By James E. Lessenger, MD
Research Historian, Museum of History Benicia
While sorting newly donated items to the museum, volunteers came across the recollections of William I. Tustin (1820 -1897), Benicia’s first resident. It is a copy of a handwritten 1880 document in the Bancroft Library at UC Berkeley.
It is a snapshot of the founding of Benicia. Tustin wrote:
In the spring or forepart of the summer of 1847 I left and went down to Sonoma. While camping there I heard that they were laying out a town on the Strait of Carquinez so concluded to drive over there which I did. When I arrived O’Farrell and his surveying party were just leaving. The first arrival was Dr. Semple, the founder of the town. I concluded to stay. I picked out some lots, making arrangements with the Dr. for their payment, and commenced to build a house, the first one ever erected in Benicia. It was an adobe house and is now standing. That was in 1847. The dimensions were forty feet long and twenty wide, it had two rooms, was one story high and had four windows, two in each room, half of the house was shingled, and the other half thatched with tules, it had a fireplace in one room.
The second house in Benicia was built for Dr. Semple by a man named Henry Crouch. It was a frame house.
The third house was built by a man named William MacDonald, an Englishman, it was an adobe house, similar to mine. Von Pfister rented it for a store, it is standing now.
The fourth house was built by Stephen Cooper. It was an adobe and was called the Californian Hotel. It is now known by the name of the Benicia Brewery.
The first ferry boat for crossing the Straits of Carquines was a common scow. It was built for Dr. Semple by a man named Charles Heath, it was built up the valley where Napa City how stands. The next boat was also a scow, sloop rigged, it was built at Benicia. I do not recollect by whom, but I think it was the first sailing boat on the bay. The bowsprit tapered a long way out and was painted green and a large bullock’s horn stuck on and the boat named “Green horn.” E. M. Von Pfister chartered this boat in 1848 to take his goods up to Sacramento. He paid an immense price for the charter. Von Pfister came to Benicia from the Sandwich Islands. He opened a store; he is living now, and you will find him a most agreeable and communicative gentleman.
Stephen Cooper, called Major Cooper, came to Carquinez in the fall of 1847. Nathan Barber also settled in the same year and Russel Barber, brother to the former. Lundy Alford, father-in-law to Barber settled in the same year Stephen Cooper was appointed Alcalde in 1848, I think.
The first child born in Benicia was a girl named Amelia, daughter of Nathan Barber, she is dead now.
Mrs. Roberts was the first person buried in Benicia. I hauled her to the grave with an ox team.
Benicia received its name from General Vallejo’s wife, it was first called San Francisca. I built and erected the first windmill in the State in Benicia, it supplied the town with water, it was in fact the first waterworks in the State. It was erected in the summer of 1849.
Commentary:
The Sandwich Islands was the 19th Century name for Hawaii.
Tustin became a renowned designer and manufacturer of highly efficient windmills. The early history of Benicia can be traced in a series of documents from the 1847 to 1849 Register that is now in the Museum of History Benicia and can be studied on its website. Thanks to the foresight of Benicia citizens, the von Pfister adobe still stands, although it is in bad condition. It is, however, protected from the elements. It was in that adobe that news of the discovery of gold in 1848 leaked out to the public.
The ledger index shows two transactions to Tustin from Thomas Larkin: Page 377 for lot 12, block 58 for $500, on an unknown date, and a second for the same lot on page 390 on September 9, 1849, also for $500. The Robert Semple sale to Tustin is on page 376 for two lots: Block 20, lots 13 and 9 on October 7, 1847, for $16 each. The fact that Semple, like most land developers, used investor money to finance his new city complicated the real estate transactions. There were four investors, Semple, Bethuel Phelps, G. Mariano Vallejo, and Thomas Larkin, all of whom owned lots that required separate deeds. It should be clear that Semple was the primary developer and founder of Benicia.
