Alfred Robinson (1806–1895), later known in Spanish as Don Alfredo Robinson,Historical Society of Southern California and Pioneer Register, Los Angeles Vol. 4, No. 3 (1899)
/ref> was a Californian author and businessman. Born in

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

, Robinson immigrated to

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

(then a part of Mexico) in 1829, to work in the

California hide trade The California hide trade was a trading system of various products based in cities along the California coastline, operating from the early 1820s to the mid-1840s. In exchange for hides and tallow from cattle owned by California ranchers, sailors ...

. He published ''Life in California'' in 1846, an influential early description of Californian society prior to the U.S.

Conquest of California The Conquest of California, also known as the Conquest of Alta California or the California Campaign, was an important military campaign of the Mexican–American War carried out by the United States in Alta California (modern-day California), t ...

Biography

Alfred Robinson sailed to Alta California in 1829 in the employ of Bryant, Sturgis and Company, a Boston-based firm in the California hide and tallow trade. He married Anita de la Guerra de Noriega y Carrillo, of the locally prominent Guerra family of Santa Barbara. The marriage party is described by

Richard Henry Dana, Jr. Richard Henry Dana Jr. (August 1, 1815 – January 6, 1882) was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of a colonial family, who gained renown as the author of the classic American memoir ''Two Years Before the Mast''. ...

, in "

Two Years Before the Mast ''Two Years Before the Mast'' is a memoir by the American author Richard Henry Dana Jr., published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage from Boston to California on a merchant ship starting in 1834. A film adaptation under the ...

". After the

Mexican Cession The Mexican Cession ( es, Cesión mexicana) is the region in the modern-day southwestern United States that Mexico originally controlled, then ceded to the United States in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848 after the Mexican–American W ...

, and California was annexed by the U.S. in 1848 and became a state in 1850, Robinson worked for the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, and as a land manager during the 1850s through the 1880s.

Robinson Trust

In 1868 he formed the Robinson Trust with Abel Stearns, the most important land owner in Southern California in

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the List of the most populous counties in the United States, most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, ...

. The real estate sales partnership included four San Francisco investors;

Samuel Brannan Samuel Brannan (March 2, 1819 – May 5, 1889) was an American settler, businessman, journalist, and prominent Mormon who founded the '' California Star'', the first newspaper in San Francisco, California. He is considered the first to public ...

, E. F. Northam, Charles B. Polhemus, Edward Martin. The era of the large cattle ranchos was on the way out. In its place came agriculture, as ranchos were broken up and generally sold in farms and ranches. The Trust acted as sales agents for the subdivisions. In order to gain maximum coverage for their campaign, they linked themselves to the 'California Immigrant Union' and helped guide that organization’s sales pitches. Alfred Robinson died in San Francisco in 1895.

Californios and California Mission Indians

Book

In 1846, Alfred Robinson published ''Life in California'', a comparatively sympathetic portrait of the lifeways and

Californios Californio (plural Californios) is a term used to designate a Hispanic Californian, especially those descended from Spanish and Mexican settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries. California's Spanish-speaking community has resided there sinc ...

political vicissitudes of the region under the

Mexican Republic Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatem ...

. The book subsequently went through several reprintings. Equally important with Robinson's own descriptions was the fact that he appended to it a lengthy

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject ...

description of the Juaneño - ''Acagchemem'' Native American

Mission Indians Mission Indians are the indigenous peoples of California who lived in Southern California and were forcibly relocated from their traditional dwellings, villages, and homelands to live and work at 15 Franciscan missions in Southern California an ...

, and

Chinigchinix Chingichngish (also spelled ''Chengiichngech'', ''Chinigchinix, Chinigchinich, Changitchnish'', etc.), also known as Quaoar (also ''Qua-o-ar'', ''Kwawar'', etc.) and by other names including ''Ouiamot'', ''Tobet'' and ''Saor'', is an important m ...

, at

Mission San Juan Capistrano Mission San Juan Capistrano ( es, Misión San Juan Capistrano) is a Spanish mission in San Juan Capistrano, Orange County, California. Founded November 1, 1776 in colonial ''Las Californias'' by Spanish Catholic missionaries of the Franciscan ...

written in the 1820s by the

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

missionary Jerónimo Boscana.

External links

San Diego Historical Society: biographical sketch of Alfred RobinsonGuide to the Alfred Robinson Papers, 1839-1858
at

The Bancroft Library The Bancroft Library in the center of the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is the university's primary special-collections library. It was acquired from its founder, Hubert Howe Bancroft, in 1905, with the proviso that it retai ...

References

Sources * Ogden, Adele. 1944. "Alfred Robinson, New England Merchant in Mexican California". ''California Historical Society Quarterly'' 23:193-218. * Robinson, Alfred. 1846.
Life in California during a Residence of Several Years in that Territory
'. Free Google ebook. Citations {{DEFAULTSORT:Robinson, Alfred 19th-century American historians 19th-century American male writers Historians of Native Americans California pioneers Businesspeople from California Land owners from California 1806 births 1895 deaths California Mission Indians Native American history of California American emigrants to Mexico Foreign residents of Mexican California History of Los Angeles County, California 19th-century American businesspeople American male non-fiction writers