San Diego pioneer Robert Decatur Israel was lighthouse keeper for the longest period of time, 18 years. He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on March 23, 1826. His father was described as Pennsylvania Dutch and mother as Scotch-Irish. He wasn't Jewish, but because of his surname many people today mistakenly assume that he was. He had fought in the Mexican–American War, including the famous Battle of Chapultepec. He moved to San Diego in 1848 and worked as a blacksmith and saloon-keeper. He and Maria Arcadia Alipas Machado, the daughter of a long-established San Diego family, were married by a priest in 1852 at the Casa de Estudillo in Old Town. They had four children: Henry Clay Israel, Joseph Perry Israel; Robert Lincoln Israel, and a second Joseph Perry Israel, born after his older brother had died.