 During the Gold Rush he went to San Francisco, where he married Delia Fox.Thomas Hope moved to Santa Barbara in 1850 to become a sheep rancher and prospered, especially when the price of wool skyrocketed during the American Civil War.Thomas Hope died in 1876, and left the western half of the rancho to his widow, Delia, and the eastern half to his six children (Anna, Katie, John, Rosa, Theresa, and James).