Last updated: March 7, 2023
Person
Francisca López
Photo/Mary Kimball Outten
Quick Facts
Significance:
Traveled east with her father from New Mexico on the Santa Fe Trail to Missouri in 1850.
Place of Birth:
New Mexico
Date of Birth:
1841
Place of Death:
Missouri
Date of Death:
1907
Place of Burial:
St. Louis, MO
Cemetery Name:
Soulard plot at Calvary Cemetery
Francisca López, the daughter of a Mexican woman and a prominent Spanish trader, lost her mother at a young age. As a consequence, she traveled with her father across the Santa Fe Trail from New Mexico to Missouri and on to St. Louis where he placed her in a convent boarding school. There, Francisca was confronted with a new language and a new culture – indeed a new life. She never returned to New Mexico and remained in St. Louis the rest of her life. She married Benjamin Kimball, a descendant of early French settlers of St. Louis.
Francisca’s mother, Maria del Carmen Severina Ruiz de Esparza, had roots in Aguascalientes and Durango, Mexico. She married prominent Spanish trader Dámaso López in 1835. They had four children before her death in 1847.
In 1850, Dámaso traveled the Santa Fe Trail with his four young children in order to enroll them in schools in Missouri. Many prominent Hispanic families chose to do this; educational opportunities in New Mexico were severely lacking. Francisca was enrolled at the Academy of the Visitation in St. Louis. Her brother, Trinidad, attended St. Louis University. Melquiades and Francisco attended an academy in Chapel Hill. All three brothers eventually returned to New Mexico.
After her enrollment at the Academy of the Visitation, Francisca never saw her father or brothers again. In 1852, Dámaso López died while attempting to transport a large number of sheep from New Mexico to California. Manuel Alvarez, (Spanish-born Santa Fe trader and later lieutenant-governor of New Mexico) became her guardian.
She was a very good student, learning English quickly and studying music. Very soon, Francisca wrote articulate letters in English with perfect penmanship to her father and to Manuel Alvarez.
She was one of several students from St. Louis to finish her education at the “sister” campus in Georgetown, D. C. In 1860 she met and married Benjamin Kimball at the St. Louis home of her dear friend, Pelagie Berthold. Benjamin was a young businessman and a descendant of early French settlers from the Soulard and Cérre families.
Francisca and Benjamin had 11 children; four of whom died before reaching the age of 20. Francisca died in 1907. In her obituary she was remembered as “a leader in social affairs of St. Louis and a woman of charming personality”.
Francisca showed tremendous courage as a young girl sent to be educated in a foreign environment. She was able to learn a new language and a new way of life after being separated from her family at a very young age.
She is buried in the Soulard plot at Calvary Cemetery. Many of her descendants becameprominent and productive citizens of St. Louis.
This article was contributed by Mary Kimball Outten, descendant of Francisca López.
Learn More
Wagon Tracks Quarterly of the Santa Fe Trail Association
Article by Doyle Daves: Francisca Lopez Kimball: Across the Santa Fe Trail to Missouri
Mary Kimball Outten.com
Santa Fe Trail Travelers and Their Descendants