Mexican War: Monterey Presidio Garrison, Mexican Army

Salomón María Simeón Pico y Cota was born at Rancho del Rey San Pedro, Alta California, México. He was baptized at Mission San Juan Bautista on September 8, 1821 (SJB Baptism 02901). He was the son of sargento José Dolores Pico y Vastida (born Sinaloa) and María Isabel de la Ascención Cota y Lugo (BP Baptism 00012). He married María Juana de Dios Tomasa Peralta y Vásquez at Mission Santa Cruz December 13, 1840 (SCZ Marriage 00844). Juana was a first cousin of José de Jesús Tiburcio Vásquez y Cantua. They had at least four children. He received a grant for 11 leagues (48,712.4 acres) of land between the Stanislaus and San Joaquín Rivers in what is now Stanislaus County from Governor Micheltorena in 1844. His brother, José de Jesús Pico y Cota, obtained a Mexican land grant on the coast that later became part of the William Randolph Hearst estate. When the Anglo-Americans invaded Alta California in June 1846, Salomón was serving as an alférez (ensign) in the Mexican Army at Monterey under capitán José Castro. His father's first cousin, Pio de Jesús Pico y Gutierrez, was the Governor of Alta California. Salomón accompanied Castro when Castro left Alta California for Sonora in late August 1846, leaving his father's first cousin, Colonel Andrés Pico y Gutíerrez, in command of the last Mexican forces defending Alta California against the U.S. invasion. Colonel Pico surrendered this force to Colonel John Charles Frémont at Cahuenga on January 13, 1847. A major gold discovery in Mexican Alta California occurred in January the following year.

When the war ended in February 1848, a vast area of Northern Mexico was ceded to the United States as a spoil of war. Mexican citizens within those areas who chose to remain were extended U.S. citizenship with the guarantee that their property rights and freedom of religion would be protected. Salomón chose to return to his family in Stanislaus County and become a U.S. citizen. When his wife Juana became ill later that same year, he took her to Monterey for medical treatment. Juana did not recover and died at Monterey on November 18, 1848. She was buried in the Monterey's Campo Santo San Carlos the following day (SC Death 03382). Salomón's wife had been under the care of Dr. James Lycurgus Ord, Medical Corps, U.S. Army. The discovery of gold earlier that year resulted in a flood of fortune seekers into California. It also brought swarms of Anglo-American settlers seeking farmsteads in the United States' newly acquired territories. After Anglo-American squatters encamped on much of his ranch, Salomón transferred his title and interests in the property to Dr. Ord, perhaps to repay Dr. Ord for his efforts to save his young wife. Dr. Ord later married Salomón's widowed second cousin, María de las Angustias Josefa Antonia Bernabé de la Guerra y Carrillo at Santa Barbara in 1856.

Having seen firsthand the demand for beef among the hungry miners in the goldfields of northern California, Salomón moved to the Los Álamos area of Santa Bárbara County where his De la Guerra relatives and other Californios owned ranches and established himself among the Californio rancheros as an honest cattle broker. Anglo-American cattle merchants often charged the mostly illiterate non-English speaking Californios exorbitant commissions, or sometimes just disappeared with the entire proceeds of cattle sales. Contrarily, Salomón, who spoke fluent English and was literate, facilitated cattle drives to the gold field boomtowns, and then saw that the profits went back to the Californio rancheros. Because of this, his Hispanic neighbors considered Salomón a generous benefactor and guardian against Anglo-American moral turpitude and injustice. In retaliation, rival Anglo-American cattle dealers branded him a "highwayman" and spread rumors of outrageous atrocities supposedly perpetrated by Salomón. The "Salomón gang" was even given credit for a stage robbery south of Los Alamos in January 1882 -- almost 22 years AFTER his death! Stories of Salomón's reputed exploits became legend among the gringos of Santa María Valley and Los Álamos. One folktale claims Pico collected the ears of his victims on a rawhide thong that he hung from his saddle horn. This victive received widespread credence even though not a single earless gringo could be found anywhere in California. More likely, they were cattle ears scarred with the registered notches of the various ranches for which he sold cattle. Another tale recounts the discovery of several adult skeletons with bullet holes in their skulls. According to the gringos, "Pico did it." According to the Californios, the victims were Chumash killed by Anglo-Americans to collect the Indian scalp bounties then being paid by the State of California. After the local "Committee of Vigilance" accused Salomón of murdering an Anglo-American, a warrant was issued for his arrest in June 1851 and he was arrested. After residing at Los Álamos with his relatives, the De la Guerra family, for less than 20 months, Salomón posted bail and prudently decided to relocate his cattle business to Los Angeles for his own safety. The baseless charges made against him by the vigilantes were soon withdrawn.*

