£^g^'; -•;''!s4E;Sire4t-;-; ^«f;h^ 1-/ CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY 3 1924 05 210 965 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://archive.org/details/cu31924051210965 HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY CALIFORNIA WITH BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES The leading men and women of the County, who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present time HISTORY BY TOM GREGORY ILLUSTRATED Complete in one volume HISTORIC RECORD COMPANY LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA I9II PREFACE When I sought to collect material for a story of Sonoma I soon found myself reaching out into the history proper of California. Every trail leading to this county runs back into the earlier times of the state. The Spanish-Amer- ican settlement of Sonoma was planned in the City of Mexico. The coming to Sonoma of the Mission San Francisco de Solano can be traced backward through San Rafael, Dolores, San Jose, Santa Clara, Carmelo and kindred institutions to the southern end of Alta California. Sonoma began at San Diego, — 'the first adobe laid in 1769, the last in 1823 completing the rosary of the missions. Territorial records having their opening chapters in Our City of the Angels, had their ending in Sonoma. The various governments sitting at various capitals marked Sonoma a key position on the line of the northern frontier. The legislative events dccurring in Monterey were soon manifest in Sonoma. The first statesman of the California political period was the Coman- dante of Sonoma. When plotting officials snarled and wrangled from San Jose to San Diego they in turn sought the adherence of Sonoma; and when these same plotters were preparing to hand this logical-territory of the Great Repub- lic over to the tenderness and the tenaciousness of an European protectorate, the little game largely was blocked b}' that same Mexican military commander of Sonoma. When Fremont, advised by Benton at Washington, collected the American settlers for the first strike, they struck at Sonoma ; and Commodore Sloat, U. S. N., raised the Stars and Stripes over the country only after he had heard of the Bear Flag at Sonoma. At an earlier day that jolly pirate, Drake, came hurrying along this shore with two millions of Spanish gold and several millions of leaking holes in his weather-beaten and battle-worn little ship ; and while the carpenter on the beach was pumping the Pacific ocean out of the craft, he made out the title- deeds and calmly presented the whole coast to Queen Elizabeth, — nothing small about Francis. The hungry and frost-bitten Russians from the north found the Sonoma littoral an excellent summer-resort, and for thirty years the double- headed eagle of the Czar from the palisades of Fort Ross screamed defiance out of his two throats at his brother-bird of Mexico. So these trails-, like the great "Camino Real," reach towards Sonoma, — not hidden under the overgrowth of the years, but standing out in the light of history. They come up from the south over liano and mesa, over piney slopes and oaken meadows, along the sharp ridges and through the dark canyons where the pilgrim-priest sore-beset clasped tightly the symbol of his salvation fearful that death would meet him on the way ; over the sunlit hills where the oats tassled at his corded waist and the poppies dropped their golden petals over his sandled feet, along the wild