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Title
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Americans During the Mexican Period, 1810s-1840s
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Description
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Anglo Americans first began settling in Alta California during the Mexican Period. in the 1830s-1840s, pioneers such as Johann Sutter (John Sutter) settled in the San Joaquín Valley, taking advantage of unprotected Mexican settlements that had little-to-no government oversight. Americans who wanted to live in Mexican California did have to follow Mexican law and convert to Catholicism if they wanted to become Mexican citizens. Many did, marrying into Mexican families, acquiring land grants, becoming rancheros, and joining the lucrative Mexican hide and tallow trade. Some of these settlers included English immigrant William Edward Petty Hartnell and Scottish immigrant John Cameron, who jumped ship in 1814 and was baptized and renamed Juan Bautista Gilroy at Mission San Carlos Borromeo del Rio Carmelo. He then married into the Ortega family.
Some of the more famous American settlers of El Pueblo de San José were members of the Donner Party, including Eliza Poor Donner, Mary Donner, William McCutchen, and the Reed Family (who purchased a 500-acre ranch between First Street and Coyote Creek). As Irish Catholics, they immigrated to Catholic Mexican Alta California hoping to be spared the anti-Catholic prejudice they had experienced as residents of the United States. The City of San José named several streets after the Donner Party: Reed, Margaret, Virginia, Martha, Carrie, Patterson, Lewis, and Keyes.
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Scholar Talk
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https://vimeo.com/811441967/b6b9786df1
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Identifier
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B4SV Exhibit Topic One: Slide 008