Just a few months later in Los Ángeles on the evening of December 12, 1851, someone fired a shot through the window of the office of Judge Benjamin Ignatius Hayes , almost hitting him. Judge Hayes shared the office with Judge Joseph Stillman Mallard, whom Hayes assumed had been the intended target. Earlier that year Judge Mallard had issued the arrest warrants for Francisco "Menito" and Francisco "Chico" Lugo after the brothers were accused by vigilantes of murdering an Anglo-American at Cajón Pass. So now, Judge Hayes accused the Lugo brothers of hiring their cousin, Salomón Pico, to assassinate Judge Mallard, and nearly getting him killed in the process. Los Ángeles Sheriff James R. Barton was dispatched late that same evening to find Pico and bring him in for questioning. An unfounded version of that evening's events purports that shots were exchanged and Pico was wounded in the arm; Pico then eluded the sheriff and the following morning had his arm dressed in Los Ángeles by sympathetic Californios. In truth that could only have happened if Judge Hayes, Judge Mallard, and Sheriff Barton were willing to forget all about such a violent episode, since an unwounded Salomón Pico continued to peacefully conduct his cattle business in Los Angeles undisturbed by the authorities for the next several years. It is more believable that Barton questioned Salomón that evening and determined he was not involved in the shooting. Incidentally, a White jury later found the Lugo brothers "not guilty" at the conclusion of a long and expensive trial that revealed that a cabal of Anglo-Americans had conspired to frame the Lugos for the Cajón murder in an attempt to break up the family's substantial property holdings in Los Angeles and San Bernardino. Perhaps it was one of those gringos who fired the shot through the judge's window in a plot to smear the Lugo family?**

When cattle prices plummeted in 1856, Salomón Pico, still conducting his business at Los Ángeles, accepted a commission as a Mexican Army lieutenant at Santo Tomás, then the capital of Baja California, at the request of his former commander, José Castro, now a colonel. Castro, who had been commander of the Mexican Army garrison at Monterey Presidio at the time of the Anglo-American invasion, had rejected U.S. citizenship at the conclusion of the Mexican War and departed Alta California to become commander of the Mexican Army garrison at Todos Santos de Ensenada, Baja California. When Colonel Castro was murdered by a political rival on April 5, 1860, a corrupt local official by the name of Feliciano Ruíz de Esparza rounded up several Castro loyalists, among them Lieutenant Salomón Pico. Ruíz de Esparza then had them executed on May 1, 1860. Salomón Pico y Cota was buried in the Santo Tomás cemetery, whereas Castro's remains were returned to his birthplace at Monterey, California, for burial among his family. (see: Commander José Castro in the Two Californias. Antepasados XIV. Los Californianos, 2008).

* Lynchings and the maligning of Californio reputations were just two of the means employed by Anglo-Americans to usurp Californio political and economic influence in order to divest them of their property and voting rights. See: Francisco Badillo, his son, Eduardo Badillo, Salomón Pico's cousin, José Dolores Pico, grantee of Bolsa de San Cayetano, Joaquín Valenzuela, and Pío Linares, for other Californios permanently removed from the central coast by Anglo-American "Committees of Vigilance."

** For more information on this trial, see W. W. Robinson. People Versus Lugo. Dawson's Book Shop, Los Angeles, 1962.
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Children:
- Ana Pacifica* (Sep. 25, bap. 27, 1841 [SC Baptism 04345])
- José (bap. July 17, 1842 [SC Baptism 04407])
- María Antonia* (bap. May 26, 1843 [SJB Baptism 04466])
- Tristán María Simeón (May, bap. Aug. 16, 1845 [SCL Baptism 10534]-Feb. 24, 1896)

* Godmother was Salomon's sister, Filomena [Pico] Pomber.

Biography written by Steve