beaches when the wind was on the waves and the shore-breaking billows lifted their deep organ-bass in the chant to Him who made the sea. Then in the rare Indian Valley of the Moon the Padre Pathfinder planted the cross and called to prayer, "In Niomine Patris." Sonoma — 'Wonderland of this Wondrous State — Masterpiece of creative power, a garden-place of fruitage and bloom— true domain of Luther Burbank, birthplace of the Flag of the Golden West. There is no riiicon — no corner within her mountain walls that is not stamped with the golden pages of California's living history. If this indiflferent story of Sonoma were worthy, it would be dedicated to her greatest historical character — him who sleeps at Lachryma Montis. Sahta Rosa, 191 1. TOM GREGORY. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. PAGE Sonoma — ^Valley of The Moon 5 Fitting Indian Title — The Fair Amazonian "Califa" — Empire Between River and Bay Between Mountain and Sea — The Beginning by Ca- brillo at San Diego— Telling the Rosary of the Missions — San Fran- cisco de Solano. CHAPTER n. Sonoma Enters California History lo Five Flags Have Waved Here — Sir Francis Drake and New Albion — Russians Come Hunting Sea Otters — Bodega and His Bay — Greek and Roman Crosses On Sonoma Soil. CHAPTER in. Hidden in The Coast Range .'. 14 Vegas and Mesas of Never-Failing Fertility — Two Means of Tempera- ture Walk Hand in Hand — Where the Poppy Yellows the Plain — Kingdom of Luther Burbank — St. Helena, the Mother Mountain of the Sonoma Hills. CHAPTER IV. Concepcion and Her Russian Lover 18 An Imaginary Spanish Snub Brings the Moscovians Down the Coast — "Pioneer Squatters" of California — Early "Boom" Price of Sonoma Real Estate — Harvesting the Sea and Shore. CHAPTER V. El Fuerte de los Rusos 22 Fierce Letter-War Between Madrid and St. Petersburg via Intermedi- ate Points — "Hold the Fort" — Shipbuilding in Sonoma — How the Gringos Came — The Russians Go. CHAPTER VI. Captain Sutter Absorbs the Russian Realty 25 A Secret Land Deal — The Gun of Austerlitz — Valhalla Becomes "Wolholler"— Fort Ross Dismantled. CHAPTER VII. The Spaniard Reaches Sonoma 29 At "The Point of the Creeks"— Planting the Mission Faith and the Mission Grapes — Stripping the Padres — The "Pious Fund"— Pueblo Sonoma. -^ CHAPTER VIII. Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo 34 Premier Californian and First American Citizen of the New State — A Patriot and Advocate of Annexation to the United States. V i CONTENTS CHAPTER IX. Mexican State of Alta California 3° The Secularized Indian Back 1o the Wilds— Humane Laws for the Ex-Neophyte— Vallejo a Busy Official— The Carrillos— A Governor- Ridden Land. CHAPTER X. A Free and Easy People •. • 43 Uncomely but Comfortable Ajfiobc Dwellings— Wise Old Mother Spain Understood Her Simple Children— Solomonic Alcaldes— Abduc- tion of J.oscphine— Life on the Ranchos — Spurs of a California Knight. CHAPTER XI. The Digger in His Eminent Domain 5^ Natural Unattractiveness — Indian Table Luxuries and Manners — A Grasshopper Meal When Other Faro Failed— Chief Solano the Faith- ful Friend of Vallejo. Ctl AFTER XII. "Lachryma Montis," Home of Vallejo 5^ In the Valley of the Rose — California Girls and Their Broad Acres — Old Adobes That Are Crumbling Back to Mother Earth — Sonoma in "The Roaring Forties" — Just "Before the Gringo Came." CHAPTER XIII. Appearance of The Pathfinder 62 Gillespie Brings Fremont Secret Orders — The Surveyor Turns Back