San Diego, California

1800-1850

A new commander's house is finished in the Presidio plaza. The garrison now numbers more than 100. First American ship, Betsy, arrives at San Diego.

November 22, 1800
Earthquake of 6.5 magnitude hits San Diego region

August 25,1800
First American ship, Betsy, under command of Capt. Charles Winship, arrives at San Diego.

March 17, 1803
American ship Lelia Bird, under command of Capt. William Shaler, attempts to leave San Diego port with 1000 smuggled otter skins. Spanish battery on Fort Guijarros (at Ballast Point on Point Loma) fires on the Lelia Bird, which returns fire. Spanish guards on board the ship are later freed. Nobody is injured.

1808
Construction begins on new San Diego Mission church.

1810
Mexican war of independence from Spain begins in central Mexico with few direct impacts on the frontier, except for increasing trade with foreign merchants.


1812
War of 1812 between United States and Great Britain begins.


1812
Earthquake destroys the San Diego Mission church, which is reconstructed in 1813.

1813
Work begins on Mission Dam and aqueduct, finished in 1816-17. Photo of Mission Dam in 1874.

March, 1817
The Traveler departs with California's first shipment of grain.

1820-1830
More settlers bring the total population to more than six hundred residents. Presidio families begin to establish homes in what becomes Old Town San Diego. The adobes of Maria Reyes Ibanez at the corner of present-day Juan and Wallace Streets, Rafaela Serrano on Juan Street, and Pio Pico next door are all finished by 1824. Between 1827 and 1830 several other structures are built around Old Town plaza including those of Juan Rodriguez, Jose Antonio Estudillo, Juan Bandini, Dona Tomasa Alvarado, and Rosario Aguilar. (From "A Brief History of Old Town" by Iris W. Engstrand and Ray Brandes.)

1821
Mexico wins independence from Spain and San Diego comes under Mexican rule for about 25 years. First known home (today's Presidio Hills Golf Course golf shop) is built in Old Town.

April 20, 1822
Mexican flag is raised over the Presidio. California swears allegiance to Mexico.

1823
Los Peñasquitos, the first private rancho, is granted by the Mexican government - 8,486 acres to Captain Francisco María Ruíz; eventually 33 land grants covering 948 square miles are recognized.

1825
San Diego becomes the unofficial capital of Upper and Lower California, because of the preference of new Governor Jose Maria Echeandia. The Presidio, with its dwindling garrison, goes into significant decline.

1826
San Diego Presidio soldiers skirmish with Indians, killing 28.

1826
Jedediah Smith, the first American to arrive overland in San Diego, opens a route from Salt Lake Valley.

1828
Fur trappers Sylvester Pattie and his son James Ohio Pattie are imprisoned by Gov. Echeandia. Sylvester dies in jail and his son is eventually released to vaccinate thousands against smallpox.

1829
Boston trader Henry Delano Fitch elopes with Josefa Carrillo from San Diego.



1832-33
Malaria epidemic kills many Indians. Secularization Act leads to closing of missions.

September 1, 1834
Juan Bandini and Jose Hijar arrive on the brig Natalie with 140 colonists.

December 21, 1834
13 votes are cast in San Diego's first pueblo election. Juan Osuna is elected first alcalde (mayor) over Pio Pico.

January 1, 1835
Recently elected officials take office when San Diego becomes a pueblo.

1835
Richard Henry Dana (1815-1882) arrives in San Diego as a common seaman aboard the brig Pilgrim. Dana's book "Two Years Before the Mast", published in 1841, is one of America's most famous accounts of life at sea. It contains a detailed account of hide-curing, woodcutting, local wildlife and rattlesnakes during his four months in San Diego. Read more on Dana's San Diego visit.

1835
The Mexican military and last residents abandon the Presidio and the site becomes a ruin. Photo of Presidio Hill in 1872 shows ruins at upper left, "Serra palm" at right.

1837
Juan Bandini leads rebellion, captures Los Angeles.

1837-39
Smallpox epidemic kills many Indians. Indians plunder San Diego back-country ranches.

1838
San Diego's pueblo status is revoked because of a decrease in San Diego's population (probably 100-150). From 1838 to the Mexican War San Diego is governed as part of the sub-prefecture of Los Angeles.



1845
New Governor Pio Pico orders land confiscation and sale of the California missions. California is divided into 2 districts; southern district from San Luis Obispo south.

May 13, 1846
United States declares war on Mexico, invades Mexico from the east, reaching San Diego in December. The Mexican-American War in Baja California

July 29, 1846
Marine detachment from the sloop-of-war Cyane raises the first American flag in the Plaza of Old Town San Diego. Detail from a painting of the U.S.S. Cyane by Carlton T. Chapman

October 31, 1846
Admiral Robert F. Stockton arrives aboard Congress. Fort Stockton is established on the top of Presidio Hill in November 1846 to defend the city during the Mexican War.

December 6, 1846
General Stephen Watts Kearny's "Army of the West" enagages General Andres Pico and his Mexican-Californian army in a bloody battle at the Valley of San Pasqual, near present-day Escondidio. The United States suffers many casualties, including nineteen American dead and many more wounded. The Mexicans are reported to have six soldiers killed at the battle, and many more wounded as well. Although the war for California is won by the United States, the Battle of San Pasqual proves to be an important victory for the Californios. Journal of San Diego History article on the battle.

January 29, 1847
Mormon Battalion arrives in San Diego, without ever fighting a battle. Five companies totaling 500 men had been mustered in at Council Bluffs, Iowa on July 16, 1846, along with some 34 women and 51 children, to join U.S. forces in the war with Mexico. Under command of Philip St. George Cooke after reaching Santa Fe, some 339 men, 4 or 5 women and perhaps 6 children complete the 2000 mile trek to San Diego.

January 24, 1848
The discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill starts the California Gold Rush.


February 2, 1848
Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo is signed, ending the war between Mexico and the United States. Treaty also sets the boundary between US and Mexico which arbitrarily divides the two countries (Native peoples are the most impacted, since historically and by language groupings they are one group, suddenly cast into two sections.)


1849
Colonel Cave Johnson Couts (1821-1874) comes to San Diego to act as an escort for the American-Mexican Boundary Commission from San Diego to Colorado River. The same year he is elected delegate to the State Constitutional Convention.



1850
Census sets non-Indian population of San Diego at 650, County of San Diego at 798. Population table ~ 1850 census transcription

February, 1850
San Diego County is created as one of California's original 27 counties. It includes much of the Colorado and Mojave deserts, extending from the Pacific Ocean to the Colorado River and including all of present-day Imperial County and much of San Bernardino and Riverside counties. Sketch of Old Town by Powell, 1850.

March 18, 1850
William Heath Davis purchases 160 acres in "New Town" (now downtown San Diego). His home, originally located at State and Market Streets, is the oldest surviving structure in San Diego's New Town. Built on the East Coast and shipped around Cape Horn, it is a well-preserved example of a prefabricated "salt box" family home, now housing a museum at 4th and Island in the Gaslamp district.

March 27, 1850
An Act to Incorporate the City of San Diego is passed. First election establishes government by a Common Council and elected mayor. San Diego's first Mayor is Joshua Bean, brother of the famous Judge Roy Bean.

September 9, 1850
California is granted statehood by the United States of America.