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Note: Pierre Sainsevain, a nephew of Vignes, came in 1839 from Bordeau, France and for a while worked for his uncle, Louis Vignes. His uncle planted what was called the Aliso Vineyard in the Los Angeles area. In 1841 Vignes built a sawmill near San Bernardino and put Pierre/Pedro in charge.
Jean Louis Sainsevain, another nephew, arrived in Los Angeles in 1849 or soon after, and on April 14th, 1855, purchased for forty-two thousand dollars the vineyard, cellars and other property of his uncle. This was the same year in which Pierre returned to France for his son Michel and remarried, leaving another son, Paul, in school there. Pierre joined his brother; and in 1857 Sainsevain Brothers made the first California champagne, first shipping their wine to San Francisco. Paul, now a resident of San Diego, came to Los Angeles in 1861. The name endures in Sainsevain Street.
In 1864 he started a large wine business in New York City, which foundered, He continued with his 116-acre vineyard in San Jose, called Sainsevain Villa. Later he had a business in San Francisco and then in Central America.
After the death of his wife he returned to France, where he spent the remainer of his days.
1870 federal census California, Santa Clara County, San Jose, post office Alviso; enumerated 20 August 1870, page 114, dwelling 975, family 939
Sanservain, Pedro, 48, farmer and wine dealer, value real estate $100,000, value pers. prop. $30,000, b. France, parents foreign born
Sansevain, Maria, 44, keeping house, b. California
Sansevain, Paul, 13, father foreign born, attends school
In California he became known as "Don Pedro".
NEW FRENCH CONSULATE IN SAN JOSE PICKS UP WHERE DE
SAISSET LEFT OFF
Published: Saturday, September 14, 1991, The San Jose Mercury News, Section: Local, Page: 1B
By JOANNE GRANT, Mercury News Staff Writer
When the French government opened a new consulate in San Jose this week, it picked up a thread lost with the death of Pedro (Pierre) de Saisset in 1902.
De Saisset was Santa Clara County's first official tie to the French government, becoming the consul or vice consul in the early 1850s and serving for 35 years until his commission expired in the late 1880s. His appointment then was made honorary until it died with him.
But San Jose's French community, which today stands at more than 12,000, thrived from the formal beginnings of the city in 1850 -- with or without a consulate.
Much of the Santa Clara Valley's economic success was linked directly to the early French settlers.
Louis Pellier introduced the French prune to the Santa Clara Valley, sparking an industry that grew until Santa Clara County produced more prunes than all the rest of the U.S. combined, and by 1919 saw 7.6 million prune trees growing here.
Charles Le Franc made the first large plantings of wine grapes in the county, and Antoine Delmas and many of his compatriots brought grape cuttings to stake their futures.
John L. and Edward Auzerais were vintners, but they also built a hotel that stood for more than 80 years on West Santa Clara Street. Pierre (Don Pedro) Sansevain grew grapes, subdivided and built homes and was a member of the first state Constitutional Convention in Monterey.
More Frenchmen and women followed, some growing fruit or making wine, others establishing the kinds of businesses their countrymen needed or wanted.
There were bakeries run by the Athenours, Cailleaus, Chabres, Reynauds and Bourets; grocery stores operated by the Quements, Mesples and Cliscagnes; laundries run by the Bourbons, Costeres and Pebliers; a general store owned by the Turels.
The Sourisseaus were jewelers, the Navlets florists, and there was at least one restaurant, La Molle House, with Jules Vigouroux as chef.
Those who didn't live in outlying areas raising grapes and fruit gravitated to the same neighborhoods -- such as West San Fernando Street, coincidentally the address of the new French consulate.
The early French settlers spoke French and taught it to their children. They socialized in the French club, Le Chat Noir, and celebrated Bastille Day, July 14, with a huge bash every year. They married other French people. They had gardens, made wine (it was allowed for family use even during Prohibition) and raised chickens for quick meals. They patronized a French deli-type wagon that brought familiar cheeses, meats and other delicacies from San Francisco every two weeks.
Despite clinging to their own language and customs, the French didn't suffer discrimination, an octogenarian, first- generation Frenchwoman recalled this week.
For one thing, there were so many French people, either natives or their sons and daughters, that they seemed to be the world. "Growing up, I used to think San Jose was made up only of Frenchmen," said the longtime San Josean.