to Sutter's Fort — Corralling Castro's Horses — Americans Ride to So- noma. CHAPTER XIV. "Republic of California' 65 Won with a Breakfast Instead of a Battle — The Capture of Sonoma Spiked the British Guns — All Planned at Washington — Settling the Slavery Question in California. CHAPTER XV. Commodore Sloat at Monterey 69 Follows Fremont and Hoists the Flag Ashore — Where Jones Was Too Fast .Sloat Was Too Slow — Setting the Commodore a Pace — President W. B. Ide. CHAPTER XVI. Fremont The Man of The Hour 72 All Other American Ofificeis On the Pacific Coast Disavow Him — The Pathlinder as Usual Sets His Lines and Makes No Mistakes — Country Without a Flag. CHAPTER XVTI. Painting The Banner of The Bear "j-j The Lone Star of Texas — Grizzly Passant — Native Daughter's Red Petticoat— The General Said "Bueno"— Relative of Old Abe— Gallant Yankee Middy — Bear Flag Yet On Duty. CHAPTER XVIII. Bringing Order Out of The Wilds 83 Fierce Mexican War-Words — Murder of Cowie and Fowler — Ban- croft's Bro-Mexican Views — Clearing Out the Country. CONTENTS V i i CHAPTER XIX. Castro On The War Path 87 De La Torre Eludes The Pathfinder. — Unjustifiable Killing of Three Californians — Sutter's Fort — California Republic Celebrates "The Fourth." CHAPTER XX. Country Drifting to Uncle Sam 91 Old Glory Comes Ashore — The "First Flag Day"— Sutter Becomes An American Citizen — The Grizzly Passant Passes — Stars and Stripes Are Over California. CHAPTER XXI. The Historian ContinuiiS the Conflict 95 On the Trail of the Bear — Only a Deep Sea Yarn — The Paths Fre- mont Found — The War of the Gold • Braid — Petty Persecution of the Pathfinder — Fremont Tried and Exonerated. CHAPTER XXII. General Vallejo in California History 102 Imprisonment of the Sonorna Comandante the Only Error of the Bear Flaggers — He Was More American Than Mexican — Generosity His Only Fault. CHAPTER XXIII. California the Mecca of a Mighty Pilgrimage 104 The Great Trek Into the West — Sierras Bar the Way^In Donner's Dreary Glen of Death — Under Their White Pall — Among Those He- roes the Women and Children Fared Best — Wild Gales of Nevada Boom Their Requiem. CHAPTER XXIV. John A. Sutter and His Fort 108 Wanted to Sell Out Before the War — Forgot to Have Smith Ar- rested — He Forgot to Return — Some Americans Were Horse Thieves — Official Locusts That Devour the Earth. CHAPTER XXV. When the State of California Was Not a State 113 "Legislature of a Thousand Drinks" — -Started the War of the Re- bellion — Sonoma's Bear on the Great Seal — California Forcing Her Way Into the Union — Drawing the Negro and the Boundary Lines — Uncle Sam's Grand Land Deal. CHAPTER XXVI. Sacramento Corrals the State Capital 1 19 Vallejo Makes a Golden Offer — The Legislature Accepts — Sacramento Flealess if Not Flawless — San Francesco at Last Gets a Name — Benicia Sees the Legislators Go Up the River. CHAPTER XXVII. Sonoma County Settles Down to Housekeeping 123 When "Oro" Was Heard Around the World — Harvesting the Gold of Farm and Mine — Changes on the Great Ranches — When the Mustang Galloped Out of the Twilight — The Early Californians Gave Away Their Lands — Live Today and Work Manana. V i i i CONTENTS CHAPTER XXVIII. Captain Stephen Smith of Bodega ^^9 Ready for a Fight or a Fandango — A Famous Pioneer Picnic— Val- lejo's Prediction Comes True — Old Sonoma Land Grants — Chain of the Missions — Strenuous Day of the Squatter — Petaluma and the Miranda Ghost. CHAPTER XXIX. Peopling