Thomas Wrightington - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Thomas Wrightington was an early settler of San Diego, California

San Diego, California

San Diego is the eighth-largest city in the United States and second-largest city in California. The city is located on the coast of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, immediately adjacent to the Mexican border. The birthplace of California, San Diego is known for its mild year-round...

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Thomas Wrightington was born c. 1797 in Massachusetts. He was a shoemaker from Fall River, Massachusetts

Fall River, Massachusetts

Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is located about south of Boston, southeast of Providence, Rhode Island, and west of New Bedford and south of Taunton. The city's population was 88,857 during the 2010 census, making it the tenth largest city in...

and moved to San Diego in 1833.
He came with Abel Stearns on the Ayucucho, while Stearns continued up the coast to Los Angeles.
Wrightington was probably the second American settler in San Diego, after Henry D. Fitch

Henry D. Fitch

Henry Delano Fitch was an early settler of San Diego, California.-Life:Henry D. Fitch was born 1799 in New Bedford, Massachusetts. He was a sea captain and trader...

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Wrightington was naturalized as a Mexican citizen in 1838. He served as a volunteer in the Mexican-American War.

Wrightington married
Juana Machado Alipas, a widower with three children and
daughter of José Manuel Machado,
one of the first soldiers at the Presidio of San Diego

Presidio of San Diego

El Presidio Reál de San Diego is an historical fort established on May 14, 1769, by Commandant Pedro Fages for Spain. It was the first permanent European settlement on the Pacific Coast of the United States. As the first of the presidios and Spanish missions in California, it was the base of...

and Serafina Valdez.
She was born June 1814. They had 3 sons and 1 daughter.

Juana Machado Alipas de Wrightington, along with being a wife and mother,
often rode with Father Ubach into the back country to visit the Indian rancherías and to check conditions. Her neighbors called her the "Florence Nightingale of Old Town."

Wrightington served several offices under the Mexican and American governments.
During 1844 and again during 1847–March 1848 he was
Suplente (Substitute Justice of the Peace or Mayor) of San Diego Pueblo.

Wrightington lived in the adobe built by her wife's first husband, Damasio Alipas around 1830. Wrightington added a wing in 1852. The adobe still stands in Old Town State Historical Park, in the west corner of the town square, and is open to the public as a retail store.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

Richard Henry Dana, Jr.

Richard Henry Dana Jr. was an American lawyer and politician from Massachusetts, a descendant of an eminent colonial family who gained renown as the author of the American classic, the memoir Two Years Before the Mast...

in his novel Two Years Before the Mast
Two Years Before the Mast
Two Years Before the Mast is a book by the American author Richard Henry Dana, Jr., published in 1840, having been written after a two-year sea voyage starting in 1834. A film adaptation under the same name was released in 1946.- Background :...

commented on first coming ashore at San Diego that

sailor-like, [we] steered for the first grog-shop. This was a small mud building, of only one room, in which were liquors, dry and West India goods, shoes, bread, fruits, and everything which is vendible in California. It was kept by a Yankee [Thomas Wrightington], a one-eyed man, who belonged formerly to Fall River, came out to the Pacific in a whale-ship, left her at the Sandwich Islands [Hawaii] and came to California. . . the liquor was a real (12½ cents) a glass.

Wrightington died 1853. According to Dana he "fell from his horse when drunk, and was found nearly eaten up by coyotes".

Wrightington's widow Juana Wrightington remained in the house until the late 1890s. A room was rented out of her house to Dr. George McKinstry for over 30 years as a physician's office, with Juana as a nurse.
Her final days were spent with her daughter Serafina Israel in Coronado

Coronado, California

Coronado, also known as Coronado Island, is an affluent resort city located in San Diego County, California, 5.2 miles from downtown San Diego. Its population was 24,697 at the 2010 census, up from 24,100 at the 2000 census. U.S. News and World Report lists Coronado as one of the most expensive...

. She died December 24, 1901. Juana is buried in Calvary Cemetery (now Pioneer Park) in Mission Hills, San Diego with a headstone that reads "JUANITA WRIGHTINGTON 1814–1901".

See also