With Jose Joaquin Verdugo (1795-1832) and his wife, Maria Josefa Magdalena Vejar (1799-1850) we find a family with many relationships to the old Californio families, whether through blood, marriage or other affiliation. Jose Joaquin and Maria Josefa Magdalena were married in San Diego, California on January 7th, 1821 [per Marie Northrup]. They were the children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, cousins and in-laws of the original settlers, soldiers and immigrants that arrived in San Diego, Los Angeles and Upper California after 1769.
Jose Joaquin Verdugo was born in 1795 at San Gabriel, California; his father, Ygnacio Leonardo Maria Verdugo (1761-1830), had come north to San Diego as a boy from Loreto in Baja California. Leonardo’s wife, Maria Josefa Magdalena Vejar was born in November of 1799 in San Diego, California; her father, Francisco Salvador Vejar (1764-1824), was stationed as a soldier and served as a master carpenter at the Presidio of San Diego. Jose Joaquin Verdugo died at the age of about 37 years old in January of 1832 at San Gabriel in Los Angeles, California; leaving behind his 32 year old widow, 5 young daughters ranging in age from 1 to 11, and a son that would be born just shortly after his death.
Jose Joaquin Verdugo’s Parents
Jose Joaquin Verdugo’s parents, Ygnacio Leonardo Maria Verdugo and Maria Josefa Vincenta Rubio were married at Mission San Gabriel on July 4, 1793 by the Fr. Miguel Sanchez. The witnesses to the marriage were Maria Encarnacion Perez (1768-1825) and her husband Pedro Antonio Lisalde (1753-1818), Jose Manuel Perez Nieto (1748-1804) and his wife. Pedro Antonio Lisalde was a soldier with the San Diego Company who had come to California with the De Anza Expedition of 1776 and served with the Verdugo brothers. Jose Manuel Perez Nieto arrived in California with the Portola Expedition and is first found on the garrison list of Monterey in 1773, later the recipient of Rancho Los Nietos in 1784.
Maria Josefa Magdalena Vejar’s Parents
Jose Joaquin Verdugo’s wife Maria Josefa Magdalena Vejar’s parents were Francisco Salvador Vejar (1765-1824), a Spanish soldier and a Master Carpenter who came to California in 1790, and Maria Josefa Benita Lopez (1784-1863). They were married at the Mission San Diego in 1798. Francisco Salvador Vejar helped to build the Presidio at Monterey in 1796, constructed a watch tower at Point Guijarros in San Diego in 1808 (with his brother, Ship’s Carpenter, Pablo Vejar); repaired the leaking roof of Mission San Luis Rey in 1817, travelled to Santa Barbara to prepare ‘rockets’ for the celebration of the dedication of the new Mission there in 1820, and according to family tradition was involved in the construction of Mission San Gabriel as well as El Pueblo de Nuestra Sonora La Reina de Los Angeles de Porciuncula, or the Los Angeles Plaza Church.
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| From the Denver Public Library, was taken by William Henry Jackson |
Children of Jose Joaquin Verdugo and Maria Josefa Magdalena Vejar
Their eldest child, Juana Maria Resurreccion Verdugo (1821-1870) married Teodoro Romero (1810-1846) in about 1837. Teodoro Romero was the co-recipient of the Rancho Potrero de Felipe Lugo with Juana Maria Resurreccion Verdugo’s step-father, Jorge Morillo. Teodoro Romero was from Sonora, Mexico and his parents are unknown, but it seems likely that he was a relative of Juana Maria Resurreccion Verdugo’s cousin’s wife. Her cousin, Julio Antonio Jose Verdugo, the son of Rancho San Rafael owner Jose Maria Verdugo, was married to Maria De Jesus Romero (1801-1872). She was the daughter of Soldado Juan Maria Romero (1747-1816) and Maria Lugarda Salgado (1761-1847). After Teodoro Romero died Juana Maria Resurreccion Verdugo remarried Jose del Refugio Zuniga (1820-1890) in 1850. Jose del Refugio Zuniga’s first wife was Maria Dolores Romero. Jose del Refugio Zuniga and Juana Maria Resurreccion Verdugo had several children together; including a son Manuel Maria de las Merced Zuniga (1854-1928) who later married Lucinda Amanda Temple (1860-1928), the daughter of Francisco Pliny Fiske Temple (1822-1880) and Antonia Margarita Workman (1830-1892).
