Flores Family Papers

Collection — Box: SB-01

Identifier: MS-03

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of twenty handwritten documents, twenty-five newspaper clippings, ten photographs, and three miscellaneous publications. Among the holographs are several poignant letters to Cipriana Flores from her mother in Mexico during the mid 19th century and copies of legal documents employed by Cipriana to justify her claim to the Presidio comandancia to U.S. authorities. The certificates or testimonials by many of the men who knew Flores provide information on his military career in California, as well as the careers of the men who are testifying.

There are also several pages from an early Spanish cookbook and a prayer. Photographs are of Cipriana Flores and various family members, many of them taken at the Presidio. A scattering of genealogical notes accompany the photographs. Clippings include obituary notices of Flores family members and articles about Cipriana Flores and the Presidio dating from the early 20th century.

Dates

1840 - 1921

Creator

Vallejo, Mariano Guadalupe, 1808-1890 (Person)

Conditions Governing Access

Collection is open to researchers.

Conditions Governing Use

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Archivist-Librarian. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation Research Center as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader.

Biographical / Historical

Gumesindo Flores (d.1860) was Santa Barbara Presidio’s last comandante, arriving in Santa Barbara from Monterey in 1842 where he had been in command since 1839. He married Cipriana Llanos Quintero in 1835 and they had ten children. They lived in a wooden house on the 900 block of Santa Barbara Street, built in 1818. The house was destroyed in the 1925 earthquake. Flores was murdered July 16, 1860 by an assassin and is buried at Mission Santa Barbara. Cipriana Flores was born in Mexico on September 27, 1818 and came to California in 1833 when she was 15 years old. She died at the age of 103 on November 23, 1921. The collection was compiled and preserved by Helen "Nellie" Hartnett Platz, who was given many of the documents by her mother Rose Noe Hartnett, the granddaughter of Cipriana and Gumesindo Flores.

Extent

0.25 Linear Feet (61 items)

Language of Materials

Spanish; Castilian

Additional Description

Abstract

This collection consists of twenty handwritten documents, twenty-five newspaper clippings, ten photographs, and three miscellaneous publications concerning Santa Barbara Presidio Commandant Gumesindo Flores and his wife Cipriana Llano Flores.