Connections: Cyrus Alexander to Kit Carson

This article written and copyright 2012 by Will Johnson, wjhonson@aol.com, Professional Genealogist

One article in my series "Sonoma County, California"

Another entry in Countyhistorian's Connections series.

Connections links people side-by-side, up-and-down, one link to the next through relationships like marriage, blood or business partnerships.

Each number below represents one of these primitive links, in order.

To understand the connections you have to read each paragraph below, in order.

• 1. Cyrus Alexander was born in 1808 in Pennsylvania, the seventh of eight children. By 1833 he has arrived at San Diego, California then part of Mexico. Henry Fitch a merchant seaman from Massachusetts, had become a naturalized Mexican citizen to marry Josefa Carillo in 1829. Henry had been granted a large piece of land near present-day Healdsburg, California called the Sotoyome Ranch, but he was rarely there. Instead he made contracts with other men to utilize the grant, and give him a piece of the profit. This is what he did for Cyrus in 1840. Cyrus ranched at Sotoyome, probably until the time he fell in love with his neighbor William H Gordon's sister-in-law Rufina Lucero. They were married in December 1844 in Sonoma County, California by Captain John Sutter on whose property gold was later discovered which started the great 1849 Gold Rush.

  2. Rufina Lucero who had been born in May 1825 at Mora (now in New Mexico) had been staying with her older sister Mary Jane Lucero and Mary's husband William H Gordon at their place at Cache Creek when she met Cyrus Alexander. Her older sister Mary Jane had been born 11 Oct 1805 at Taos. After they had four children together, Cyrus died on his ranch in Sonoma County 27 Dec 1872. Rufina outlived him by 35 years, dying 18 Mar 1908 on the same ranch.

  3. Mary Jane Lucero had been born 11 Oct 1805 at Taos (now in New Mexico). Both her and her sister Rufina (and others) were children of Pedro Lucero. It seems that William H Gordon must have moved to Taos or that area, perhaps as a fur trapper where he met Mary Jane. They married by 1827 as their eldest son Thomas Gordon was born that year in New Mexico. They moved to Los Angeles by 1841 as their youngest daughter Margaret Gordon was born at that place 17 Dec 1841. They were apparently already settled at their Cache Creek ranch by 1844 when Mary Jane (Lucero) Gordon died 28 Mar 1844 and was buried there. Three of their children are known to have had issue.

  4. William H Gordon was born 16 Sep 1801 in Adams County, Ohio. I do not know the name of his father, but his elder brother Joseph Gordon had been born ten to twelve years earlier in either Kentucky or Tennessee. This Joseph was also famous in early California history, marrying at Callaway County, Missouri on 22 Aug 1822 to Matilda Henderson. (They moved to Russian River in Sonoma County, California.) William H Gordon had already moved by May 1847 to Cache Creek, California where at that time his niece Mariah was married at his house. William H Gordon died 3 Oct 1876 in Lake County, California.

  5. Joseph Gordon was born 1789/91, being "age 60" in 1850 born Kentucky; and "age 69" in 1860 born Tennessee. On 22 Aug 1822 in Callaway County, Missouri he married to Matilda Henderson. They were the parents of at least one child: Mariah Louisa Gordon born in Missouri; "age 29" 1860, "age 39" 1870. The family had moved by 1847 to California as Mariah was married that year at her uncle William's at Cache Creek.

  6. Mariah Louisa Gordon married, as her first husband, on 17 May 1847 at William Gordon's at Cache Creek to John S Williams a tanner. They were married by Alcalde William Ide made famous by his participation in the Bear Flag Revolt. Mariah and John's only child John S Williams Jr born 14 Dec 1848, is one of the claimants, unlikely as that may be, to be the First White Child born in Sonoma County. John S Williams died 19 May 1849 at "Butte Creek near the crossing of the Oregon Railroad." Mariah married secondly to Lindsey Carson (b 1818) a younger brother of Kit Carson.

  7. Lindsey Carson was born 11 Sep 1818 at Boonslick, Howard County, Missouri, the youngest child, born seven days after his father, also named Lindsey (1764-1818) had been killed by a falling tree limb while clearing land. His mother Rebecca was said-to-have-become destitute as a result of this, so that Kit was apprenticed to a saddle maker at a young age. It is not yet known by me, what Lindsey did during his younger years, but his elder brother Moses B Carson, born 1797/9 came to Sonoma County, California and worked for shares on the Sotoyome Ranch of Henry and Josefa Fitch, same as Alexander Cyrus had done earlier. Moses had been a soldier and lost an eye and a few fingers in battle. It was to Moses, that Fowler and Cowie were riding to see about acquiring a keg of gunpowder for the Bear Flag Rebellion, when they were murdered by Californios. Moses was there working the Sotoyome Ranch in May 1849 and had invited his brother Lindsey to join him on the Ranch. The following year, 1850, Lindsey married, as her second husband to Mariah Louisa (Gordon) Williams. By 1860 the place had acquired the name Healdsburg which is where they are enumerated that year in the US Federal Census. However by 1867 Lindsey, as a Dairyman, age 48, born Missouri, is voting out of Lakeport in Lake County. In the 1870 US Federal Census, they are living at Kelsey Creek, Lake County, California, but in 1882/3 he is voting from Mendocino County.

  8. Christopher Houston "Kit" Carson was born 24 Dec 1809 in Madison County, Kentucky, the eleventh child of fifteen of his father Lindsey Carson. Kit along with his elder brother Moses and younger brother Lindsey were all from Lindsey's second wife Rebecca Robinson whom he married 11 Feb 1796 in Madison County, Kentucky. This statement corrects other biographies who claim that Moses was from the first wife. When Kit was one year old, the family moved to a rural area near present-day Franklin, Missouri (which wasn't founded until 1816). After Kit's father died in 1818, he was apprenticed to a saddle maker, but didn't like that work and so took off and became a trapper, and later a guide. He became familiar with the Santa Fe Trail. Hunting and trapping throughout the West during this period he married two different Indian women at different times. He went to Bent's Fort in New Mexico working there from Sep 1841 to Apr 1842. It was in Apr 1842 on a steamship, that he met John C Fremont, who was to prove so instrumental in the later conquest of California. On 6 Feb 1843 at Taois, Kit married Josefa Jaramillo. She was the younger sister of Ignacia Jaramillo who in 1835 had married secondly Charles Bent. It was probably through Bent that Kit met Josefa.