Cyrus Alexander and Ruphena Lucero
Husband Cyrus Alexander 1
Born: 15 May 1805 - Pennsylvania 1 Christened: Died: 27 Dec 1872 2 Buried: - Alexander Valley, Sonoma Co, CA
Father: David Alexander (Abt 1760-1822) 3 4 5 Mother: Margaret Miller ( - ) 3 4
Marriage: 1844 6
Wife Ruphena Lucero 6
Born: May 1830 2 Christened: Died: Aft 1875 Buried:
Children
1 M William Alexander 2
Born: 1 Sep 1845 2 Christened: Died: 16 Aug 1867 - at sea 2 Buried:Spouse: Did Not Marry
2 F Margarita Alexander 2
Born: 8 Feb 1847 2 Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: William Milligan ( - ) 7 Marr: 30 Jul 1868 7
3 F Ellen Alexander 7
Born: 12 Aug 1848 7 Christened: Died: 28 Jun 1856 7 Buried:Spouse: Did Not Marry
4 F Jane Alexander 7
Born: 2 Jul 1850 7 Christened: Died: 10 May 1852 7 Buried:Spouse: Did Not Marry
5 M Henry Alexander 7
Born: 1 Jul 1852 7 Christened: Died: 15 Jul 1869 7 Buried:
6 M Joseph Alexander 7
Born: 12 Aug 1854 7 Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Katie Turner ( - ) 7 Marr: Oct 1874 7
7 M Albert Alexander 7
Born: 15 Aug 1856 7 Christened: Died: 12 Mar 1858 7 Buried:Spouse: Did Not Marry
8 F Caroline Alexander 7
Born: 17 Mar 1860 7 Christened: Died: Buried:
9 M Thomas Alexander 7
Born: 3 Mar 1864 7 Christened: Died: Buried:
10 M George C. Alexander 7
Born: 4 Jan 1869 7 Christened: Died: Buried:
General Notes: Husband - Cyrus Alexander
He was born in Pennsylvania, and when six years old he was taken with his father's family to settle in St. Clair County, Illinois, eighteen miles east of St. Louis, in 1810. A manuscript history of his life, so diversified and full of wild and romantic enterprises, was prepared for publication by his nephew, Mr. Charles Alexander, of Healdsburg, Sonoma County, California. From this work comes the following brief account:
When Cyrus was passing his early youth, his parents indulged him with exemption from the severer toils of frontier life on account of his delicate health. Yet from one of his older brothers he learned to tan leather and to make shoes, and from another brother to gear and run a mill. The reading and stories of border life inflamed his natural love of adventure, and he determined to seek a fortune out of the ordinary path of pursuit. In 1827, being twenty-three years old, he invested his all in ox teams and mining implements, and after a toilsome journey of four hundred miles, commenced in the lead mines of Galena, on Feather river, then recently discovered. But the rigor of the climate and other obstacles rendered his milling unsuccessful.
Selling his mining stock, he invested all in an outfit for trapping and fur trading, and spent four years traversing the then wild and almost unknown regions of the Rocky Mountains, from the Yellowstone river to the Gulf of California. The fortunes and misfortunes, the hardships, dangers, and adventures of those years cannot be recounted here. During these years he had neither seen or heard of a relative, nor did he until many years afterwards, when two nephews from Illinois met him in company with Fremont, defending the fort of Sonoma in California, during the Mexican war.
At the end of four years trapping and trading, in 1837 he found himself at San Diego, on the Pacific, in Lower California, destitute of everything but scanty clothing and his indomitable purpose and perseverance. After hiring himself at twelve dollars per month for some time, he procured an outfit that enabled him to engage successfully and profitably in killing sea-lions and sea-otters on the Guadaloupe Islands. When this business become less remunerative, he engaged with Captain H. D. Fitch, who had a ship and traded between Lower California and Boston in hides, tallow, &c. Captain Fitch had married a Mexican wife as a prerequisite to holding large grants of California lands which he had stocked with great herds of various cattle, the hides and tallow of which were the chief articles of the Boston trade. In this cattle business with Captain Fitch, Cyrus Alexander remained until the Captain, perceiving and appreciating his honesty, energy and other good qualities, proposed a partnership on wild lands to be explored and acquired. As Cyrus was not qualified by marriage to obtain the grant of land from the Mexican government, this was obtained by Fitch after Cyrus had explored and selected. After travelling hundreds of miles and crossing San Francisco Bay, he located and surveyed eleven leagues of excellent land on the Russian river, in the region where the flourishing town of Healdsburg now stands. Fitch stocked this "Sotoyome Grant" with cattle of various kind from the South, and Alexander took charge of the whole in 1840, making improvements, and receiving, at the end of four years, three leagues of the land, one-half the increase of the stock, and something for improvements.
