was discovered, Larkin had permanently settled in the city by the Bay and was in the next few years able to reap a fortune from the economic boom that followed. It was as a representative from San Francisco that he served at the 1849 Constitutional Convention, held in Monterey. Early in 1850, he built the first brick building in San Francisco at 1116 Stockton Street. Later in 1850 they moved to New York. They rented a comfortable suite at the Irving House, a hotel that was popular with Californians. In November they bought and renovated at great expense an eighteen-room home in a good neighborhood. Their new home soon acquired the reputation they had gained in California for lavish hospitality. But the cold and damp eastern weather did not agree with them. Rachel and the children endured repeated bouts of illness. Thomas acquired an acute skin disease and was so ill for two months that newspapers mistakenly announced his death. When he finally began to recover, Rachel, who had helped doctor him, collapsed from exhaustion. In May 1853, they returned to San Francisco where their health improved. They found good schools for the two youngest children and resumed their busy social and business lives. They built an opulent mansion and enjoyed the civic improvements that had taken place in San Francisco as a consequence of the California Gold Rush since they left for New York. During this time Larkin pressed the Federal government for compensation for money he claimed he had spent on Naval supplies and for work on the Monterey Customs House and the wharf there, without satisfaction. Larkin acquired several land grants including Rancho Jimeno, Rancho Boga, Rancho Cienega del Gabilan, Rancho Pleyto, Rancho Cotate, and Rancho Larkin’s Children. In his last years, Larkin engaged in land speculation and was thought by some to be the richest man in America. Death On October 27, 1858, while at Colusa, California, he contracted typhoid fever and died within a week. He was buried in what was the Laurel Hill Cemetery in San Francisco, but he is now interred at Cypress Lawn Memorial Park in Colma, California. An obituary was published in the Sacramento Daily Union on October 29, 1858. Genealogy Rachel M. Hobson (Ipswich, Massachusetts, April 30, 1807 – San Francisco, October 29, 1873) was the daughter of Daniel and Eliza Hobson. Children, surnamed Larkin, Isabel Ann (Santa Barbara, January,