Romualdo Pacheco
|
Romualdo Pacheco
12th Governor of California |
Romualdo Pacheco (
October 31,
1831 –
January 23,
1899) was a
Hispanic-
American politician who,
so far, has been the only Hispanic
governor of California following its admission to the
United States. He represented
California in the
United States House of Representatives from
March 4,
1877 to
February 7,
1878, and from
March 4,
1879 to
March 3,
1883. He was the first Hispanic to represent an American state; several others had previously served as
delegates for
territories and did not have
voting privileges. Pacheco served as
Lieutenant Governor of California under
Newton Booth until Booth was elected to the
United States Senate in 1875, so Pacheco served as governor of his home state that year until
William Irwin was elected to the position. Pacheco served from
February 27, 1875 to
December 9, 1875. Early in his political career in the 1850s, he was a
Democrat. He became affiliated with the
National Union Party in the 1860s, but was elected to most of his positions as a candidate for the
Republican Party.
He was born in
Santa Barbara, California to Ramona Carrillo de Pacheco and Captain Romualdo Pacheco. His family was prominent in what was then
Alta California. Captain Pacheco had moved to California from
Guanajuato in 1825 and served as an aide to Governor
José Maria de EcheandÃa. However, he died when the young Romualdo was just five weeks old. His mother later married a
Scotsman named Captain John D. Wilson, who sent Romualdo to
Honolulu, Hawaii for his
education.
At the age of 12, Pacheco began an
apprenticeship aboard a
trading vessel. The
Mexican-American War broke out around this time, and he was briefly held by American forces on one trip in July 1849 as he brought cargo to Yerba Buena (now known as
San Francisco). The ship he was on was searched, and he made an oath of allegiance to the United States and was released.
Pacheco's association with a prominent family in the state helped him to gain support as he entered politics in the 1850s. He was also well-respected by Anglos coming into the area. He was
elected to the
state senate in 1857 and re-elected two times, serving until 1863. However, the United States became involved in the
American Civil War, and Pacheco was appointed the rank of
brigadier general by Governor
Leland Stanford and directed to disarm military companies in the
Los Angeles area that were not composed of Union
loyalists.
He served as state
treasurer for a few years, then returned to the state senate until becoming lieutenant governor. After briefly serving as governor, Pacheco ran for a U.S. House seat, winning by just one vote. His opponent,
Peter D. Wigginton contested the election, eventually forcing Pacheco to leave in 1878 when the
House Committee on Elections refused Pacheco's
certificate of election. Returning to California, he went into
business until winning a House seat again in September 1879. He was reelected in 1880.
After leaving Congress, Pacheco lived on a
cattle ranch in the northern
Mexican state of
Coahuila for five years until being appointed as a U.S.
envoy to
Central America in 1890. He returned to California in 1893, dying in
Oakland in 1899 and buried in
Mountain View Cemetery.
In 1863 he married Mary McIntire, a beautiful and talented 22-year old playwright. They had two children, Maybella Ramona (or Mabel), born in 1865 and Romualdo, Jr (or Waldo). Waldo died in childhood. In 1889 Mabel married Will Tevis in San Francisco. Tevis was the son of a powerful business family. They would give Romualdo and Mary Pacheco four grandsons.
Pacheco was proficient at riding
horses and is the only known governor of California to have
lassoed a
grizzly bear.
In 1985 the Book Club of California published a biography "Romualdo Pacheco: A Californio in Two Eras" by Ronald Genini and Richard Hitchman.
*
Biography from the State of California*
Biography of Romualdo Pacheco from the Library of Congress
