The McChristians were part of the path of the more well-known family of the Bear Flag Revolt, the Grigsby-Ide party. When the Grigsby-Ide party got to California, a man named Caleb Greenwood and his three sons met them. His employer, John Sutter, asked Greenwood to find families to fill the land grants he had been given, and Greenwood thought that the Grigsby-Ide party had people that would fill those land grants (Warner 345).

Over forty-five covered wagons and a large number of cattle joined together for the journey over the Sierra Mountains (Warner 345). This group got to California in 1845, before the Donner Party decided to take their wagons through the hills, and well before the gold rush. And part of what may have made their traveling experience through the Sierra so much better than that of the Donner party was that the Grigsby-Ide party, and those who joined them, were greeted by Californios who helped the emigrants maneuver through the unfamiliar landscape of California (Warner 345).

The Grigsby-Ide party had not intended on settling in California, they were on their way to Oregon when they met the Greenwoods who then persuaded them to stay in California by offering them the land grants previously mentioned (Barry 12).

Patrick Sr. and his family lived peacefully with the Mexicans already inhabiting the Sonoma area. They were friendly toward General Vallejo and it has been speculated that Patrick Jr. learned some Spanish from Gen. Vallejo's children and taught them more English in return (Darrall).

There is not much information about the part that the McChristian family played in the Bear Flag Revolt, but what was recorded was that two members of the McChristian family (Patrick Sr. and his son James) had gone to deliver some flour, but when they left town, they saw that Patrick Jr. had captured the sentry on duty outside General Vallejo's home (Warner 346). Patrick Sr. and James hurried back home to the rest of the family and brought them to Sonoma just in time to have James and Patrick Jr., along with other Bear-Flaggers, raise the bear flag (Warner 346).

Many of the families of the Bear Flag Revolt made their own, familial, flags. Which can be found at the website http://www.loeser.us/flags/california.html. Where the McChristian flag is also listed, along with a small written history of the flag along with speculation of its current where-abouts (Olle).

A recount of the bear flag that was hung in Sonoma as the original Bear Flag, was recorded by John Bidwell, a Bear Flagger himself. He states in his retelling of what happened when the Bear Flag was raised, that when they made the Bear Flag and put it on the flagpole in Sonoma, "It had no importance to begin with, none whatever when the Stars and Stripes went up, and never would have been thought of again had not an officer of the navy seen it in Sonoma and written a letter about it." He also goes on to say that, "Todd had painted it, and others had helped to put it up, for mere pastime." Which does not match with the other information I have gathered. Some sources say that the bear flag was deliberately put up a flagpole to assert that the city was now a California Republic, but with Bidwell's retelling of what he experienced, some readers could be left to think that the bear flag may only have flown because of "Bear Flaggers' boredom" (Bidwell). 

Warner states in her book, that multiple Bear Flags were tried before the settlers finally decided on the Todd Flag (62). The settlers thought that the bear on the flag should not be too menacing, but should also look strong and powerful. So they picked the bear flag that had a bear that seemed as if it was able to ". . . stand its ground and growl convincingly, but not be too combative as the standing bear signifies" (Warner 62).

There is a tombstone in a Petaluma cemetery that lists Patrick McChristian and his wife Sarah. The tombstone is quite large and has "Member of the Bear Flag Party" etched into the front, just about the deceased names'. And I believe that Patrick (Jr.) McChristian was one of the last Bear Flag Party members to die.

Both Patrick McChristian and James McChristian are listed as part of the original Bear Flag Party (Warner 488-491). And the lands that they were given as a grant were used to farm apples and were inhabited by McChristians until the late 1900s or early 2000s (Darrall). My mother, Phyllis, and her sister, Shannon, remember going to that land when they were children, and Phyllis can still remember the sour smell of the orchard. 

The McChristian Bear Flag is under private ownership, but a member of the present day McChristian family is looking into buying it back, and keeping it in a winery that he is creating, which will focus on the Bear Flag Revolt.

William McChristian, my grandfather, has lived in Sonoma County for the majority of his life and has never known the history of his family in that area until recently. The information learned through the research of the Bear Flag Revolt has given the McChristian family a lot of information they had never known about their ancestors.