Andrés Pico

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Andrés Pico
Andrés Pico

In office
1847 – 1847
Preceded by José María Flores
Succeeded by William B. Ide

Born 1810
San Diego, California
Died 1866 (age 56)
Profession Politician, soldier
Religion Roman Catholic

General Don Andrés Pico (1810-1866) was an influential Mexican-Californian in the mid-19th Century. He was born to José María Pico and María Eustaquia López in San Diego, California.

In 1845, Andrés Pico and Juan Manso were granted a nine-year lease for the San Fernando Valley. Pico, at that time a 35-year old rancher, lived in Los Angeles. He ran cattle on his ranch and made the Mission his rancho home.

During the Mexican-American War Pico commanded the Mexican forces in California and was Mexican Governor of Alta California in opposition to the U.S. provisional government. In 1846 Pico successfully led an attack on forces commanded by U.S. general Stephen Watts Kearny at the Battle of San Pasqual. However, fearing Kearny might execute him, Pico signed with the American commander John C. Frémont, the Treaty of Cahuenga January 13, 1847, which ended the war in California.[1]

After California became an American state, Pico remained in California, retained his extensive landholdings, and served as a state senator from San Diego in 1860 and 1861 as a Breckenridge Democrat a Southern sympathizer.

Andrés Pico was the brother of Pío Pico, the last governor of Mexican Alta California. Andrés never married, but adopted several children.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Pitt, Leonard; Pitt, Dale (1997). Los Angeles A to Z: An Encyclopedia of the City and County. Berkeley: University of California Press, p. 392. ISBN 0520202740. 

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