Augustus Ulyard

Augustus or August Ulyard (1816–1900) was the first American-born professional baker in Los Angeles, California, after the 1850 U.S. statehood of California. In 1856–57, he was a member of the Common Council, which oversaw the governance of the young pueblo.

Personal Ulyard, whose parents were French, was born on February 22, 1816, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he learned to be a baker.

He enlisted as a Texas Volunteer in the Mexican War, after which he went to St. Louis, Missouri, where he married Mary Field of England. The couple had no children of their own but, after they arrived in Los Angeles, "at different periods" they "adopted homeless children until there were seven in all."

The couple arrived in Los Angeles on December 31, 1852, after crossing the country with a wagon train of pioneers that left from Council Bluffs and pursued the Southern Emigrant Trail through the Cajon Pass and San Bernardino.

Stagecoach

In the 1870s, Ulyard began a stage business. This business had a conveyance drawn by four horses from Los Angeles at 7:30 each morning and returning from Santa Monica at 3:30 in the afternoon, "calling at all four Los Angeles hotels as well as the private residences of prospective patrongs." The fare was one dollar.

Anecdote

In 1889, the Ulyards went to police court in Los Angeles and swore out a complaint against a book agent who, they said, "had seized her [Mrs. Ulyard] by the arm and handled her in an exceedingly rough manner" when she, following her husband's precedent of several days previous, refused to purchase a copy of a "history of Southern California" in which appeared a biography of Mr. Ulyard. "The officers are looking for the fellow," the Times reported.