; Edward Vischer; Bernardo Yorba; numerous members of the Estudillo, López, Machado, Moreno, and Pedrorena families.