Maria Ygnacia Lopez de Carrillo

Doña María Ygnacia López de Carrillo (January 31, 1793 – February 28, 1849) was a Californio ranchera. She was the founder of Santa Rosa, California, United States. She married into the prominent Carrillo family of California and was the ancestor of numerous prominent Californians.

Biography Ygnacia was born to Juan Francisco Lopez and Maria Feliciana Arballo on January 31, 1793, and baptized Maria Ygnacia de la Candelaria Lopez. Her father was a soldier of the guard in San Gabriel. Her mother was a mulatta who had accompanied the Anza Expedition as far as San Gabriel. Her father died when she was 7.

On September 3, 1809, Ygnacia married Joaquin Victor Carrillo, a soldier and member of the Carrillo family of San Diego. With Joaquin, she had thirteen children, twelve of whom survived to adulthood. Several went on to play notable roles in the early history of California. where they lived for more than a decade. A portion of the Ruiz adobe, designated "Casa de Carrillo", still stands. After Joaquin's death circa 1836, Ygnacia and her nine unmarried children traveled north by ox-cart over to Sonoma, where they stayed with her son-in-law Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo.

After Ygnacia's death, her son-in-law David Mallagh established a trading post and tavern in the adobe. Santa Rosa's first post office was located in the adobe. The trading business continued under various owners into the 1860s. The land passed to Gustav Hahman, who turned it into an orchard. In 1950, Archbishop John Joseph Mitty purchased the land for building the Cathedral of Saint Eugene and its associated school. The Diocese of Santa Rosa erected a chain-link fence around the ruins and made plans to restore the adobe, but these plans never came to fruition.

When surveyed in 1962, all that remained of the adobe was a three-room structure, by with a veranda on all sides. Archeological investigations in 2006 revealed that the adobe was built on sturdy stone footings. The 2008 financial crisis delayed the project. In 2012, vandals broke through the fence and stole some posts and beams, which were later found in a nearby encampment.

Sheltered by a metal-roofed pole structure, the ruins of Carillo Adobe are still visible at behind the Cathedral of Saint Eugene, near the intersection of Montgomery Drive and Franquette Avenue in Santa Rosa.

Descendants

Daughters

Maria Antonia Natalia "Josefa" (November 27, 1810 – January 1893) was Ygnacia's eldest daughter. In 1829 she eloped to Valparaíso in order to marry Henry D. Fitch (May 7, 1799 – January 13, 1849), a sea-captain from Massachusetts. They had eleven children. In 1841, Fitch was granted Rancho Sotoyome in the Alexander Valley north of Rancho Cabeza de Santa Rosa. María Ramona de Luz (July 1812 – December 1888) Maria de la Luz Eustaquia (May 18, 1813 – May 18, 1890) married Jose Manuel Salvador Vallejo (March 3, 1813 – February 18, 1876), the younger brother of General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. Francisca Maria Felipa Benicia

Namesakes Maria Carrillo High School, a public school established in Santa Rosa in 1996.