Just how de Saisset, who arrived on the West Coast in 1849, became the consul or vice consul is lost in history. But he conducted consular business from his home at 243 S. Market St., which was a historical landmark until it was demolished for a parking lot in 1955.
There wasn't enough business for de Saisset to work as consul full time, so he also was a real estate agent, managed his investments and still found moments to act as a civic booster. For example, he was heavily involved in the company that owned the electric light tower that once straddled Santa Clara and Market streets.
De Saisset's daughter, Isabel, the last of his descendants, lived until 1950. She left an estate of more than $1.1 million, giving most of it to Catholic institutions. One bequest that carries on the family name was to Santa Clara University for the de Saisset Museum in honor of her brother, artist Ernest de Saisset.
It's good that the university has the de Saisset, because otherwise even the French haven't remembered Pierre: Officials at the French consulate in San Francisco, contacted this week, didn't even know that there had been a 19th-century consulate in San Jose.
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Ernest G. Lyons started making syrups in San Francisco in 1866 and continued until after the turn of the century. He became very successful with his line of cordials, wines, brandy, whiskey and of course bitters. It is believed Lyons had moved into the warehouse occupied by a couple of wholesalers, Mercado & Seully, who had been making a Sainsevain's Bitters. Mercado & Seully had become disillusioned with a decision by the sons of Don Pedro Sainsevain to market their product in San Francisco under the name California Wine Bitters.
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From Sierra Club - Angeles Chapter - Hundred Peaks Section
17H San Sevaine Lookout
Location: San Bernardino County, California
Named for a French pioneer and vineyardist, Pierre Sainsevain who settled south of this peak (1839). He was a nephew of Luis Vignes, whose hacienda was a famous gathering place in his day and whose wines (made mostly from the black "Mission grape") became the first agricultural export of Los Angeles. Vignes founded the once famous and extensive Aliso vineyard in what is now downtown Los Angeles. It covered over a hundred acres and included a grape arbor one quarter mile long-the narrow road that once bordered the property is still called Vignes Street. To begin his own vineyard, Sainsevain dug a well near this peak and built the "Don Pedro Reservoir" to irrigate the vineyards in the northeast portion of Rancho Cucamonga via an elaborate flume system (1865). The attempt proved a failure except in years of heavy rain, but even so, Pierre and his brother Jean-Louis (who spelled his name Sansevaine) became known as prenuer wine maker
Name was hispanicized to the present spelling at a later date. This area has many boulders with mortar holes that are considered evidence that this was also once the site of a seasonal rancheria for the Serrano Indians. A rustic CCC "spike camp" was established here for the use of hunters (1935).
A USFS fire lookout was built consisting of 10' timber tower with a 14' by 14' cab (1935).
Don Bauer, Forest Supervisor (ca.1950's) recalls that the twin sugar pines on this ridge have been protected as a USFS tradition because of an experience by early Ranger Dale Gentry, who later became State Commissioner of Fish and Game. He was once caught here in a blizzard while hunting in the 1880's, and survived a night in the snow by covering himself with pine needles and using the trees as windbreaks. In gratitude, Gentry purchased the peak. When he deeded the land to the USFS it was with the understanding that these trees would be forever spared.
Sequoia trees were planted here by Jim Graham just after WWII
Name of adjacent San Sevaine Flat and San Sevaine Springs first appear in the USFS San Bernardino N.F. map (1926) and only later was this name extended to this peak.
Name first appears on AMS San Bernardino quad (1943).
Peak was added to the HPS Peak List in 1965.
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Vignes Adobe Est. 1830s
Located near Commercial Street and Vignes Street, Los Angeles. Built in the early 1830s by Jean Louis Vignes (Don Luis Vignes), who was a native of Bordeaux, France. He came to California in 1831. He acquired 104 acres east of the Plaza, where he planted grape vines. His property was bounded by Alameda Street to the west, the LA River to the east and Aliso Street (now 101 Fwy) to the north and probably Temple Street to the south. A high adobe wall surrounded most of his property. For many years a large sycamore tree (which in Spanish means Aliso) stood near his adobe. Hence the name Aliso Street. Vignes was a pioneer vineyardist and winemaker. He ran the business with his nephews, Jean and Pierre Sainsevain. They purchased the wine making operation from Vignes and started the Sainsevain Winery in 1857. The two-story winery was also built of adobe. Here the first California champagne was made. Vignes died on January 17, 1862. Vignes Street is named in his honor. John R. Kielbasa
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Jean Louis Sainsevain, at the age of twenty-two, came to America from France to join his brother, Pierre.
