by Andrea Pirson
There is nothing more gratifying to us at the Homestead than when visitors to the site or those who engage with us through email, phone, social media or this blog establish a personal connection to what we do in sharing the history of greater Los Angeles from 1830 to 1930.
This post reflects just such an example, as Andrea explains in a letter sent to director Paul Spitzzeri, who has written and given presentations on the early 1857 drama involving the Flores-Daniel Gang, robberies and the murder of George Pflugradt [often misspelled as Pflugardt] at San Juan Capistrano, the massacre of the posse led by Los Angeles County Sheriff James R. Barton and the manhunt, given to great excesses, that followed.
After Andrea and Paul communicated about her ancestor, she was invited to submit the following for publication on the blog. We also asked for an introduction, so here it is:
My name is Andrea Pirson and I am born in Germany in 1971. I am married, the mother of two children and with my family I am living in Turkey and Germany. Being an archaeologist, I am generally interested in history as a broader issue. During my life, there were different connections with ancestor George’s life and family without me understanding it. Beginning with a family painting in my grandmother’s house that was said to show George, his parents and sisters up to my living in Leipzig for a while quite near the place of which George was the landlord. From my childhood on, I heard about the family legend of an ancestor being lost in America and was rather fascinated by this. Thus, finally there was my call to lift layer after layer of historical sources to find more and more details of his story.
Now to Andrea’s post:
Dear Paul,
It is that time of the year [the Day of the Dead in early November] when we especially commemorate those of our families and friends who passed away. And it has been nearly a year now that I found out about one of my ancestors who due to a family legend had got lost in Wild West of America.
Probably, I was the first in my family having the possibilities to find him, maybe because I am an archaeologist and accustomed to digging deep for research. Surely, because of the internet and the many digitalized archives that can be browsed nowadays, information could be located. But first of all, I found George thanks to The Homestead Blog!
Since that exciting discovery, that my great-great-great granduncle became, in January 1857, the victim the Flores-Daniel Gang, a band of murderers in early southern California, you kindly answered several mails and provided me with further information. Finally, you even offered that I might write something for the Blog.
Meanwhile, I did a lot of research and it is fascinating how much there is still to find out about George’s short but rather interesting life between Europe and America. Obviously, I am the one to tell his story and as there is plenty to tell, there will be a book.
Now, your recent articles about the early burials in Los Angeles cemeteries reminded me about your kind offer and maybe it is time.
Reading about the struggles of Lutheran inhabitants burying their deceased, I wondered again, what might have happened with George’s body after the murder? I guessed he might have been interred in San Juan Capistrano where it all happened and where he was at home. There is even a hint that another man of the posse who died accidently when trying to catch the bandits had been laid to rest there. But, as George was baptized Lutheran, I wonder how likely that is. Although I have the impression that for him it would not have mattered too much, that might have caused a problem those days. Is it possible to think of a burial in Los Angeles [possibly in the City, or Protestant, Cemetery on Fort Moore Hill where the Cortines high school for the performing and visual arts is today]?
But instead of talking about his death, I would like to tell the story of his life. So, let me share with you a bit of what I know about George Woldemar Pflugradt (Pflugardt) who was one of the early European pioneers in Los Angeles and San Juan Capistrano.
Born in 1819 in a well-off family in Leipzig, Saxony, Germany, he was the oldest of four living children and the only son. Logically, he was to proceed in his father’s established business of trading fancy goods for women and gentlemen. That is why George, after finishing school, was sent beyond the borders of the Kingdom of Saxony to learn the trading of silks for four years. During that period, one of his sisters was educated in Paris, including lessons on her own Pleyel piano. Surely, one could travel through Europe and also between today’s German provinces that in the 1830s were different kingdoms and some free cities, but you needed a passport and anything could happen anyway. Those people were rather used to travelling against all odds.
When George learned French at home, as was common in that time, he perfected it in those years of his apprenticeship as it was the most important language of the silk traders. Thus, later in Los Angeles, it was not too difficult for him to learn Spanish, that he managed as fluently as French and English and appreciated its beauty, as he stated in a letter to his family.
Coming back home to Leipzig, he reestablished his father’s store in a very prominent place in the city centre, making it one of the most known places for luxurious items like Paris fashion, laces and delicate fabrics, offering also own creations of fancy hats and bonnets and everything a woman needed for her elaborate coiffure. I am sure there were plenty more things like delicately decorated hair-combs, ostrich feathers, fans, trinkets, even jewelry and so on. As he was a rather young and handsome man, his presence was probably an additional attraction to visit the store that was mentioned in popular magazines of the time.
He was also fond of painting, pencil, oil and engravings. In those years, Leipzig was one of the most important cities in Germany, having several fairs every year, and it was a leading place of publishers and print-houses. It was an international city with many guests and buzzing with cultural activities, concerts and theatre. The composers Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Robert and Clara Schumann were important figures of the time.
We are quite sure, that George was attracted by the revival of the adoration of the acclaimed writer Friedrich Schiller and inspired by the ideas of “Sturm und Drang” [literally “storm and stress” and dealing with the Romantic movement of the era] and the ideal of all men being brothers.
This life somehow was disrupted by the events of the so-called Vormärz [a period of growing unrest in modern Germany from around 1815], leading to the revolutionary activities of 1848. Our young man grabbed his stuff, crossed three kingdoms (Saxony, Prussia and Hannover) to the free city of Bremen and in the face of a looming naval blockade boarded a ship to New York City. During the voyage, all his belongings, many boxes, paintings and engravings included, became ruined by water. Thus, reaching the New World, he had to start from scratch and as mail did not work properly, he was completely cut off from home and any possible support.