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| Plat map of Rancho Potrero de Felipe Lugo |
Maria Dolores “Isadora” Verdugo (1823-1868) married Juan Jose Cecilio Villalobo (1816-1854) in 1838. He was the son of the widow Maria Casilda Soto (1799-1854), grantee of the 2,363 acre Rancho La Merced in 1844; and Jose Cecilio Cedilio Villalobo (1786-a.1836). Juan Jose Cecilio Villalobo and Maria Casilda Soto were married June 6, 1812 at Mission San Gabriel, with the marriage document penned by Jose Cristobal Palomares who also provided parental consent for Maria Casilda Soto who was 13 years old. We later find them in the 1836 Mexican census living at La Mision Vieja with five children. Maria Dolores “Isadora” Verdugo, in a second marriage, wed Jose Facundo Reyes (1824-1870). He was the son of Maria Clara Cota (1790-1844) (a grand-daughter of Roque Jacinto de Cota) and Antonio Faustino Reyes (1785-1844). Jose Facundo Reyes’ brother Antonio Maria Reyes (1822-1928) married Maria Trinidad Jesus Francisca Vejar (1826-1852); the eldest daughter of Juan Nepomuceno Ricardo Vejar and Maria de la Trinidad Soto (and the sister of Maria Casilda Soto of the Rancho La Merced). Jose Facundo Reyes’ sister, Inocencia Reyes (1815-1863), was the 2nd wife of Teodosio Yorba (1805-1863). Teodosio Yorba’s 1st wife had been Maria Antonia Lugo (1810-1855), the daughter of Rancho San Antonio grantee Antonio Maria Lugo (1778-1860). Teodosio Yorba was the grantee of both the Rancho Arroyo Seco and the Rancho Lomas de Santiago. Teodosio Yorba’s father, Jose Antonio Yorba (1743-1825), was the grantee of the Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana.
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| Jose Facundo Reyes with Maria Dolores “Isadora” Verdugo in the background? |
Maria Salvadora Verdugo (1825-1900) married Rafael Yescas in 1852 at Mission San Gabriel. We find her living with her brother Jose Joaquin Juan Pedro Verdugo and his wife, Basilia, at San Luis Rey in the 1870 census where her age is recorded as 24. She is again found living with the family of her sister Juana Maria Eleuteria Verdugo in El Monte in the 1900 census listed as age 65.
Maria Eustaquia De La Concepcion Verdugo (1828-1870) married Jose Luis Lugo (1830-?), the son of Felipe Lugo (1807-1885) and Maria Francisca 'Pancha' Perez (1814-1885); and the grandson of Antonio Maria Lugo, the grantee of the Rancho San Antonio. Maria Francisca 'Pancha' Perez was the daughter of Spanish Soldado Jose Esteban Perez (1765-1821) and Maria Asumpcion de la Encarnacion Ontiveros (1783-1825). Maria Francisca 'Pancha' Perez brother, Jose Perez (1805-1841), married Maria de la Merced de Lugo (1815-1903); Felipe Lugo’s, sister.
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| Lugo Family members at the Adobe of Don Antonio Maria Lugo |
Juana Maria Eleuteria "Tia Chatta" Verdugo (1831-1915) married Josef Anastacio Alvitre (1822-1911). He was the son of Juan Jose Alvitre (1798-1838) and Maria Tomasa Alvarado (1799-1863). Josef Anastacio Alvitre inherited a section of the Rancho Potrero Chico from his father. Juana Maria Eleuteria "Tia Chatta" Verdugo and Josef Anastacio Alvitre had 6 children that lived to adulthood including their son, Jose Pedro Ramon Alvitre (1863-1941), who was living on the Rancho with his family in the 1920 census; and their daughter Maria Antonia Alvitre (1853-1939) who married Rafael Basye (1832-1887). Rafael Basye was the father of Tomas Basye, a close friend of Manuel Maria de las Merced Zuniga and Charles Parker Temple, the latter with whom he would become embroiled in an ongoing, violent, public and ultimately fatal (for Tomas Basye) dispute over the death of his sister, Rafaela Basye (1873-1899).
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| Vaqueros at San Juan Capistrano |
The youngest, and only son, Jose Joaquin Juan Pedro Verdugo (1832-aft. 1880) married Basilia Perez (1830-aft. 1900). We find them, as mentioned, with his sister Maria Salvadora Verdugo, listed in the 1870 census for San Luis Rey; presumably residing on former California governor Pio Pico’s Rancho Santa Margarita y Las Flores, then owned by John Forster (on current-day Camp Pendleton, north of Oceanside in San Diego County) where Jose Joaquin Juan Pedro Verdugo worked as a Vaquero. They were located 5 houses away from Forster’s Santa Margarita Ranch House. In the 1870 census Jose Joaquin Juan Pedro Verdugo is listed as age 30, Basilia Perez as age 25 and Maria Salvadora Verdugo as age 24. Basilia Perez is again found in the 1900 census, listed as age 69, living in Long Beach, California with the family of her daughter Mauricia Verdugo (1863-1941) and her husband Jose Martin (Morales) Cruz (1854-1920).
More to come...please feel free to comment, offer corrections or credit where due.