the Rich Sonoma Valleys i39 Shades of the Old Adobe Halls— Sonoma the Vineyard of the World — The In-Dwelling Spirit of the Mission Grape — Pressed and Blessed by Church— Warm Volcanic Soil— From the Padre's Early Vines. CHAPTER XXX. Vulcan — Builder of a Continent 146 The Redwoods Grew Deep — Devil-Waters for the Healing of the Nations — Hot Springs and Sweat-Houses — The County Seat Question — How Jim Williamson "Stole the Courthouse" — A Hundred Minute Mule Run — In Memoriam — Roll of Honor. CHAPTER XXXI. Within the Vale of Santa Rosa De Lima 153 Parson Amoroso Makes One Convert — Rosa Slips Wraith-Like Away But Leaves Her Name — Marring the Tonal Harmonies of Span- ish Titles— The Old Carrillo Adobe— Tragedy of Franklin Town. CHAPTER XXXII. Mapping Out the City of the Rose 159 Perplexing Thoroughfare Names — Alphabetic and Presidential Streets — Pioneer Mannerisms— Hahm.ann Wanted Plenty of Churches — Building the Temple of Themis — A Squad of the Old Guard. CHAPTER XXXIII. The Changes of the Years 164 And the Railroad Dirt Flew — And the Printers Came Also — Hop Cul- ture — Utopias of Sonoma County — Fountain Grove and Its Faith That Failed — A Word-Storm Genesis. CHAPTER XXXIV. Thoroughbred Horses of Sonoma County 169 When Lou Dillon Flung Her Silver Heels — Her Marvelous 1:58J^ — A Nursery for Prize Trotters — Crossing the Blue-Bloods — Anteeo and His Speed Band— Racing With Father Time. CHAPTER XXXV. Petaluma and Her Name Origin 174 Guadalupe Vallejo Boggs— In the Fall of Forty-Nine— Or Spring of Fifty — The Settlers "Dropped In" — Always Fritsch and Zartman — How "Harry" Mecham Got Here. CHAPTER XXXVI. Tragedy of the Vigilance Committee Bell .11 Its Golden Voice Filled the Valleys — Even Called the Santa Rosans to Repentance — Petaluma Thought of Arresting the County Seat Destroyed in the Night — The Pioneer Class of Fifty-Six. CONTENTS » X CHAPTER XXXVII. City of the Little Chicks 187 When the Hen Cackles a Market Falls— Science Does the Hatching— Byce the Incubator Man— Eggs for Far Cathay— Does An Incubator "Set" or "Sit?" CHAPTER XXXVIII. Where the Analy Apple Grows 19° How Sebastopol Got Her War-Sounding Name — Incident of , the Crimea — The Tempting Gravensteins — Apples and Women in Mythol- ogy — Fruitful Orchards and Vineyards of Gold Ridge — Ocean and Salt Point Townships. CHAPTER XXXIX. Nature's Ancient Grove — Redwood Township 196 Among the Tall Sequoias — Whirr of the Mill is the Dirge of the Tree — Armstrong Woods — Along the Rio Russian — ^Valley of the Sotoyomes. CHAPTER XL. Dale of the Clover Bloom 201 Where Asti's Wine Sleeps Under the Mountain — Steamy Geysers of Knights Valley — Garden of Chemicals and Floods of Satanic Brew — Dead Trees Their Own Gravestones — In this Wonder of Wonderlands. CHAPTER XLI. In the Earthquake's Deadly Zone 206 Santa Rosa Shattered in a Half-Minute — Then the Builders Began Building — Labor the Only Capital — A City Riveted to the Planet — The Newer Santa Rosa. CHAPTER XLII. , Luther Burbank — Traveler in Plantland 212 A Child Amid the Flowers — Giving Golden Poppy a Red Gown^ — The Great Shasta Daisy — Making the Cactus Cast Its Thorns — ^Un- known to His Countrymen — Wizardry — Down in the Life-Crypt of the Flower — Plant and Child Training. CHAPTER XLIII. Farmers' Organizations of Sonoma County 224 Agricultural Societies — The First Grange — Feast of Pomona — Among the Farms — Assessed Valuation of 1910 — Sonoma Exhibits at the Fairs— Death of