Excerpt from Publications of the Historical Society of Southern California and Pioneer Register, Los Angeles, 1899 One Of the very earliest American settlers of California, and for many years one of the most prominent and influential citizens of Los Angeles, was Abel Stearns. Mr. Stearns, or Don Abel, as he was called both by the native Californians and by the Americans - (in Spanish-speaking coun tries pe'ople, high or low, rich or poor, are called by their Christian names, with the prefix Don or Dona) - was a native of Salem, Mass, where he was born in the year 1799, just one hundred years ago. He came to Mexico in 1826, where in 1828 he was naturalized; and to Monterey, California, in 1829. In 1833 he settled in Los Angeles, which remained his home till his death, which occurred at San Francisco in 1871, at the age of 72 years. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.