Jack Powers - Early Career

Early Career

Born in Ireland as John Power, he came to the United States with his parents in 1836, and settled with them in New York City. While there he learned gambling, courtly manners, and how to ride a horse; he also made the acquaintance of many street toughs in the run-down districts of the Bowery and Hell's Kitchen. When the Mexican-American War commenced in 1846, he joined the 1st Regiment of New York Volunteers with many of his friends from the streets of New York, and went west to be a soldier. The New York Volunteers was a unit organized by Colonel Jonathan D. Stevenson to occupy and settle California, and men in the unit were promised land in the region should the war be successful.

By the time his unit had reached San Francisco, sailing around Cape Horn, Powers had already become a sergeant, under Captain Francis J. Lippitt in Company F of Stevenson's regiment which was tasked with occupying Santa Barbara. When they landed at West Beach the war was already over for Santa Barbara. John C. Frémont had captured the town on December 27, 1846, and accepted the surrender of the Mexican forces in Los Angeles two weeks later. Powers and his men from the Bowery entered the town in early 1847 as an occupying force.

It did not take long for the charismatic Powers to become popular with the locals. He had good looks, good manners, and his horsemanship impressed even the local caballeros, who expected the ability from a gentleman, but not from a Yankee. But when Powers' unit was mustered out on August 7, 1848 after the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo, he left town, going north to San Francisco. Many of the men of his Regiment went instead to the gold fields, intending to get rich. Powers intended to do so as well, but by using his peculiar talents, those that required a city.

Powers' skill as a gambler paid off richly in San Francisco, where he amassed a fortune in the gambling halls in that rowdy frontier town. Briefly he was involved with the Barbary Coast-neighborhood gang of toughs known as "The Hounds," which took part in robbery, murder, and rape of the non-"American," and particularly Hispanic and Catholic, residents of the city; many of the members of this gang were fellow refugees from the streets of the Bowery, Five Points, or Hell's Kitchen in New York. Powers fled town to avoid being lynched by vigilantes, and returned to Santa Barbara around 1849, where he found a job caring for the horses belonging to the influential De la Guerra family.