Robert Baylor Semple His Contributions to Calfornia Hisotry, 1845-1854
Graduation Date
Fall 1961
Document Type
Master's Thesis
Document Form
Degree Name
Master of Arts
Degree Granting Institution
Catholic University of America
Program Name
Humanities
Abstract
This paper is an attempt to record the obscure but important services rendered to California history by a man who played a fairly prominent role in the early beginnings of the state, one whose name, however, is rarely remembered today, Robert Baylor Semple, a native of Kentucky, came to California in 1845 as a member of the second emigration party led by Lansford W. Hastings. In one sense, Semple was a typical American pioneer of that mass migration movement of the 1840's. Viewed in another light, he possessed certain gifts of leadership and talent that seem to have set him apart from his fellow pioneers. Not only was he a forder of rivers and a hewer of forests, but he was also a man of some education. While there is no indication that he ever received a medical degree, Semple did practice dentistry and medicine intermittently when not otherwise engaged in other activities.