Some of his letters reached the family, but obviously and tragically, there was no delivered answers for him to be read.
Somehow, logically, he left his humble belongings with Wilhelm Radde and his “mentor” John Dede (who may have been a painter) in New York City, followed the Gold Rush, took a wrong turn here and there on his way west and appeared back in civilization north of Los Angeles.
It is obvious that in 1850 he had ties to Rancho San Antonio [the domain of the Lugo family southeast of Los Angeles], but we do not know if he was just given the opportunity to use the ranch as a place to receive his mail, if he really lived on the it for a while or if he socialized with the Lugo family.
Needing six weeks to recover from crossing the continent largely on foot, in Los Angeles he first produced cigars (he had learned that in New York City), but gathering strength again he started working in a vineyard, helped in housebuilding and later on was a cook and house servant in a German bakery. After selling the produce of the owner’s garden, the very same man gave him a small bakery, at first as a limited partnership, where he could trade on his own account. Then, he developed the enterprise from a mere bread stall to a trade in materials and provisions. As George mentions John Behn in his letter as an alternative address in Los Angeles, quite surely it was him who helped in the starting of the business.
In a recent post on The Homestead Blog, John J. Behn (probably a son of the latter) is mentioned as a member of the California Volunteers military unit in a Los Angeles Times article of May, 30th 1885. Thanks to Harris Newmark’s memoir, Sixty Years in Southern California, we know that the German-born Behn came to Los Angeles shortly before George and seemed to be well established by then. Later in the 50s, he owned a grocery business at the northeast corner of First and Los Angeles streets.
It may be of interest that Newmark also mentions John Behn’s partnerships, unfortunately without naming the men, and that the business was sold to Lorenzo Leck in 1854. Leck was a “German Dane” [meaning of German extraction and born in Denmark] being in Los Angeles since 1849 and whose son married a daughter of Thomas Mott and lived in San Juan Capistrano. One could imagine the three talking German, sharing news and memories in the early 50s.
The last sign of life that our family had of George for more than 170 years was a letter he sent in 1851. This, as he writes, was to be delivered personally to Germany by the first German trader to get back home, Jakob Frankfurt. Frankfurt came to Los Angeles in late 1841 as a member of the Rowland-Workman exploratory party and was then situated as tailor in a men’s clothing store in Mellus Row, later Bell’s Row, being one of the first eight Jewish Pioneers of the City. Up to now, unfortunately I could not find any trace of Mr. Frankfurt [you can learn more about Frankfurt and the Rowland and Workman Expedition in a talk this Sunday the 8th at the Homestead] in German archives, but the letter by George is evidence that he travelled safely home from Los Angeles.
The indication that George had contacts with Mellus Row is no surprise as these educated men with refined European roots and fancy goods for trade in a still small place must have met and got acquainted.
Talking about acquaintances, a certain Rudolf Rumschöttel, seemingly known from Germany, is mentioned as coming to California with the military, as well as a man just called by his surname Kalisch or Kabisch, while last, but not least, Prince (correctly Duke) Paul of Württemberg who got to know George over a few bottles of ale in early summer of 1850 [there will be more on this in a future post on this blog by Andrea.]
In early 1851, there was a stagnation in trade due to a lack of customers, immigrants preferring the northern route on one hand and too many goods being sent to that location on the other. But George, not being interested in the mines anymore and expressing how appealing he found the delightful climate wanted to stay in or near Los Angeles.
Not far away, in San Juan Capistrano, he finally found his home and established a store and tavern in his adobe house, that he had a business partner run for him. This was Fernando Pérez, a native of Mexico and a little younger than George, while another young Mexican, Felipe Jimenez, helped them. Some cattle and horses were pastured on George’s land and he had a wagon.
George seemed to be well integrated in his new home when, in November 1856, he was an election judge for the township of San Juan Capistrano alongside José Antonio Yorba and Manuel García for the general county election held in the house of John Forster at the Mission.
Maybe with his established trade and citizenship, a reliable business partner and helper, even with friends, he might have taken the risk to leave it all for a while and sail home to Europe, as quite a few others did. Maybe he even would have seen his father, who died in 1861, again. Or, perhaps he would have had to wait for another while as there was something or someone coming
But these speculations were not to happen, as everything came to a sudden halt by three bullets in that dreadful night of 22 January 1857 when he was killed by the Flores-Daniel gang in his store and it was reported the bandits stretched George’s body on a table and ate the meal he was getting ready to enjoy.
A little glimpse of hope was offered by George to his family, who were separated from him by time, a large continent and the Atlantic Ocean, when before he died, as indicated by a rather credible historical source, he mentioned his “child”.
So, if this source is beyond doubt, what happened to the child? Who and where, between Los Angeles and San Juan Capistrano, maybe even up north, among rancheros, citizens, indigenous persons, Mexicans and Americans and Europeans was the benefactor to care for the child and the mother? [George’s estate executor was Benjamin Dreyfus, who settled in Los Angeles in 1854 and had a store while involved in a brewery and was a founder, also in 1857, of the new town of Anaheim.]
Dear Paul, dear readers, if you could provide any further information on the life of George in California or even about his child, you will see me and my family thankful and happy!
Any saying, legend, family history, also concerning the other persons mentioned here who were connected with George, will help a lot to complete his story.
And maybe, later, I can report back about the outcome of my and your contributions.
For now, please accept my thanks for viewing George not merely as a victim, but as a dynamic figure of his time and a leading entrepreneur of the German Biedermeier period and the early American era of Los Angeles and San Juan Capistrano.
Yours, Andrea