In 1855, their uncle, Jean L. Vignes, sold his El Aliso vineyard to the two brothers for $42,000. This was the largest sum paid for a piece of real estate in the Los Angeles area up to that time.
In 1865 the Sainsevain Brothers bought land in the Cucamonga area and set out a large vineyard. In 1870 they moved to the Cucamonga Vineyard.
From 1871 to 1873 Pierre and Jean L. Sainsevain with Joseph S. Garcia ran the vineyard and winery at Cucamonga.
On February 24, 1873, Pierre Sainsevain sold 580 acres, part of the Rain's Cucamonga Rancho, to Joseph S. Garcia.
In 1874 and 1875 the Sainsevains purchased land in Hawker Canyon four miles east of Etiwanda and built a large stone house and reservoir.
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Seventy-five Years in San Francisco
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CHAPTER 26. SOMETHING ABOUT DON LUIS VIGNES
Commodore Jones called on Micheltorena at Los Angeles, with his suite of officers, in full uniform, and the commodore and the new governor had a long conference in regard to the taking of Monterey, lasting several days. The explanations of the former were politely received by the latter and a cordial understanding arrived at between the two.
During his stay there a banquet was given to Commodore Jones and his officers by Micheltorena, winding up with a grand ball. Mr. Henry Mellus was present, and has informed me it was a brilliant affair. All the wealth and beauty of Los Angeles and surrounding country were present. The commodore and his officers expressed themselves as highly delighted. They also spoke flatteringly of Los Angeles and its neighborhood, calling it the Eden of the earth. They were charmed with the vineyards and orchards, with the orange groves, seeing the golden fruit hanging on the trees in the month of January. The most extensive cultivator at that time (1843) was Louis Vignes, who invited them to his place and entertained them. They were delighted with his California wines, of different vintages, some as much as eight or ten years old, of fine quality. They were interested in going through his cellars, where the wines of different years were stored in large quantities in pipes. Vignes presented the commodore and the officers with several barrels of this choice wine, which were gratefully accepted. He remarked that he desired them to preserve some of it to take to Washington to give to the President of the United States, that he might know what excellent wine was produced in California.
Don Luis, as the Californians called him, was a Frenchman, who came to Monterey in the bark Louisa with me in 1831 from Boston, touching at Honolulu and Sitka. From Monterey he went to San Pedro, shortly afterward established himself at Los Angeles, and before long had the largest vineyard in California. At that early day he imported cuttings of different varieties of grapes, in small quantities, which were put up with great care and sent from France to Boston; thence they came out in the vessels trading on this coast, to be experimented with in wine producing. He took great pride in the business. I regard him as the pioneer not only in wine making but in the orange cultivation, he being the first man to raise oranges in Los Angeles and the first to establish a vineyard of any pretension. It is true the missionaries were the first to plant vines and make wine, but to a limited acreage and quantity only, as a church wine and for their own consumption.
In 1833 I called to see him at his house and found him well established. My old friend was overjoyed to see me and received me most hospitably; I remained two or three days with him. I was a boy at that time, and he said to me most warmly: �William, I only regret that I am not of your age. With my knowledge of vine and orange cultivation and of the soil and climate of California, I foresee that these two are to have a great future; this is just the place to grow them to perfection.� On my leaving his hospitable quarters there were some golden oranges peeping from between the rich foliage of a large tree which had been left purposely for the enjoyment of his visitors. To view oranges still on the tree in the month of May was a novelty. Don Luis politely remarked that he was sorry of his inability to proffer me an orange or two. He was then about fifty years old, full of zeal and enterprise. He was one of the most valuable men who ever came to California, and the father of the wine industry here. He had an intelligent appreciation of the extent and importance of this interest in the future.
