Monterey-Shasta-Los Angeles County CA Archives Biographies.....Rico, Francisco 1826 - 
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Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com January 27, 2007, 12:32 pm

Author: Luther A. Ingersoll, Editor (1893)

DON FRANCISCO RICO is a native of Guadalajara, Mexico, born January 11, 1826.
His father, Don Vicente Rico, was born in the same place, in 1781, was a soldier
of the Mexican artillery, and a captain of his company. By trade he was a
saddle-maker. In 1830 he came to San Diego, California, and the following year
to Monterey. The mother of our subject, nee Guadalupe Villarnel de Rico, was
born in the city of Guadalajara, December 12, 1808. She was married to Vicente
Rico March 7, 1824, and Francisco was the only son born to them. Two years after
the father's death the mother married Theodore Gonzales, who was also of Mexican
birth. He came to California in 1825, and lived at Monterey, where he was a man
of political influence, and where he figured in 1836 as Alcalde. He was grantee
of the Rincon de la Puente and Sur Chiquito ranchos, and was regarded as a man
of wealth.

  Francisco Rico was reared and educated at Monterey. In 1845 he was appointed
by the Mexican Government second officer of the port of Monterey, under Pablo de
la Guerre, being then about nineteen years of age. That responsible position he
held until the American occupation. He also held the captaincy of a company of
the Monterey cavalry for a time. After the change of government he was
extensively engaged in the stock business in Monterey county until 1849. Upon
the discovery of gold he turned his attention to mining and merchandising, in
partnership with the Hon. Thomas O. Larkin, in the Dry Creek diggings, their
partnership continuing a year, after which he prosecuted the business alone. His
mining operations were conducted with great vigor and on a large scale, and
covered a period of about five years, during which time over $300,000 in pure
gold was secured. He then engaged in merchandising and stock-raising. The dry
years of 1863 and '64 resulted in heavy losses of stock, which finally proved a
financial calamity to him and to hundreds of other leading capitalists of
California. Since that time Mr. Rico has resided quietly in Monterey, and for
the past several years has been practically retired.

  He was married in Los Angeles, in the the [sic] summer of 1847, to Tomasa
Sepulveda de Rico. She died in Los Angeles, October 21, 1870, leaving a family
of seven sons and one daughter. The names of the children born to them are as
follows: Guadalupe, August 20, 1847: Vincent E., November 15, 1849, died in
1852; Vincent E., November 15, 1850; Francisco, in 1851; Alexandro F., January
21, 1857; Jose, April 13, 1858, died in 1860; Jose B., June 5, 1859, now a
resident of Salinas; Thomas F., February, 1861; Maria, wife of Sostens
Sepulveda, born in 1862; Berloldo E., March 29, 1867; and Fredrico, born in 1869
and died in 1870.

  Don Francisco Rico is in the highest sense of the term an honorable gentleman.
As a public officer and a private citizen his record is above reproach. He is a
man of generous impulses, and in manner is genial and affable. Few men of the
present day have figured more conspicuously and honorably in the past history of
Monterey than he.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

Memorial and Biographical History of the Coast Counties of Central California.

Illustrated.

Containing a History of this Important Section of the Pacific Coast from the
Earliest Period of its Discovery to the Present Time, together with Glimpses of
its Auspicious Future; Illustrations and Full-Page Portraits of some of its
Eminent Men, and Biographical Mention of many of its Pioneers, and Prominent
Citizens of To-day.



HENRY D. BARROWS,
Editor of the Historical Department.

LUTHER A. INGERSOLL,
Editor of the Biographical Department.

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."-Macaulay.


CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY.
1893.

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