G. N. Whitaker- Rest. CHAPTER XLIV. Sonoma County Statistics 246 Assessed Property Valuation of 1911 — Present Population — Sonoma County Schools— Table of County Officials from 1849 to 1911. INDEX A Abel, George L 806 Ackerman, B. D 818 Adams, Elmer F 611 Adams, Samuel E 933 Adler, Adam W 4SS Aguida, Augustine 1052 Aldrich, Edgar D 1068 Alexander, Cyrus 792 Alexander, Thomas 533 Allen, Samuel 1 1006 Alves, John J 821 Anderson, Alexander, M. D 371 Anderson, John 713 Andrews, John H 1002 Andrews, William C 1018 Arenberg, Herman F 545 Ar'fsten, Carl W 1005 Arnhart, William H 1085 Atchinson, Austin J 595 Atwater, H. H 720 Austin, Granville T 728 Austin, Herbert W 321 Austin, James 850 Avers, William 683 Ayers, William D 951 Ayers, William H. M , 836 B Babbino. Mike 1059 3acon, Lafayette W .. 731 Bailhache, Mrs. Josephine 494 Bailiff, John 786 Bailiff, John D 752 Baker, Albert 1017 Baker, Charles A 1004 Barham, Aubrey 758 Barlow, Thomas E 1075 Barlow, Solomon Q 584 Barnes, Edwin H 259 Barnes, Miss Florence M 704 Barnes, William H. 816 Barnes, W. P 952 Barnett, Harrv J 799 Barry, Rev. M. 1 1082 Barry, William R 1016 Bassett, .William D 1003 Bassi, Rocco 1046 Batchelor, David W 431 Bauer, John W 809 Beeson, Edward I ,. . . . 812 Bell, George K 832 Benjamin, .Alexander 950 Beretta, Joseph 1 104 Bettinelli, Antonio 1103 Bettinelli, Fillip 672 Bidwell, Ira 440 Bidwell, James 464 Bidwell, John 378 Bird, Edward 80S Birkhofer, Carl. 880 Eish, Lewis M 953 Blackburn, Charles 606 Blackburn, Frank L 357 Blackburn, John S 602 Blank, John 1001 Bline, James P 788 Bloom, Adolph J. 438 Bloom, Americo J 438 Bloom, James B 438 Bock, David 947 Bodwell, Charles A 408 Bohan, Miles 613 Bella, Battista 689 Bolla, Elvezio B 596 Bondietti, Frank 612 Bones, William H 345 Bonniksen, John T 577 Bourke, A. E. . .". 509 Bourke, William 1039 Bowman, Henry C 456 . Bowman, William F 946 Boyes, Mrs. Antoinette C 299 Boyes, Capt. Henry E 297 Boyse, Alexander E 823 Boyson, Conrad C 629 Brandt, Alonzo B 665 Brown, Charles 594 Brown, Samuel 449 Bruner, Grant 876 Bruner, John 876 Burgess, James F 811 Burris, L. W 346 Bussman, Peter W 874 Butler, Charles H ■. 800 Byce, Lyman C 503 C Cable, I. N 1077 Cadwell. Alexander 671 Cahill, James 879 Campigli, F. C 1064 Canepa, Giovanni 1082 Casarotti, Amei-ico 1081 Casarotti, Filippo G 1106 Cassiday, Samuel 1015 Cassin, John M 815 Charles, ' Elbert R 635 Chauvet, Henry J 335 Chauvet, Joshua 328 Cheney, John M 339 Chenoweth, Charles J 383 Christensen, John 959 Clark, Louis W 844 Clark, W. L 600 Clarke, James P 829 Cline, Owen J 1042 Clough, Manley E 601 Collins, F. M 407 Combi, Giovani 1102 Comerford, Rev. T. J 970 X 1 1 INDEX Comstock, Hubert G 817 Comstock, William 716 Conkle, Jacob 959 Connolly, John D 363 Cook, Thomas G 822 Cofdano, Giovanni 1047 Coulson Poultry and Stock Food Co. 499 Covey, William 1066 Coviran, William F 353 Cox, John J 719 Cozzens, Davenport, Jr 1071 Crawford, Richard F 589 Crystal, Melvin R 482 CuUen, Frederick T 945 Cummings, Lawrence Q 1062 Cummings, Michael E 1000 Cunningham, John 322 Cunningham, Robert 985 Cunningham, William J 878 D Dahlmann, Frederick 588 Dahlmann, Henry 607 Daken, S. T... 1072 Dambrogi, John 608 Dannhausen, William 1063 Dayton, William A 410 De Bernardi. E 1053 Denman. Hon. Ezekiel 445 Denman, Frank H 506 Denner, Russell 605 De Rezendes. Manuel 1045 De Turk, Isaac 462 Dillon, Charles H 614 Dinucci, Angelo 1064 Dixon, John T 572 Douglas, A. S 877 Douglas, George B 824 