Archives West Finding Aid

This collection relates to several families that are all related to Mary Cairns. Mary was married twice, to Henry Mizner and James Semple and had seven children. The collection includes photographs from both her sons and daughters families. By one husband she had three children, William Mizner, Lansing Mizner, and Mary Mizner Floyd-Jones and by her other husband she had four children, Lucy Semple Ames, May Semple, Eugene Semple, and Julia Semple Scott.

Lansing Mizner married Ella Watson and they moved to California. During the Bear Flag Rebellion in 1846, a group of Americans, including Lansing Mizner and his step-uncle Robert Semple, captured the Commandant of Northern California, General Mariano Vallejo at his home and headquarters in Sonoma. While transporting the General by boat down the Napa River and up the Sacramento River to Sutter’s Fort, Semple and Mizner saw the land that now comprises the City of Benicia and recognized its potential for the development of a port to support trade for all of Northern California. After Mariano Vallejo was released from imprisonment at Sutter's Fort, the land was deeded to Dr. Robert Semple and Thomas O. Larkin. Semple laid out the town in 1847 and also served as president of the 1849 Constitutional Convention. On March 27, 1850 Benicia incorporated. The Benicia Capitol was constructed in 1852 and became the California's third seat of government February 4, 1853 - February 25, 1854. They entered into an agreement with General Vallejo to establish a ferry between Central and Northern California, using a part of the proceeds to support a ‘Public’ School - open to all residents at no cost to the students nor their families. When Semple and Mizner agreed, General Vallejo deeded the land to them for the establishment of the City of Franchesca. Later, when the city leaders of the village of Yerba Buena decided to rename their town after Saint Frances and called it San Francisco - Semple, Mizner and other early residents of Franchesca changed its name to Benicia. Lansing Minzer was also a lawyer and the U. S. minister to Guatemala, who was recalled to the United States in 1891 by President Benjamin Harrison after the Barrundia Affair. He and his wife had nine children, Murry Mizner, Lansing Mizner Jr, Mary (Minnie) Mizner Chase, Edgar Mizner, William Mizner, Henry Mizner, Addison Mizner and Wilson Mizner.

Mary (Minnie) Mizner Chase married Horace Chase. They founded a winery in Napa, California called Stag’s Leap.

Addison Cairnes Mizner became an architect and is most famous as an American resort architect whose Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival style interpretations left an indelible stamp on South Florida, where it continues to inspire architects and land developers. In the 1920s he was the best-known and most-discussed living American architect and was the visionary behind development of Boca Raton, Florida.

Wilson Mizner was an American playwright and entrepreneur. His best-known plays are The Deep Purple, produced in 1910, and The Greyhound, produced in 1912. He was manager and co-owner of The Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles, California, and was affiliated with his brother, Addison Mizner, in a series of scams and misadventures that inspired Stephen Sondheim's Road Show. Mary Cairns’s daughter Mary Mizner Floyd-Jones married James Floyd-Jones. They had three children Robert Floyd-Jones, Semple Floyd-Jones, Edgar Floyd-Jones.

Mary’s husband, James Semple unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in 1836. President Martin Van Buren appointed him as Chargé d'Affaires to New Granada on 14 October 1837, and he served in that capacity until 4 March 1842. He was the judge of the Illinois Supreme Court from 1842 to 1843. He was appointed and subsequently elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Samuel McRoberts and served from December 4, 1843, to March 3, 1847. He was not a candidate for re-nomination in 1846. Semple ended up in Jersey County, Illinois, where in 1853 he founded the town of Elsah, Illinois.

Mary Cairns’s daughter Lucy Semple married Edgar Ames. They settled in Seattle. They had four children, Ada Ames, Henry Semple Ames, Mary Ames Cushman who married Wayman Cushman, and Edgar Ames.

Mary Cairns’s son Eugene Semple married Ruth Lownsdale Blanchard. He was the 13th Governor of Washington Territory. In the 1860s, he moved to Oregon and became Editor and Publisher of the Portland Daily Herald. From 1870 to 1873 he was Oregon's State Printer. Having lost his investments and savings in the Panic of 1873, he moved to eastern Oregon, where he farmed until 1887, when President Cleveland nominated him to be Governor. He served until 1889, a period when the territory's population doubled, and during his term he dealt with labor unrest and the expansion of Washington's government and school system. He also signed a bill enabling women to vote, which was overturned by the territory's Supreme Court. In 1889 Washington attained statehood, and Semple was the Democratic nominee for Governor, losing to former territorial Governor Elisha Ferry. After leaving office, he was involved in the unsuccessful promotion of canals from Shilshole Bay to Lake Washington and Astoria to Seaside, Oregon. He moved to a San Diego hotel in early 1908. He and his wife had four children, Maud Semple, Zoe Semple, Mary Semple and Eugene Semple Jr.

Mary Cairns’s daughter, Julia Semple Scott married Ashley Scott. They had five children, Mary Scott, Stillman Scott, Ashley Scott Jr, Eugene Scott, Isabelle Scott.