Rosario

Before departing for meetings in Los Angeles, I was following the news articles and documents on the life of Francisco "Frank" Armenta Campuzano. I am now going shift attention to his first wife, Rosario Hinojosa. She was born around July 1859 near Sahuaripa, Sonora. She left Sonora and sailed for San Francisco to escape raiding by Apaches in Mexico. Rosario then moved to Los Angeles about 1882.

Painting by Eileen Monaghan Whitaker, Cinco de Mayo, 1977.

Rosario married Frank Campuzano in 1884. Through her own efforts, overseeing rooms for rent, she managed to save enough money to purchase property in Los Angeles. It is unclear if Rosario and Frank had children. A divorce was granted by the court in LA County on 6 June 1900, but they had likely been separated for longer. Rosario and Frank were soon in other relationships. She married Vicente Cigaran a week after the divorce was finalized, in Tucson, Arizona, while Frank married Joaquina Contreras on 4 October 1901. I will have more on Frank and Joaquina in a later post.

Source: Ancestry. Arizona County Marriage Records.

Rosario was living next door to Vicente in the 1900 US Census. Her occupation was "capitalist."

1900 US Census, Los Angeles, California.

Rosario's story took a tragic turn. In July 1903, she was driving a buggy in Los Angeles and was struck by a train.

LA Times, 3 Jul 1903.

News articles about Rosario after her death provide some insight into her life. She had a half-sister, Refugio Rodriguez de Padilla, who filed a claim to part of Rosario's estate, over the rights of her 2nd-husband Vicente. Rosario died intestate and there was some dispute over whether Rosario had an earlier husband still alive in Mexico.

LA Herald, 3 May 1905.

Another article in the LA Times provides more background, although it does get some of the facts wrong about Rosario's age, she was 40 when she married Vicente Cigaran, not 59:

LA Times, 3 May 1905.

The half-sister lost the case at the lower level.

LA Herald, 8 June 1905.

LA Times, 8 June 1905.