When he lived in Wisconsin in the 1840s, the local settlers, mostly German-speaking immigrants, called him "Count" Haraszthy, although he was never addressed by that title in Hungary, California, or Nicaragua.

In California, he was addressed as "Colonel" Haraszthy, an honorary designation commonly given to distinguished "gentlemen" and vaguely derived from his military service in Hungary.

Ágoston's father-in-law was Ferenc Dedinszky, the superintendent of a large estate at Futak on the Danube River where, among other things, vines were cultivated and wine was produced.

[10] Ágoston and Eleonóra Haraszthy were the parents of six children: Géza, Attila, Árpád, Ida (later wife of lawyer Henry Hancock who owned Rancho La Brea), Béla, and Otélia.

[11] Traveling with a maternal cousin named Károly Fischer, Haraszthy left Hungary for the United States in March 1840.

Moving through Austria, Germany, and England, Haraszthy and his cousin crossed the Atlantic to New York, then proceeded by way of the Hudson River, the Erie Canal, and the Great Lakes to Wisconsin, eventually settling there.

He traveled widely through the United States to gather material for the book, which praised American life and enterprise.

In 1842, Haraszthy returned to Hungary to bring his parents, wife and children to Wisconsin as permanent residents of the United States.

[citation needed] Haraszthy formed a partnership with an Englishman named Robert Bryant and threw himself into a myriad of ambitious projects.

[15] Haraszthy, a legendary hunter, built a hunting lodge opposite his home, on a bluff in Roxbury overlooking the river.

[citation needed] Like many others, Haraszthy was excited by news of the discovery of gold in California in 1848, and by the end of that year he completed plans to leave Wisconsin.

Early in 1849, he was elected captain of a train of wagons destined for California via the Santa Fe Trail.

[21] In San Diego, he formed a partnership with Juan Bandini, a prominent Spanish-Californian, and launched a host of business and agricultural projects.

He planted fruit orchards, operated a livery stable and stagecoach line, opened a butcher shop, and organized a syndicate to subdivide a large section of the San Diego Bay shore into streets, parks, and building lots.

He acquired a large tract of land near Crystal Springs on the San Francisco Peninsula (now part of San Mateo County) and planted it to vineyards, but eventually gave up the effort to make wine there, again finding the climate too foggy to ripen the grapes.

In both San Francisco and Crystal Springs, Haraszthy continued to import a wide variety of European grape vines and experimented with their planting and cultivation.

[26] While the mint investigation was pending, Haraszthy moved to Sonoma, about fifty miles north of San Francisco.

He moved his vines there from Crystal Springs and began to expand the vineyards and hire Charles Krug as his winemaker.

[30] In 1863, Haraszthy incorporated the Buena Vista Vinicultural Society, the first large corporation in California (perhaps in the United States) organized for the express purpose of engaging in agriculture.

With the support of prominent investors, he greatly expanded his vineyards in Sonoma, making wine which was sold as far away as New York.

He traveled through France, Germany, Switzerland, Spain and also his native Hungary before returning to California in December 1861 with more than 100,000 cuttings of more than 350 different varieties of vines.

It was a financial setback, as Haraszthy had expended large sums of money in gathering the vines and bringing them back to California.

Almost unknown before it made its appearance in Sonoma, the phylloxera spread in subsequent years throughout the California vineyards and even crossed the Atlantic to France, where it caused devastation.

Shareholders forced Haraszthy out of the Vinicultural Society in 1867 and replaced him with another manager, who tore out all of his layered vines.

He formed a partnership with a German-born physician and surgeon named Theodore Wassmer and began to develop a large sugar plantation near the seaside port of Corinto, Nicaragua, where he planned to produce rum and sell it in American markets.

Whether he fell into the river and was thereafter washed out to sea, or was dragged under the water by alligators which infested the area, was never finally established.

Arpad was then a well-known sparkling wine producer in San Francisco and President of the California State Board of Viticultural Commissioners, and his statement was widely accepted.

[37] In 2003, Sullivan published a book in which he showed that other men brought the Zinfandel to the East Coast of the United States as early as the 1820s and to California at unspecified dates in the 1850s.