English page
From Collection Point
Teilen
Father of California Wine Industry
'Hungarian nobleman leaves indelible mark'
Agoston Haraszthy made a good impression where ever he went. After serving because a associate with the Royal Hungarian Guards of Francis I, Emperor of Austria-Hungary in 1830, he has been forced to flee The western world for fear of being branded a revolutionist. In 1842, he returned to Hungary and convinced his father to liquidate their quantifiable holdings so the whole family could immigrate to America. When that they arrived in Sauk City, Wisconsin, they will were one of several best-capitalized immigrants with the 19th century. Along with his other entrepreneurial investments, Haraszthy began agricultural experiments and achieved in depth success in sheep raising and growing hops. Even with his sizeable success, he was actually still disappointed at not being able to establish the excellent vineyards of his native Hungary. The tug of the western frontier pulled at the Haraszthy family, plus they headed, by wagon train, to California in 1848. Agoston was actually the wagon master from the train, which included about sixty immigrants. Without serious incident, the wagon train came at Warner Hot Springs, in San Diego County. Colonel Jonathan Warner, a former militiaman who established Warner Hot Springs in 1844, apprised Haraszthy about the agriculture and the politics in the San Diego area. A scant 650 people, primarily vaqueros, Yankee sailors who had jumped ship, plus a number of Mormon soldiers through the Mormon Battalion populated San Diego.
Haraszthy's family right now included his wife, six kids, his father and stepmother, and Thomas W. Sutherland, former U.S. Legal professional for Wisconsin Territory, who was today Haraszthy's stepbrother. The Polish immigrant purchased a plot of land adjacent to San Luis Rey Mission, and, with his sons, Attila and Arpad, first planted a large berry orchard. He later bought 160 acres far more in Mission Valley and planted peach and cherry trees delivered to your pet coming from Brand-new York State. Haraszthy never ceased his investment action as well as his interest in community politics. With Don Juan Bandini, Haraszthy establish the first constantly scheduled omnibus transit system and established a livery stable. He established a very profitable butcher store. With other real estate speculators, he helped establish the subdivision of Middletown. Haraszthy Street existed there till the early 1960s when it was wiped coming from the map of the construction of Interstate 5.
When San Diego County was actually chartered in 1850, Haraszthy ended up being elected the first City Marshall, while his father, Charles, was actually elected Magistrate and Land Commissioner. His stepbrother, Tom Sutherland, became San Diego's first City Attorney. In 1851, he had been elected to the State Assembly and resigned his other office buildings. While in the legislature, then meeting in Vallejo, Haraszthy succeeded in getting funding for the expansion of San Diego Harbor and the county'utes first public hospital. He has been the first legislator to introduce legislation to divide California into two states; North and South. Because of powerful political interest in Northern California, that fees died. Every single one the while, Haraszthy continued trying to find land more suitable for agriculture than San Diego'ersus subtropical desert land offered. Early in 1852, he purchased 210 acres near San Francisco'utes Mission Dolores. He moved the entire family there at the conclusion of the Assembly Session. Haraszthy'utes noteworthy accomplishments didn'n stop. He introduced the "Zinfandel" red wine grape and the "Muscat of Alexandria" raisin grape to California. He invented the efficient platinum refining course of action, and had been founding partner in the Eureka Precious metal and Sterling silver Refining Organization. The firm became one particular from the major contract refiners for the San Francisco Mint.
Because of his reputation for fairness and honesty, Haraszthy was actually appointed Assayer of the Mint in 1855. He developed the first large, high-exceptional grape vineyard at Crystal Springs in San Mateo County. At this brand new ranch, Haraszthy designed and laid out a nursery and horticultural garden, which he named Los Flores. With his son'utes help, he planted homegrown fruit trees and shrubs imported coming from the east. At relating to this same time, he acquired a shipment of six choice rooted vines and 160 cuttings from Hungary. In the shipment were two small bundles. One were the Muscat of Alexandria and the other has been said to end up being the famous mystery grape, the Zinfandel. Today the Zinfandel may be the most widely planted wine grape in California. In 1857, while visiting Standard Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo at the Standard'utes Lachrima Montis estate, Haraszthy ended up being introduced to the Sonoma Valley. This particular valley specially appealed to your ex because its weather, topography and soil were so equivalent to his Hungarian homeland'ersus high quality vineyards. In Sonoma, he established the Szeptaj Estate (Buena Vista). That Buena Vista Winery is actually today a condition park and historic site.
In 1861, He has been appointed to a California commission to improve agricultural methods and to collect vines and berries tree stocks in European union. During a European tour with his son, Arpad, he purchased, with his own money, 100,000 grapevines representing 1,400 varieties, along with simple selected lots of growing stock for olives, almonds, pomegranates, oranges, lemons and chestnuts. When he returned, Harper & Brothers, of Brand new York, published Haraszthy's report, "Grape Culture, Wines and Wine Making upon Agriculture and Horticulture. It remained the winemaking classic authority in the English language till well into the 20th century. The Haraszthy family planted vineyards for European immigrant close friends and wine growers, including Charles Krug, Emile Dreser and Jacob Grundlach. In 1863, Agoston'ersus sons Attila and Arpad Haraszthy were married in a double ceremony to the twin daughters of Generally Vallejo. Later, after a single of his wine cellars that contain vintages of two many years had been destroyed by fire, Haraszthy traveled to Nicaragua where he bought a sugar plantation. There, he wife got into contact with yellow fever and died. Agoston Haraszthy died July some, 1869, near his estate, Hacienda San Antonio, at Corinto, Nicaragua, while striving to cross a crocodile infested rive.. His family believed that he fell into a river while attempting to cross and were dragged away by the alligator. His body had been never found.
