Thomas O. Larkin was born in Massachusetts in 1802, lived in the Carolinas, and went to California in 1832 to join his half-brother, John Rogers Cooper. While on the ship he met Mrs. Rachel Holmes, and the two were married in 1833.
In 1834, Larkin began one of the first two-story houses to be built in Monterey and one of the earliest examples of Monterey colonial architecture. It became known as the Larkin House Adobe.
Larkin opened a store in Monterey, and conducted trade with Mexico and the Sandwich Islands. He served as the first and only United States Consul, 1844-1848, and as a delegate to the Constitutional Convention of 1849.
At the time of his death in San Francisco, on October 27, 1858, Larkin was one of the richest and most highly respected men in California.
Source:
- Clark, Donald T., Monterey County Place Names (Kestrel Press, Carmel Valley, 1991).