Darwin French

Doctor Erasmus Darwin French was an American man of adventure. He was born in 1822 in New York State, trained as a doctor and then enlisted in the army, later becoming a silver prospector. He married Miss Cornelia S. Cowles, daughter of Judge Cowles of San Diego in 1858. They had two sons Alfred and Addison.

Dr French was born in the State of New York on January 20, 1822. He was the son of Harvey and Amanda Hazelton French. His father was a veteran of the War of 1812. He attended local schools before moving to Michigan where he attended Albion Seminary. While in Hillsdale County he studied medicine and practiced as a doctor for some years. In 1845 he went to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas where he enlisted in the US Army at the start of the Mexican American War and entered the service as a private even though he was a practicing physician in civilian life.

Dr French’s goal was to make his fortune in the world and he set out to do just that in December 1845. His plans were interrupted by the war. After he was discharged in early 1847, he resumed his quest for adventure, he purchased a large ranch northeast of Los Angeles in the late 1840s, assisted some lost settlers who had mistakenly wandered through California’s Death Valley, and opened a mining town in south central California. The residents of that town named the village after Dr. French—they called it Darwin, California. The town is still in existence as of 2017. Dr French had heard that there was a possible silver lode if the midst of Death Valley. Despite the fact that this inferno had never been explored, Dr French led an expedition into the Valley in 1850 but found no silver. Again in 1860, Darwin led another party into Death Valley in a second attempt to find silver, again without success. Nonetheless, the route he took is laid out for tourists to observe in the Death Valley National Park. Two other landmarks are named after him, Darwin Falls and Darwin Wash.

The journey of General Kearny and his Army of the West (a small band of warriors) across the wilderness of southwestern United States has been the subject of many books and articles. Dr French shared in that journey and demonstrates his ability to capture a vivid account of the battle in which he fought. He also has given us a chance to share in the emotion of the event in his stirring poem about the battle of San Pasqual.

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