tlOGIIFI! 



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[round Cape Horn in 1 849 the great white wings 

 of an old windjammer beUied to the breeze, her bowsprit pointing 

 northwestward toward San Francisco. At the same time another 

 type of schooner rumbled, creaked and groaned over the historic 

 Santa Fe trail to California. Major Henry Hancock was aboard 

 the sailing vessel. Ida Haraszthy, as a little girl, rode in the prairie 

 schooner. These two forty-niners afterward became the parents 

 of George Allan Hancock. 



Major Hancock, born in New Hampshire of English parents, 

 sailed from Maine around Cape Horn when the west coast was in 

 the midst of a mighty turmoil over gold discoveries. Law graduate 

 of Harvard University, schooled in military tactics and surveying, 

 a veteran of the war with Mexico in which he won his major's com- 

 mission, Henry Hancock landed at San Francisco, made a stake in 

 gold at Mormon Island and later went into the parallel professions 

 of legal practice, surveying, and settling land titles. 



Politics too figured in the career of Henry Hancock. As a mem- 

 ber of the State Legislature from Los Angeles County, he estab- 

 lished a Ufelong friendship with Count Agostin Haraszthy, who 

 was the Assembly representative from San Diego County. Born 

 in Hungary in 1 8 12, a scion of the ancient nobility. Colonel Har- 

 aszthy, as he was known in the west, had been honored by Emperor 

 Ferdinand with offices of the crown until a revolution against Aus- 

 trian rule swept away the Haraszthy ancestral estates in 1839-40. 



Coming to the United States of America, Colonel Haraszthy 

 pioneered in agriculture in Wisconsin, founded Sauk City, engaged 

 in steamboating on the Mississippi and "Wisconsin Rivers, eventually 

 salvaged something from the family estates in Hungary, and in 

 1 849 headed a covered wagon train across the western states to San 

 Diego. At this time his eldest daughter, Ida, was six years of age. 

 She was born in Imperial, Illinois, in 1843. 



Colonel Haraszthy was well launched upon a brilliant political 

 career in San Diego but again was lured to agriculture by his pio- 

 neering spirit. He established himself in Sonoma County, and 

 figured largely in development of the vast grape and wine industry 

 of California. Pioneering once more. Colonel Haraszthy acquired 

 the Hacienda San Antonio near Corinto, Nicaragua, planning to 

 develop agriculture and a hardwood industry. He died tragically 



