Antonio F. Coronel

Don Antonio Francisco Coronel (October 21, 1817 – April 17, 1894) was a Californio politician and ranchero who served as Mayor of Los Angeles and California State Treasurer. Considered one of the first preservationists in Los Angeles,[1] Coronel's private collection formed the basis of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.[2]

Antonio F. Coronel
8th California State Treasurer
In office
1867–1871
GovernorHenry H. Haight
Preceded byRomualdo Pacheco
Succeeded byFerdinand Baehr
4th Mayor of Los Angeles
In office
May 3, 1853 – May 4, 1854
Preceded byJohn G. Nichols
Succeeded byStephen Clark Foster
1st Los Angeles County Assessor
In office
1850–1856
Succeeded byJuan María Sepúlveda
Personal details
BornOctober 21, 1817
DiedApril 17, 1894 (1894-04-18) (aged 76)
Los Angeles, California
Spouse(s)Mariana W. de Coronel

Career
Portrait of Coronel and his wife, Mariana W. de Coronel, published in Overland Monthly, 1895.

Antonio Francisco Coronel was the son of Ygnacio Coronel, born in Mexico City in the last years of colonial New Spain. Coronel was 17 years of age when he came to Alta California with his parents in 1834, as a part of the Híjar-Padrés Colony.[3]

In 1838, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of Tribunals for the Pueblo de Los Ángeles. In 1843, he became Justice of the Peace (Juez de Paz, the equivalent of Mayor at that time). During the Mexican–American War in 1846–47, Antonio served as a captain and sergeant-at-arms in the Mexican artillery and took part in military operations against the United States.

Once the war had ended, Antonio Coronel served as the first Los Angeles County Assessor from 1850 to 1856. In 1853, Coronel became Mayor of Los Angeles. Coronel served as a ward councilman on the Los Angeles Common Council (1854–1867)[4]

He was the California State Treasurer from 1867 to 1871. In 1873, Coronel married Mariana Williamson.[5]

His donated collection made the basis for the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.[6] Antonio Coronel became the owner of Rancho Los Feliz.[7]

Personal life

He was married to Mariana W. de Coronel.

His brother, Manuel F. Coronel, served as the first Zanjero of Los Angeles.

Coronel sister, Maria Antonia Coronel married John C. Frémont scout Alexis Godey in 1863.[8] In 1870, the divorce suit from Maria Antonia Coronel went all the way to the California Supreme Court.[9]

References
  1. LA Magazine - Becoming Los Angeles
  2. Antonio de Coronel
  3. genealogy.com Jose Ygnacio Franco Coronel
  4. Chronological Record of Los Angeles City Officials: 1850–1938, Compiled under Direction of Municipal Reference Library City Hall, Los Angeles March 1938 (Reprinted 1966)
  5. Schmal, John P. The Four Latino Mayors of Los Angeles Archived 2007-09-01 at the Wayback Machine HispanicVista, May 23, 2005
  6. Antonio de Coronel
  7. Antonio Coronel
  8. Alexis Godey, by Walt Wheelock, June 1965
  9. Reports of Cases Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of California, page 157, April 1870
Political offices
Preceded by
Romualdo Pacheco		 State Treasurer of California
1867–1871		 Succeeded by
Ferdinand Baehr
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