Los Angeles County
Biographies
MRS. JOHN F. FRANCIS
Mrs. John F.
Francis, scion of an illustrious pioneer family of Southern
California, was eighty-six years of age when she passed away at
her home at 903 South Bonnie Brae
Street, Los Angeles,
on June 4, 1933. The Los Angeles Times
commented as follows: “Mrs. Maria de los
Reyes D. de Francis was the last of the direct descendants of the Dominguez
family and the widow of John F. Francis, a prominent civic worker, who took a
leading part in the fight for the San Pedro harbor and who died more than a
quarter of a century ago. She was born
on the historic Dominguez homestead at Dominguez Rancho, situated to the south
of Los Angeles near Compton.
She was the youngest of six daughters surviving her parents, Don Manuel
Dominguez and Maria Engracia Cota.
“Her father, Don
Manuel Dominguez, was one of the most prominent of the old Californians. He was born in San Diego
in 1803, the son of Don Cristobal Dominguez, an officer under the Spanish
government and a brother of Juan Jose Dominguez, who received from the king of Spain a concession of ten and a half leagues of
land comprising the Rancho de San Pedro in Los Angeles County. At the death of Juan Jose in 1822, Governor
Palo de Sola gave his rancho to Cristobal, from whom it
descended to Manuel.
“Many of the
responsible positions of trust in the early-day government of Los Angeles County
were held by Manuel Dominguez. In 1828
he was elected a member of Ayuntamiento of Los Angeles. Four years later he was named the first
‘alcalde’ and was also given the position of judge of the First Instance for Los Angeles. After California
became a state, he was a delegate from Los Angeles
County to the first constitutional
convention at Monterey, which formulated the
original constitution under which California
was admitted to the Union. A portion of his great ranch, amounting to
twenty-five thousand acres, extending from the Pacific Ocean on the west to the
San Gabriel River on the east, he retained until his
death in 1882. Two years later, all his
land, except Rattlesnake Island and several thousand acres near the mouth of
the San Gabriel River, was divided among his six
daughters, all of whom are now dead.
This land is still owned by his descendants and now
has been in the possession of the family for one hundred and forty-eight years.
“Mrs. Francis was
one of the last links connecting the happy age of California, before the Americans came, to
the present day. While in her younger
days active socially and in civic affairs, she withdrew from social functions
and other interests except for philanthropy, following her husband’s death,
leading a quiet and retired life.”
Transcribed by Bill Simpkins.
Source: California of the South
Vol. V, by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 251-252, Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles, Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 Bill Simpkins.
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