Jose Mascarel

José Mascarel (April 18, 1816 – October 6, 1899) was a 19th−century sea captain, California landowner, investor, baker, and vintner; and a mayor of Los Angeles, California.

Personal

Birth and death

Mascarel was born in Marseille on April 18, 1816. He died of heart failure on October 6, 1899, at the age of 83 in his home at 615 Ducommun Street in Los Angeles. A solemn high mass was scheduled for the Old Plaza Church, with interment following at the Catholic Calvary Cemetery in East Los Angeles. He was at his death the "[second-]oldest foreigner in Los Angeles, if not in California," after Elijah Moulton. a local indigenous woman, in the Pueblo de Los Ángeles in Alta California. They had nine children, Charles, Jose Jr., Constance, Hortense, Marie Larquier, Josephine Twist, Margarita Drouet, Adele Kracke, and Eugenie Hoover. She died in 1890. The Times added: There was an attempt made to prevent the issuance of a marriage license to Mr. Mascarel, but it proved futile, as the law does not require a license to render the marriage valid in a case like this. . . . The desire to have the union made legal was brought about by the failing health of Mrs. Mascarel, who, although twenty years younger than her aged husband, is still a woman far advanced in years.

Barrows told his audience that:

While Mr. Mascarel was naturally of a retiring disposition, including him to shun publicity, he was in many respects a remarkable man. He had clear-cut and eminently practical views, strong convictions and a sound judgment in business matters, which enabled him to accumulate a handsome fortune, though he gave away for charitable and other purposes, considerable sums during his lifetime. His charities, which in his later years amounted to several hundred dollars a month, were, as a rule, unknown to outsiders, i.e., to any one except himself and the beneficiaries. —Constance M. Goytino, Hortense Mascarel and Sylvester Mascarel. . . . volley after volley of allegations of murky fraud and deceit were fired back and forth . . . until the situation had become very complicated."

The settlement gave one-fourth of the estate to Mrs. Goytino, one-fourth to Hortense Mascarel and the remaining half to six grandchildren (said to be the "offsprings of a deceased sister"),

In about the year 1840, he sailed from Gibraltar for Valparaíso. In passing Cape Horn he had both feet frozen, from which he was ill when he arrived at Valparaíso. After recovering his health[,] Captain Mascarel engaged in coasting trade off the western coast of South America, he and another party having purchased a vessel, a Chilean schooner, La Joven Fanita.

Public service Mascarel was a member of the Los Angeles Common Council in 1864–65, and he was again elected on November 12, 1866, to succeed Moritz Morris, who had resigned the previous month. He served also on the council in 1867 (his position was declared vacant on August 19 of that year, but he was reelected on September 2), in 1868–69 and in 1869–70 (he resigned on January 13, 1870). After the council was reformatted from an at-large representation to one based on electoral districts, he was elected to represent the 2nd Ward in 1873–74, 1874–75, 1880–81 and 1881–82.

Mayor He served one term as the Mayor of Los Angeles, from May 5, 1865, to May 10, 1866. He was also a member of the Fire Commission.

During his mayoral term, he wanted to include the prohibition of weapons in the city. During the municipal campaign in 1866, a local newspaper wrote: "Wanted: a candidate for Mayor who can read and speak the English language." In 1871, he invested in the Farmers and Merchants Bank of Los Angeles with Isaias W. Hellman and Charles Ducommun. In 1874 he acquired a store on Gower Street west of Los Angeles, which in 1886 became the city of Hollywood.

References and notes Access to the Los Angeles Times links may require the use of a library card.