Before the division of the land he had built an adobe house with the aid of the wretched Digger Indians, whom he conciliated by kind treatment, and whose confidence he gained by faithfully fulfilling all his promises. They aided him in building, in herding his cattle, and would carry bags of sea-shells thirty-five miles from the coast when Mr. Alexander wanted them to burn into lime for the first tannery which was ever started north of San Francisco. He rewarded their labor by his superior skill as a hunter, in killing large game for them with his rifle.
The nearest town was the old Catholic Mission of Sonoma, distant thirty-five miles. After dividing land in 1844 and dissolving partnership with Captain Fitch, he built the first house in those regions of kiln-burned brick made of adobe, splitting redwood timber into boards and shingles, and using grooves and other contrivances as substitutes for nails.
Having now for the first time a habitation that he could call his own, he was married, in 1844, to Miss Ruphena Lucero by Captain Sutter, then acting as Acalda (Justice of the Peace) for the Mexican Government. His wife had come to California from New Mexico with her brother-in-law, Mr. Gordon. She was a true woman, and admirably adapted to all the requirements of frontier life. Large additions were now made to his former improvements. To cattle he added farming and fruit growing; and the first gristmill in Northern California was added to the tannery. The earth brought forth her hundred-fold, and all his business prospered. His wheat was abundant and of remarkable size and weight; and though his mill was of the most primitive construction-stones and all being of his own manufacture-yet his flour was "superfine," and his bread the best in the land.
Now a new trouble arose. In 1847 the Roman Catholic priest of Santa Clara pronounced his marriage null and void, and required Mrs. Alexander to go home (one hundred miles) and remain there until lawfully married. Some other neighbors received similar orders. Mr. Alexander expressed his indignation in language such as he never used on any other occasions. But, under a tyrannical government in the hands of avaricious priests, and surrounded by superstitious people, he felt that there was no alternative but to comply. After much trouble about a wedding outfit and a long journey to Santa Clara with his wife, they submitted to the farce of re-marriage, at a total expense of three hundred dollars.
The next year (1848) came the revolution that placed Mr. Alexander proudly and joyfully under the protection of the "Stars and Stripes." Then followed the great gold discovery at Captain Sutter's saw-mill, the gold fever, and the flood of population from the "States." Now Mr. Alexander was prepared to reap a full reward of incredible hardships and labors. The productions of his large estate sold to miners at fabulous prices: lambs $16 per head, calves for more, large fine white hogs at $50 each, two tons of onions for $1200! etc. His fortune became very considerable. His social family and abundant fruits attracted many visitors to "Alexander Valley," where parties, after regaling themselves, would often indulge in the pleasures of the dance; but no liquor or disorderly conduct was allowed.
After leaving Illinois, he never saw a Bible until a copy was brought to him by the wife of his nephew, Charles Alexander, in 1850. The instruction he had received from his pious Presbyterian parents had regulated his conduct in all the temptations of the wild modes of life which he lived, so that he maintained his integrity in a remarkable degree of sobriety, and honesty, and outward morality, though destitute of saving grace. Immediately on the arrival of the Bible, he became a constant and interested reader, until its truths became a lamp to his feet and a light to his path.
The first preacher was the Rev. A. S. Bateman, who came in 1852. Mr. Alexander opened his house for preaching, and furnished land and money for erecting a church. He also erected a school-house and hired a teacher. When the Methodists were unable to pay for their church building, he bought it at a liberal price, and donated it to the Presbyterian church, of which he had become a member, giving the minister a farm to induce him to settle in Healdsburg. When the town failed to run their academy successfully, Mr. Alexander purchased the property and deeded it also to the Presbyterian church of Healdsburg. The institution now bears the name of the "Alexander Academy," as a monument to his memory as a friend and patron of sound learning and true religion in a new and growing country.
After a most active and eventful life as founder of new settlements and institutions in California, Cyrus Alexander died of paralysis, aged sixty-eight years, and was buried beside six of his children in the family graveyard in Alexander Valley, Sonoma county, California.
1 John E. Alexander, A Record of the Descendants of John Alexander (Philadelphia, PA: Alfred Martien, 1878), Pg 96.
2 John E. Alexander, A Record of the Descendants of John Alexander (Philadelphia, PA: Alfred Martien, 1878), Pg 100.
3 John E. Alexander, A Record of the Descendants of John Alexander (Philadelphia, PA: Alfred Martien, 1878), Pg 89.
4 Wm. H. Egle, Historical Register: Notes and Queries, Historical and Genealogical (Harrisburg, PA: Lane S. Hart, Publisher, 1884), Pg 22.
5 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 30.
6 John E. Alexander, A Record of the Descendants of John Alexander (Philadelphia, PA: Alfred Martien, 1878), Pg 99.
7
John E. Alexander, A Record of the Descendants of John Alexander (Philadelphia, PA: Alfred Martien, 1878), Pg 101.
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