Dennis Gahagan (born c.1817) was an immigrant in the Mexican Pueblo de San Diego in territorial California, and early settler in the City of San Diego in the new U.S. state of California.
Dennis Gahagan was born c. 1817 in Ireland. He emigrated to the United States in the early 1840s. He joined the U.S. Army, which was recruiting for the Mexican–American War.
He arrived in San Diego by 1849 as a soldier with the First U.S. Artillery (Magruder's Battery). He and his fellow troops fought and patrolled in the Southern California countryside during the war.
In 1849 Gahagan was elected U.S. Judge of the 1st Instance of the District of San Diego. From 1849 to 1850 Gahagan was an alcalde (mayor) of San Diego.
Richard Barnes Mason was an American military officer who was a career officer in the United States Army and the fifth military governor of California before it became a state. He came from a politically prominent American family and was a descendant of George Mason, a framer of the U.S. Constitution and father of the Bill of Rights.
Californios are Hispanic Californians, especially those descended from Spanish and Mexican settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries before California was annexed by the United States. California's Spanish-speaking community has resided there since 1683 and is made up of varying Spanish and Mexican origins, including criollos, Mestizos, Indigenous Californian peoples, and small numbers of Mulatos. Alongside the Tejanos of Texas and Neomexicanos of New Mexico and Colorado, Californios are part of the larger Spanish-American/Mexican-American/Hispano community of the United States, which has inhabited the American Southwest and the West Coast since the 16th century. Some may also identify as Chicanos, a term that came about in the 1960s.
Josiah Belden, known in Spanish as Josías Belden, was a Californian politician and trader. He was born in Connecticut, eventually emigrating to Alta California. In California, he became a Mexican citizen, a prominent trader, and a rancho grantee.
Joshua H. Bean was an American political figure.
Stephen Clark Foster was a politician, the first American mayor of Los Angeles under United States military rule. Foster served in the state constitutional convention, and was elected to the State Senate. He was elected as mayor of Los Angeles in 1856, and later elected for four terms to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.
George Parrish Tebbetts was an American politician from California.
Thomas W. Sutherland was an American lawyer and pioneer settler of Wisconsin and California. He was the first village president of Madison, Wisconsin, was United States attorney for Wisconsin for several years in the 1840s, was a member of the first Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin, and was the last alcalde (mayor) of San Diego, California, prior to statehood.
Philip Crosthwaite was an early settler of San Diego, California, and Rosarito, Baja California.
Don Miguel de Pedrorena was a Spanish-born Californio ranchero, merchant, and a signer of the California Constitution in 1849. He also served briefly as acting Alcalde of San Diego (mayor).
The history of San Diego began in the present state of California, when Europeans first began inhabiting the San Diego Bay region. As the first area of California in which Europeans settled, San Diego has been described as "the birthplace of California". Explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo was the first European to discover San Diego Bay in 1542, roughly 200 years before other Europeans settled the area. Native Americans such as the Kumeyaay people had been living in the area for as long as 12,000 years prior to any European presence. A fort and mission were established in 1769, which gradually expanded into a settlement under first Spanish and then Mexican rule.
The Lugo family of California were prominent during the periods of Spanish and Mexican rule. They were among the early colonists who became known as Californios.
The history of California can be divided into the Native American period, the European exploration period (1542–1769), the Spanish colonial period (1769–1821), the Mexican period (1821–1848), and United States statehood. California was one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse areas in pre-Columbian North America. After contact with Spanish explorers, many of the Native Americans died from foreign diseases. Finally, in the 19th century there was a genocide by United States government and private citizens, which is known as the California genocide.
Captain José Antonio Ezequiel Carrillo (1796–1862) was a Californio politician, ranchero, and signer of the California Constitution in 1849. He served three terms as Alcalde of Los Angeles (mayor).
Abel Stearns was an American trader who came to the Pueblo de Los Angeles, Alta California in 1829 and became a major landowner and cattle rancher and one of the area's wealthiest citizens.
Gahagan is a surname of which is derived from Geoghegan. Notable people with the surname include:
The following timeline traces the territorial evolution of California, the thirty-first state admitted to the United States of America, including the process of removing Indigenous Peoples from their native lands, or restricting them to reservations.
The interim government of California existed from soon after the outbreak of the Mexican–American War in mid-1846 until U.S. statehood in September, 1850. There were three distinct phases: