Isaac Graham

Isaac Graham (April 15, 1800 – November 8, 1863) was a fur trader, mountain man, and land grant owner in 19th century California.

In 1830, he joined a hunting and trapping party at Fort Smith, Arkansas that included George Nidever. Graham attended the Rendezvous at Pierre's Hole and took part in the battle of Pierre's Hole, in present-day Idaho.

From there, Graham's path to California is unclear. He may have joined Joseph R. Walker's party, or joined one of the groups led by Ewing Young. His son later claimed that Graham came by way of Oregon, while his daughter said he took a southern route through Chihuahua, New Mexico.

The next positive evidence finds him at Natividad on the Rancho La Natividad, northeast of present-day Salinas, in Mexican Alta California, where he established a distillery.

In 1836, Graham led a group of American and European immigrants who supported Juan Bautista Alvarado and José Castro in a coup against Mexican Governor Nicolás Gutiérrez. In 1840, Alvarado had Graham arrested, among a group of about 100 foreigners, and sent to Mexico for trial. This action led to a diplomatic crisis, involving Mexico, the United States and the United Kingdom, that became known as the "Graham Affair". With the help of a recent arrival in Monterey, Thomas J. Farnham, Graham and the others were released. Farnham later wrote a romanticized account of these events.

In 1841, upon his return from Mexico, Graham moved north to the Santa Cruz area, where he again established a distillery and later a sawmill at Rancho Zayante, near the present-day community of Felton.

...
Wikipedia