In 1842, nine years afterward, I again called to see him. He asked me if I remembered what he had said to me when I was last there, about the California wine, its importance and value, and remarked that he would now prove to me that his predictions were correct, and would show me what he could do for California. He then took me and a friend who was with me into his cellar and showed us the different vintages stored there, and brought out several bottles of his old wine, which were tested and commended. He said he had written home to France representing the advantages of California for wine making, telling them that he believed the day would come when California would rival �Ia belle France� in wine producing of all varieties, not only in quantity, but in quality, not even excepting champagne; and that he had also induced several of his relations and a number of his more intelligent countrymen to come to California to settle near Los Angeles, and engage in the business. He also manufactured aguardiente in considerable quantities, as did other wine producers. This liquor was considered by the old settlers as a superior article when three or four years old. Beyond that, it still further unproved in quality, being of a finer flavor, entirely pure, and was regarded as a wholesome drink. It was made from the old mission grapes. When first produced it was clear and colorless, like gin or alcohol, but gradually assumed a slight tint with age, and when six, eight or ten years old, became of fine amber color, and was then a rich, oily liquor, very palatable.
The merchants bought the aguardiente and also the wines, in considerable lots, directly from the vineyards, and sold it to their customers at Monterey, Yerba Buena, and other points along the coast. At that time I was familiar with wines of different kinds, and was regarded as an expert in determining their quality and value, and I considered the aguardiente as vastly superior to the brandy made in those days. Some of it is probably still kept at Los Angeles.
Don Luis was truly one of the most enlightened pioneers of the coast. In May, 1852, I saw him again for the last time, visiting him at his home, accompanied by John H. Saunders, who recently died at San Rafael. Vignes was then quite old, but his intellect was unimpaired. The Don was full of history of wine matters, and kept up a constant stream of conversation, proud of his success and overflowing with brilliant anticipations of the future of this interest in which he was so wrapped up, as bearing upon the prosperity of the state and its commercial importance. His vineyard was entered by an immense gate just outside of which there was a splendid sycamore tree of great age. From this circumstance Vignes was known as Don Luis del Aliso, aliso being the Spanish word for sycamore. He greatly admired the huge tree and was proud of it and of being called by that name, by which he was more familiarly known. His choice old wine could be drunk with impunity. It had an agreeable, exhilarating and strengthening effect, but no unpleasant after-consequences. He was known by everybody in the vicinity of Los Angeles, and appreciated. He was generous to the poor; in their distress he helped them in bread, money and wine. When they came to him he advised the mothers of young children to give them a little wine as an internal antiseptic, so that they might grow up strong, as in his own country; or on the same principle, perhaps, that doctors prescribe whisky and milk as a cure for diphtheria.
I am sure that all of the residents of California who were living here at the time of Don Luis will endorse what I have said in regard to him and his influence upon the prosperity of the country. It is to be hoped that historians will do justice to his character, his labors and foresight.
Luis Vignes at his death left a fine estate to his relatives, but they allowed it to be frittered away and the whole became obliterated. I knew one of his nephews, Pedro Sainsevain, who married a daughter of Antonio Su�ol of the pueblo San Jose.
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The signers of the original California Constitution were the 48 delegates to the constitutional convention. The convention met from September to November 1849 at Colton Hall in Monterey, California. The Constitution was written in both English and Spanish and provided that all major legislation was to be written in both languages. This requirement was dropped when a new constitution was formulated in 1878--1879.
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The signers of the original California Constitution were the 48 delegates to the constitutional convention. The convention met from September to November 1849 at Colton Hall in Monterey, California. The Constitution was written in both English and Spanish and provided that all major legislation was to be written in both languages. This requirement was dropped when a new constitution was formulated in 1878--1879.
Name: Pedro Sainsevain
Nativity: Bordeaux
Residence: San Jose
Age: 26
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Antonio Mar�a SuZol, born in Barcelona, had served in the French navy and deserted from the Bordelais in California in 1818. He owned the rancho San Jos� del Valle and other properties and was interested in the quicksilver mines at New Almaden. De Mofras found him (1841) "sous-pr�fet" of San Jose, and said of him: 'M. SuZol speaks our language very well, and is very devoted to France; he has two farms and many cattle; he runs a business that gives him great importance in the country, and he will be able to assist French ships arriving at San Francisco or at Monte Rey.' His daughter Paula was the wife of Don Pedro Sainsevain.
