Volumes have been written about him. Considered one of the most prominent of early native Californians, Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo was born on the Fourth of July, 1807 in Monterey. He was the last Mexican Commander of the Northern Frontier (Northern California) prior to statehood and annexation by the United States.

The Vallejo family’s ancestral threads are woven into the fabric of America’s birth. In 1500, only eight years after Columbus’ epic discovery of the new world, Admiral Alonzo Vallejo was sent to arrest and return Columbus to Spain to face charges of impropriety. Twenty years later, two Vallejo brothers sailed with Hernando Cortez to further, “explore” the region. The Vallejo family settled and remained in the Mexican province of Jalisco for well over 200 years subsequently migrating to San Diego in 1773.

Following military training, Mariano Vallejo was assigned to the Presidio of San Francisco and advanced quickly. To avoid further encroachment from the Russians who had established settlements in Bodega Bay, Vallejo and his Cavalry arrived in Sonoma on December 2, 1834. The site was chosen since it was the location of the most northern of the California Missions – Mission San Francisco de Solano. Sonoma was officially founded the following year.

Over time, Vallejo became beset by Mexico’s neglect and keenly aware of the political ambitions of European and American interests to colonize Northern California. He knew that Mexico was not capable of remaining independent and began to advocate attaching California to the great Republic to the East. Vallejo believed that California’s best interests would be to become part of America.

Even so, on June 14, 1846 a group of American settlers arrested Vallejo and his brother Salvador. They lowered the Mexican flag and raised a hastily made flag of a crudely drawn bear looking up at a star with the words “ California Republic” drawn on it. The “Bear Flaggers” proclaimed California a republic of their own and Vallejo was taken to jail at Fort Sutter near Sacramento. Vallejo later wrote of the incident.

“If the men who ran up the Bear Flag had flown the flag that Washington consecrated, there would have been no war on the frontier of Sonoma, for all minds were ready to give the embrace of brothers to the sons of the great Republic that had our admiration.”

Mariano Vallejo was Vallejo Haraszthy’s great – great grandfather.