Changes After Mexico's Independence

In addition to their duties at the Mission, the Franciscan fathers continued to serve the little parish church.  Padre Antonio Ripoll was pastor of the Presidio church from 1816 to 1828, Padre Antonio Jimeno from 1828 to 1837, and then Padre Narciso Duran from 1838 to 1846. 

With the independence of Mexico in 1824, the Presidio had ceased to be a military establishment.  The chapel remained under Franciscan control during the entire Mexican period, but the old Spanish born missionaries were all replaced in 1828 with priests born in Mexico.  For a while there even was a Dominican priest living at the Presidio, Fr. Antonio Menendez, O.P., who is noted as baptizing a child in 1831.

The population by 1830 might have been about 400 in the town itself.  The chapel was still used for regular religious activity, but the population increase required that large affairs take place at the Mission.  For instance, the wedding of Anita de la Guerra to Alfred Robinson in 1835 took place at the Old Mission. 

Father Duran served as pastor of the Presidio and the town until his death on June 1, 1846.  Franciscan Father José Maria de Jesus Gonzalez Rubio was appointed the Administrator of the entire diocese.  He was to become one of the most deeply loved pastors in the history of the community.

The Mexican era was over on August 1, 1846, when Commodore Robert F. Stockton, raised the "Stars and Strips" right in front of the old Presidio Chapel.  The chapel legally became property of the American government with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. 

Santa Barbara was soon to become an American town...and ready for a new parish church.

By Jeremy Hass

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