Thomas Fallon (1825–1885) an Irish-born Californian politician, best known for serving as 10th

Mayor of San Jose The Mayor of San Jose, officially the Mayor of the City of San José, is executive of the Government of the City of San Jose, California in the United States. The mayor presides over the San Jose City Council, which is composed of 11 voting ...

. Fallon remains a controversial figure in San Jose's history, owing to his role in the American

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

Fallon's family moved to Canada when he was a child. At age 18, he was in St. Louis and joined the third expedition of John C. Frémont 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 ...

. Early in 1846, Fallon stayed in Santa Cruz after Frémont visited the area. In June 1846, he raised a group of 22 Santa Cruz-area volunteers to join Fremont, appointing himself captain. When the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War, also known in the United States as the Mexican War and in Mexico as the (''United States intervention in Mexico''), was an armed conflict between the United States and Mexico from 1846 to 1848. It followed the ...

began in California with Commodore John D. Sloat's capture of Monterey on July 7, Fallon's force crossed the

Santa Cruz Mountains The Santa Cruz Mountains, part of the Pacific Coast Ranges, are a mountain range in central and Northern California, United States. They form a ridge down the San Francisco Peninsula, south of San Francisco. They separate the Pacific Ocean from ...

to capture the El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe (now the City of San José) without bloodshed, on July 11. On July 14, 1846 he received an

American Flag The national flag of the United States of America, often referred to as the ''American flag'' or the ''U.S. flag'', consists of thirteen equal horizontal stripes of red (top and bottom) alternating with white, with a blue rectangle in the ca ...

from Sloat, which he raised over the ''juzgado'' of San Jose, the pueblo's administrative building. Fallon's volunteers then joined Fremont's

California Battalion The California Battalion (also called the first California Volunteer Militia and U.S. Mounted Rifles) was formed during the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) in present-day California, United States. It was led by U.S. Army Brevet Lieutenant C ...

for the remainder of the war. After the war, Fallon returned briefly to San Jose, then back to Santa Cruz where he established a business as a saddler. At the beginning of the

California Gold Rush The California Gold Rush (1848–1855) was a gold rush that began on January 24, 1848, when gold was found by James W. Marshall at Sutter's Mill in Coloma, California. The news of gold brought approximately 300,000 people to California f ...

in 1848, Fallon took a cargo of iron picks made in Santa Cruz to sell to the gold miners. With his share of the profits, he built a combination residence/workshop/hotel on the Mission plaza in Santa Cruz (where the mission chapel replica stands now). In 1849, he married María del Carmen Cota (1827–1923), commonly called Carmelita, daughter of local landowner Martina Cota Castro (1807–1890) and her first husband Corporal Simon Cota, owners of

Rancho Soquel Rancho Soquel was a Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Cruz County, California given in 1833 by Governor José Figueroa to María Martina Castro y Amador. In 1844, Martina Castro was granted by Governor José Figueroa a further grant ...

. Carmel inherited one-tenth of Rancho Soquel, 3400 acres of land. In 1852, Fallon sold his plaza property to the County of Santa Cruz for use as a courthouse. Shortly thereafter, Thomas and Carmel moved their family to Texas. Following the death of their children, they returned to San Jose. In San Jose, Fallon began buying land in the area and built the Fallon House (1855) in

Downtown San Jose Downtown San Jose is the central business district of San Jose, California. Downtown is one of the largest tech clusters in Silicon Valley, as well as the cultural and political center of San Jose. History The town was first settled in 1777. T ...

. The house is preserved as a museum, across from the Peralta Adobe. In 1856, Fallon was elected to the San Jose Common Council. In 1857, he was elected to the city's Board of Trustees (which had replaced the Common Council) for one year. He was a council-elected Mayor of San Jose in 1859, and served a single one-year term. According to one account, in 1876 (after 26 years of marriage) Carmel found Thomas and the family maid in a compromising position, and filed for divorce. Carmel used the divorce settlement to build several hotels and other buildings, including the

Carmel Fallon Building The Fallon Building, also known as the Carmel Fallon Building, is a historic mixed-use building built in 1894 and located in the Castro District of San Francisco, California. It is the home of the San Francisco LGBT Center since 2002. The buildi ...

(1894) at 1800 Market Street in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...

, now part of the

San Francisco LGBT Community Center The San Francisco LGBT Community Center, also known as the SF LGBT Center, is a nonprofit organization serving the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer community of San Francisco, California, and nearby communities, located at 1800 Mark ...

. Thomas Fallon died in San Francisco in 1885.

Legacy

In the 1980s, San Jose Mayor

Tom McEnery Thomas Andrew McEnery (born September 23, 1945) is an American author, businessman, and teacher from San Jose, California, who served as the 61st mayor of that city from 1983 to 1991. McEnery attended Santa Clara University, graduating with a B. ...

had the city commission a statue of Fallon raising the U.S. flag in San Jose at a cost of over $800,000. The statue was completed in 1988, and was scheduled to be located in the City Park Plaza (now known as

Plaza de César Chávez The Plaza de César Chávez is an urban plaza and park in Downtown San Jose, California. The plaza's origins date to 1797 as the ''plaza mayor'' of the Alta California, Spanish ''Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe'', making it the oldest public sp ...

) near the site of the flag raising. However local groups, including Hispanic Americans, protested that Fallon represented American imperialism and repression of the Mexican population. The statue was stored until 2002, when it was finally displayed in Pellier Park northwest of the original proposed location, near Julian and St. James Streets. In 2020, such criticisms were revived in the aftermath to the

murder of George Floyd On , George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, was murdered in the U.S. city of Minneapolis by Derek Chauvin, a 44-year-old white police officer. Floyd had been arrested on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill. Chauvin knelt on Floyd's ...

and more specifically to the grand jury's decision over the

shooting of Breonna Taylor Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American woman, was fatally shot in her Louisville, Kentucky apartment on March 13, 2020, when at least seven police officers forced entry into the apartment as part of an investigation into drug dealing op ...

. On the day of the grand jury's decision and following evening, peaceful protests occurred in San Jose around the same area where the statue is located. However, some protesters surrounded the statue, vandalized it including with anti-police messages, and then set it on fire. San Jose mayor

Sam Liccardo Samuel Theodore Liccardo (born April 16, 1970) is an American attorney and politician from California and mayor of San José, California, a position he has held since January 1, 2015. A member of the Democratic Party, Liccardo was elected mayor ...

is already talking with historians and community leaders and residents on what to do with the statue.

References

External links

Peralta Adobe and Fallon House Historic Site in San Jose
Carmel Fallon Building in San Francisco {{DEFAULTSORT:Fallon, Thomas 1825 births 1885 deaths Mayors of San Jose, California Irish emigrants to the United States (before 1923) People of the California Gold Rush 19th-century American politicians