History
Giraffe Inn at Old Parks Manor
Captain Manuel Salvador del Mundo Vallejo (sometimes José Manuel Salvador) was born on New Years’ Day, 1814, in Monterey, Alta California. He was the third youngest of thirteen children born to Ygnacio Vicente Ferrer Vallejo and María Antonia Isabela de Lugo. As a young man, Ygnacio Vallejo, born in 1748 in Las Canadas, Jalisco, had trained for the priesthood, but escaped before he was ordained and ed to Alta California as a military recruit. He was betrothed to María the day she was born, and they married when she turned sixteen.
Salvador’s most notable relation is his brother, General Mariano de Guadalupe Vallejo. While Salvador never became as successful or highly regarded as his older brother, he led an adventurous life and was directly involved in many important incidents in the early days of the Napa Valley. Salvador was blessed with an extensive and diverse education. His niece, Guadalupe Vallejo, wrote “An educated young gentleman was well skilled in many arts and handicrafts. [Salvador] could ride, of course, as well as the best cowboy of the Southwest, and with more grace; and he could throw the lasso so expertly that I have never heard of any American who was able to equal it. He could also make soap, po ery, and bricks, burn lime, tan hides, cut out and put together a pair of shoes, make candles, roll cigars, and do a great number of things that belong to di erent trades” (as cited in McKi rick, 1950).
After completing his education, he took over the management of his father’s farmland, but he quickly abandoned that for a stint in the army as aide-de-camp to his brother Mariano. Mariano dispatched his 27-year- old brother to San Diego to escort his wife Francisca Carrillo back up to Monterey. Salvador met her sister María de la Luz Carrillo and the two wed about 1836 and moved to Sonoma.
Salvador thrived in the military. He traveled extensively through Alta California and engaged in numerous ba les with native tribes and rebellious Californios. His hard work was rewarded in 1838 with the land grant Rancho Napa, nearly 23,000 acres of good grazing land in the lower Napa Valley. With Mariano Vallejo owning much of the Sonoma Valley and their in-laws holding the land around present-day Santa Rosa, the Vallejo family controlled a large portion of the most arable land in the area. María and Salvador moved their family to a new adobe on the west bank of the Napa River he called “Las Trancas.” He built a second smaller adobe, and a third adobe that was later converted into a residence and renamed Longwood Ranch. He even designed and had constructed his mother-in-law’s estate in Santa Rosa.
Salvador was a veritable jack of all trades. At one point he owned about 6,000 head of ca le and 2,000 horses (Davis, 1929). For many years he operated a soap factory that brought in several thousand dollars a year. Hard times fell during the Bear Flag Revolt, and he and his brother were imprisoned at Su er’s Fort in Sacramento for two months.
When he finally returned to his family in Napa, it was an emotional reunion: “My feelings on the occasion cannot be described nor de ned. Su ce it to say that a cloud of thoughts like water rushing through an artesian well recently bored, overpowered my brain, and a er riding less than one mile, I began to feel feverish, and being unable to sit any longer on the saddle, I dismounted and having sought the reviving shade of a friendly tree I threw myself on the ground, where on my bended knees I thanked the Almighty Creator for having spared my life and restored me to wife, children, brothers, sisters, friends, and freedom…A er having rested a few hours on the road I again mounted my horse and in the course of two days I reached Napa. ere I found my desolate wife and four young children in a state bordering on distraction; my property scaered to the four winds, for whatever they could not carry away they had taken good care to destroy…” (as cited in McKi rick, 1950).
His troubles only grew worse. American soldiers had taken up occupancy in his Sonoma house and he was unable to evict them. It took until 1853 until the government approved his claim to Rancho Napa, but by then squaers had se led on his property. He found it extremely di cult to evict them. During the Civil War Salvador enlisted in the Union Army, but never saw ba le; he resigned a er only two years of service. For the last twelve years of his life, Salvador lived mostly in Sonoma with Mariano. He died at 62-years-old on February 17, 1876.
In 1850 John E. Brown acquired the land soon to be known as Browns Valley Road from Salvador Vallejo. Later that same year, Edward Co erill bought a large parcel from Brown. Not much is known about Edward Coerill other than that he was an early settler to the county. In 1861 he wed Huldah (also Hilda and Hulda) Whitman, and within two years the couple had their rst child, a son named Eddie. Tragically Eddie died at ve-years-old, and his father followed him a er a terrible horse-riding accident in 1868. Huldah sold her late husband’s property in Browns Valley to Donald and Elizabeth McLennan on behalf of her two remaining children, Jennie and Maryanne. She died in 1881 and she, Eddie, and Edward are buried together at Tulocay Cemetery.
Donald McLennan (also McLannan) was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, in 1824. He and his Nova Scotian wife, Elizabeth, arrived in California shortly before 1868 when they bought part of Hulda Co erill’s inherited property. Donald worked the land as a farmer while Elizabeth raised their two daughters, Georgina and Margaret. Donald passed away in 1880 while his wife relocated to San Joaquin County and lived another 35 years. Although they lived into the 1950s and 1960s, it does not appear that the daughters ever married. The entire McLennan clan are buried at Tulocay Cemetery.
Meet the Inkeepers
Pen and Linda are excited to welcome you to their historic inn.
