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Father of California Wine Industry
'Hungarian nobleman leaves indelible mark'
Agoston Haraszthy made the impression wherever he went. After serving while a member in 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 in depth holdings so the whole family could immigrate to America. When they showed up in Sauk City, Wisconsin, they will were one of the best-capitalized immigrants in the 19th century. Along with his other entrepreneurial investments, Haraszthy began agricultural experiments and achieved significant success in sheep raising and growing hops. Even with his sizeable success, he has been still disappointed at not having the ability to establish the good quality vineyards of his native Hungary. The tug in the western frontier pulled at the Haraszthy family, and they usually headed, by wagon train, to California in 1848. Agoston was 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, generally vaqueros, Yankee sailors who had jumped ship, plus a handful of Mormon soldiers coming from the Mormon Battalion populated San Diego.
Haraszthy'ersus family today included his wife, six children, his father and stepmother, and Thomas W. Sutherland, former U.Ersus. Lawyer for Wisconsin Territory, who had been 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 fresh fruit orchard. He later bought 160 acres more in Mission Valley and planted peach and cherry trees sent to him coming from New York State. Haraszthy never ceased his investment action as well as his attention in community politics. With Don Juan Bandini, Haraszthy build the first often timetabled omnibus transit system and established a livery stable. He established a very profitable butcher look. With other real estate speculators, he helped establish the subdivision of Middletown. Haraszthy Street existed there till the early 1960s when it ended up being wiped coming from the map by the construction of Interstate 5.
When San Diego County were chartered in 1850, Haraszthy was 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 has been elected to the Condition Assembly and resigned his other workplaces. While in the legislature, then meeting in Vallejo, Haraszthy succeeded in taking funding for the expansion of San Diego Harbor and the county'ersus first public hospital. He was actually the first legislator to introduce legislation to divide California into two states; North and South. Because of powerful political curiosity in Northern California, that fees died. Almost all the while, Haraszthy continued searching for land much more ideal for agriculture than San Diego'ersus subtropical desert land offered. Early in 1852, he purchased 210 acres near San Francisco's Mission Dolores. He moved the complete family there by the end of the Assembly Session. Haraszthy'utes noteworthy accomplishments didn'big t stop. He introduced the "Zinfandel" red wine grape and the "Muscat of Alexandria" raisin grape to California. He invented a great efficient rare metal refining procedures, and were founding partner in the Eureka Rare metal and An extremely Refining Organization. The firm became one of the major contract refiners for the San Francisco Mint.
Because of his reputation for fairness and honesty, Haraszthy were appointed Assayer from the Mint in 1855. He developed the first large, high-quality grape vineyard at Crystal Springs in San Mateo County. At this specific new ranch, Haraszthy designed and laid out a nursery and horticultural garden, which he named Los Flores. With his son's help, he planted berries trees and shrubs imported from the east. At about it same time, he received a shipment of six choice rooted vines and 160 cuttings from Hungary. In the shipment were two tiny bundles. 1 were the Muscat of Alexandria and the other was actually 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 Overall Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo at the Generally'ersus Lachrima Montis estate, Haraszthy were introduced to the Sonoma Valley. This unique valley particularly appealed to him because the weather, topography and soil were so similar to his Hungarian homeland'ersus top quality vineyards. In Sonoma, he established the Szeptaj Estate (Buena Vista). That Buena Vista Winery is truly today a state park and historic site.
In 1861, He was appointed to some California commission to improve agricultural methods and to save vines and berries tree stocks in Europe. During a European tour with his son, Arpad, he purchased, with his personal money, 100,000 grapevines representing 1,400 varieties, along with modest 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, Wine drinks and Wine Making upon Agriculture and Horticulture. It remained the winemaking classic authority in the English language right up until well into the 20th century. The Haraszthy family planted vineyards for European immigrant friends and wine growers, including Charles Krug, Emile Dreser and Jacob Grundlach. In 1863, Agoston's sons Attila and Arpad Haraszthy were married in a double ceremony to the twin daughters of Basic Vallejo. Later, after one of his wine cellars that contains vintages of two decades has been destroyed by fire, Haraszthy traveled to Nicaragua where he bought a sugar plantation. There, he wife contacted yellow fever and died. Agoston Haraszthy died July 3, 1869, near his estate, Hacienda San Antonio, at Corinto, Nicaragua, while wanting to cross a crocodile infested rive.. His family believed that he fell into a river while attempting to cross and has been dragged away by a helpful alligator. His body was never found.
