Abstract
C APRICIOUS is the fate that decides for what a man shall be remembered: Benjamin Franklin for his kite, George Washington for his cherry tree, Paul Revere for his midnight ride, James Ohio Pattie for his prophylactic peregrination, and the hero of this sketch, Benjamin Davis Wilson, for the mountaintop observatory that perpetuates his name. Published history, as formulated by Don Benito's self-estimate2 and conventionalized by Hubert Howe Bancroft's interpretation, adds that he was a California pioneer of i 841, an inglorious captive at Rancho El Chino, a doughty Indian fighter and grizzly-bear hunter,3 and the first mayor of Los Angeles. Manuscript materials in various California repositories, and especially in the B. D. Wilson Papers4 at the Huntington Library, reveal other facts about Don Benito, possibly more significant than those on Bancroft's classic list. His varied experiences in the fifties, sixties, and seventies exemplify the multiple phases of the transition through which southern California was moving. He appears, not as an exceptional leader, but as a prominent, respected, and moderately successful citizen, an average southern Californian. Wilson's earlier activities may be briefly summarized.5A native of
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