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Jacques Antoine Moerenhout (1796-1879) was the French consul in Monterey at the time of the gold discovery. He wrote several letters to the French Minister of Foreign Affairs regarding the discovery and its effects. He even took a trip to check it out. His letters give an even different view of California right after the discovery of gold at Coloma.
They were translated and edited from documents in the French archives by Abraham P. Nasatir, in collaboration with George Ezra Dane, and published by the California Historical Society in 1935 as "The Inside Story of the Gold Rush."
Moerenhout has returned from a trip to the northern mines along the American, Bear, Yuba and Feather rivers. It is August in 1848 and he has now returned to Monterey, from which he started his trip.
"On the 11th before sunrise we were on our way to San Jos�. It was about five or six leagues to the Mission and eleven to the Pueblo. As we went on we came into some regions that had escaped the fire and by their beauty made the terrible destruction seem the more regrettable. Toward the southern extremity of the valley where the two roads leading to the Strait and to the San Joaquin meet the fire had been stopped by the Arroyo de Adentro (inland stream), its ravages had altogether ceased, and this region still appeared in all its richness and beauty.
"The son of M. (Antonio Mar�a) SuZol to whom this beautiful spot belongs and who has a farm and many cattle, assured me afterwards that more than twenty times during six weeks he had been obliged to go there with Indians to extinguish fire set to the grass by the negligence of travelers, and he feared every moment the same fate as the other farmers of this valley-to see all his fields and his pastures destroyed by fire."
Antonio Mar�a SuZol, born in Barcelona, had served in the French navy and deserted from the Bordelais in California in 1818. He owned the rancho San Jos� del Valle and other properties and was interested in the quicksilver mines at New Almaden. De Mofras found him (1841) "sous-pr�fet" of San Jose, and said of him: 'M. SuZol speaks our language very well, and is very devoted to France; he has two farms and many cattle; he runs a business that gives him great importance in the country, and he will be able to assist French ships arriving at San Francisco or at Monte Rey.' His daughter Paula was the wife of Don Pedro Sainsevain. The son mentioned was probably Jos� SuZol, who was killed by a squatter on the rancho in 1855.
Moerenhout continues: "At ten o'clock we arrived at the Mission where we found many people coming and going from the Placer, for this is the route by which all must pass whether they go by way of the Strait or of the San Joaquin. We stopped there only to take a little nourishment. It was two o'clock in the afternoon when I returned to M. (Antonio Mar�a) SuZol's at the Pueblo of San Jos�, after an absence of one month to the day. The day after my arrival at the Pueblo, the 12th of July (most likely August), was the feast day of Santa Clara and there was a special service at the Mission a mile from the Pueblo and a gathering of people that astonished me, but M. SuZol informed me that almost all the men of the Pueblo and of the environs had returned from the Placer to be present at the feast. He reckoned that from two to three hundred at least had come home within the week. A good many Americans and other foreigners had also returned and he thought that all together there were not less than five hundred and that they had each, or on the average, brought back with them a thousand dollars in gold. This value of half a million dollars in the hands of so many individuals disposed to spend a large part of it had immediately emptied all the shops and the stores; not a yard of cloth nor any other merchandise remained in the market place and gold was already being exchanged for silver at the rate of from 8 to 10 dollars for an ounce.
"One can hardly conceive of the extraordinary changes occasioned in the condition and character of the people of this country by the discovery of the gold region. In Upper California there have never been any poor in the true sense of the word-that is to say, people in need. With the abundance of cattle and the extreme fertility of the soil no one ever lacks for food, but money was hardly known. What people needed for their persons or their houses, they obtained in exchange for hides, tallow, etc., and those who had ever possessed as much as five hundred or a thousand dollars were extremely rare in Upper California. Whereas now the lowliest, the most unfortunate among them, finds himself in possession of that much or of a much greater sum, obtained over night and with such ease that it seems of little importance to him and he parts with it and spends it with indifference and prodigality. The extraordinary thing is that the Americans themselves seem all to come back with the same disposition, spend extravagantly, throw away gold by the handful and assume an air of prodigious importance and generosity."
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Pierre Sainsevain and Charles M. Sainsevain were members of the San Francisco Pioneer Association
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Pierre Sainsevain was a member of the Society of California Pioneers; July 1830
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