José de Jesús Noé (1805 – 17 March 1862) was a

Californio Californios (singular Californio) are Californians of Spaniards, Spanish descent, especially those descended from settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries before California was annexed by the United States. California's Spanish language in C ...

politician, soldier, and ranchero, who served as the 7th and 12th Alcalde of San Francisco. He is the last Hispanic Californian (Californio) to serve as Mayor of

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

Life

In 1845, Noé was granted the land known as Rancho San Miguel, which covered the neighborhoods now known as

Noe Valley Noe Valley ( ; originally spelt Noé) is a neighborhood in the central part of San Francisco, California. It is named for Don José de Jesús Noé, noted 19th-century Californio statesman and ranchero, who owned much of the area and served as A ...

, Eureka Valley, Fairmont Heights, Glen Park and Sunnyside. Following U.S. military occupation of Yerba Buena in the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

, Noé became alcalde again in 1846, becoming the last man born in the Viceroyalty of New Spain to serve in that office (the office of alcalde was abolished with adoption of the

California Constitution The Constitution of California () is the primary organizing law for the U.S. state of California, describing the duties, powers, structures and functions of the government of California. California's constitution was drafted in both English ...

in 1849). Noé was appointed alcalde by U.S. Navy Commodore

Robert F. Stockton Robert Field Stockton (August 20, 1795 – October 7, 1866) was a United States Navy commodore, notable in the capture of California during the Mexican–American War. He was a naval innovator and an early advocate for a propeller-driven, steam- ...

, under his authority as military governor of the occupied territory. Also appointed alcalde, and serving concurrently with Noé, was Navy Lt. Washington Allon Bartlett. As a military officer, Bartlett was a direct representative of the military governor, functionally similar to the office of

prefect Prefect (from the Latin ''praefectus'', substantive adjectival form of ''praeficere'': "put in front", meaning in charge) is a magisterial title of varying definition, but essentially refers to the leader of an administrative area. A prefect' ...

in the Mexican system. One of the last acts of the Noé/Bartlett year was to rename Yerba Buena to its current name, San Francisco.Grivas, p.92–93 Following his death in 1862, Noé was interred at

Mission San Francisco de Asís The Mission San Francisco de Asís (), also known as Mission Dolores, is a historic Catholic Church, Catholic church complex in San Francisco, San Francisco, California. Operated by the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the complex was founded in ...

Notes

References

* Theodore Grivas (1963). ''Military governments in California, 1846-1850; with a chapter on their prior use in Louisiana, Florida, and New Mexico''. Glendale, Calif: A.H. Clark Co. * Mayors of San Francisco 1805 births 1862 deaths People of Alta California 19th-century mayors of places in California {{California-mayor-stub