David Jacks (18 April 1822 – 11 January 1909) was a powerful Californian landowner, developer, and businessman. Born in Scotland, he emigrated to California during the 1849 Gold Rush, and soon acquired several thousand acres in and around Monterey, shaping the history of Monterey County in the first decades of American possession. He is also credited as being the first to market and popularize Monterey Jack cheese. He was born David Jack, but took to spelling his last name "Jacks" once in California.
Early life
David Jacks was born on 18 April 1822, in Crieff, Perthshire, Scotland, the sixth of nine children of William Jack and the first of three William had by his second wife Janet McEwan. Little is known of Jack's early life, though he may have worked at handloom weaving. In 1841, he migrated to America to join two older brothers on Long Island, New York.
Move to California
After several years working as an army contractor in Brooklyn, where he reputedly met Captain Robert E. Lee, Jack read about the 1848 finding of gold in the Sierra Nevada. In November of that year he sailed with an artillery regiment to California, arriving in San Francisco in April 1849. Having invested in revolvers Jacks made a $4,000 profit upon landing in San Francisco, and then took up a job at the city's Customs House.
In 1850, Jacks moved to Monterey, initially taking up a job in the store of a fellow Scotsman, James McKinlay. By 1852 Jack had been elected Treasurer of Monterey County and began purchasing land in the area.
David Jacks married Maria Christina Soledad Romie (1837-1917) on April 20, 1861, in San Luis Obispo, California and produced nine children, with only seven surviving childhood. Maria was born in Oaxaca, Mexico on June 9, 1837, the daughter of John Frederick Romie (1801-1849) and Maria Magdalena Frohn (1801-1886), who emigrated to Mexico from Germany in 1835.
A controversial landowner
Jacks soon involved himself in the settlement of Mexican land claims in the new State of California, a process that would lead to his becoming Monterey's dominant landowner. In 1853 the Pueblo of Monterey contracted Delos Rodeyn Ashley to help legalize its title to some 30,000 acres (120 km2) of land on the Monterey Peninsula. Ashley was successful, and billed the city nearly $1,000 for his services. When the city could not pay, he suggested the city auction some of its land. They advertised the auction in a newspaper, as legally required, but in Santa Cruz. Ashley and Jacks were the only two bidders, and purchased the entire tract underlying the city for $1002.50 on 9 February 1859.
The sale was controversial, and the city of Monterey filed suit against Jacks claiming the sale was illegitimate. The case eventually reached the US Supreme Court in 1903, which ruled in favor of Jacks.
In 1869, Ashley turned his interest in the land over to Jacks, who now owned the tract outright. Included in this tract are what is now the cities of Monterey, Pacific Grove, Seaside, and Del Rey Oaks along with the Del Monte Forest (better known as Pebble Beach), and Fort Ord, now the home of California State University, Monterey Bay.
By 1873, Jacks had acquired of land. He started cutting up large tracts of land below Salinas into ranches for farmers to buy or rent. Jacks's business practices created a great deal of antipathy in the community. Jacks was a willing lender of money and of mortgages to those living on his land, but also was quick to foreclose. As a result, animosity toward him ran high, and it has been claimed he had to travel with bodyguards anywhere he went in Monterey County. The author Robert Louis Stevenson, after visiting Monterey, claimed that famed San Francisco orator Denis Kearney had suggested the residents should deal with Jack by having him hanged.
In June 1874 Henry Cerruti, in the employ of Hubert Howe Bancroft, interviewed Dorotea Valdez, whose father was Juan Bautista Valdez, a member of the Portola expedition. Dorotea lived in a pueblo, which she asserted was illegally obtained by Jacks. When Cerutti asked her if she knew him, this is what she said:Jack was also involved in land development. In 1875, he donated land on the Monterey Peninsula to a Methodist retreat group, which founded the town of Pacific Grove.
In 1874 he helped found the Monterey and Salinas Railroad to compete with the dominant Southern Pacific Railroad, though Jack eventually had to sell the line to the SP.