Dowd, Frank E 1037 Dowd, John W 624 Downs, Vernon 975 Doyle, Manville 511 Drago, Margaret T 945 Drees, Emil E 954 Drosbach, Mrs. Fredricka F 875 D.rouillard, Joseph W 873 Duerson, John H 619 Dufranc, Vitale 1087 Durand, Victor 587 E Eades, George H 401 Early. William H 540 Eckert, Albert 1084 Eckert, Frederick 1084 Eckman, Jonathan 452 Edgeworth, William J 312 Elder, William 804 Klphick, Henry, Jr 955 Elphick, James F 948 Elzi Brothers 944 English, David E 861 English, Joseph 1067 Evans, Edward W. M 972 Evart, William 497 F Fairbanks, Hiram T 1078 Fehr, Jacques 882 971 Fenk, Frank g-^g Fetters, George ..„rj Filippini, Achille „,, Filippini. Charles ^"^^ Fitch, Charles /^Z Fognini, Peter ;^ ^S^?^ Folsom, Fred N., M. D 491 Foresti, Rafael ^^j. Fowler, John H "" Fredericks, Morris H jUi^ Frei, Andrev/ ^"^^ Fremont, John C ^«» Fulkerson, Richard 'J^ Fuller, Charles E 76/ Furlong, James °°-^ G Gale, L. D fSS Gallawav, Allen R 323 Garloflf, August 620 Garzoli, Arnold F 626 Garzoli, Joseph 1 105 Garzoli, Peter 1050 Gaye, Mercelin "99 Genazzi, Elio M 632 Geuglima, G 1105 Giberson. John K 943 Gibson, James W 1073 Giggej', Robert A 1013 Gilman, P. E 397 Gisel, Herman 884 Goatley, Armsted 969 Goeiler, John 637 Goodenough, Monroe E 981 Gossage, Jerome B 593 Gould, Captain Nathaniel 351 Graham, Thomas J 968 Graves, George W., M. D 798 Gray, James W 505 Greenwood, Lord W 644 Gregory, Harvey 931 Greppi, Sylvester 1091 Grider, Newton J 1032 Griffith, Nathaniel A 714 Grohe, Frederick 940 Grove, William H 745 Guglielmetti, Giovanni 581 Gustafson, C 943 Gutermute, John M 998 H ' Hall, Albert S 838 Hall, Clarence C 743 Hall, George A 578 Hall, L. J 886 Hallberg, John F 1031 Hallengren, Svente P 1029 Halley, Robert E. L 488 Hammell, Henry 552 Hansen, John 997 Hansen, Ole 751 Harbine, Hardy R 995 Hardin, Henry A .. .. 721 Hardin, Jefferson R 967 Harris, Richard J 398 Hart, D. B 702 Hart, Marion 1088 INDEX X 1 1 1 Hartsock, Adolphus 791 Haskell, Barnabas 744 Haskell, William B 740 Herbert, Lewis ., 554 Hesse, Fred W 887 Higby, Ear) D 888 Hill, Robert P 303 Hill, William 275 Hoar, Benjamin F., Jr 631 Hockin, William 726 Hodges, Harry C 749 Hooten, M. V 927 Hopper, Thomas 433 Hopper, Wesley L 336 Horn, J. W 674 Hotchkiss, Benonia 930 Hotle, Charles E 333 Howard. William C 691 Howell, Thomas W'. 673 Hoyt Brothers . . . . ? 994 Hubbell, Orton 678 Hunt, Richard P 437 Hunt, William J 655 Hutchinson, Samuel 575 I Irwin, George 925 Italian Swiss Colony 376 J Jacobs, George H 395 J ac6bsen, John H 1011 Jamieson, Daniel J 1040 Jensen, Jens C 547 Jesse, J. W., M. D 384 Johnson, William 738 Jones, Brainerd 701 Tones, Joseph C 727 Jones, T. Noble 1008 Jones, "William 939 Jones, William D 977 Joy, T. B 563 Juhl, Hans 935 Juilliard, Charles F 317 Juilliard. Louis W 327 K Karr, Bertel M 625 Kelly, Charles 599 Kelly, James P 989 Kelly, Tames W 992 Kelly, John W ' 767 Kent, James E 697 Keough, Michael 1099 King, George E 926 King, Theodore G 912 King, William 941 Knittel, Joseph 889 Knowles, James H 310 Knowles, William H 311 Koch, Reuben - 1023 Korbel Brothers 900 Kuhnle, Perry ; 529 L Lafranchi, Albino A 1049 Lafranchi, Edward E 825 Lafranchi, John 1084 ■Lambert, William S 990 Lamoreaux, George W 920 Landis, A. L 938 Larison, Samuel 668 Lasher,- George A 698 Laton, A. H 890 Lauritzen, Christian 485 Lauritzen, Jeppe C 479 Lauritzen, John 966 Lauritzen, Knudt 929 Lawrence, Henry E 957 Laymance, George W 480 Lea, Clarence F 463 I eahy, Rev. Jeremiah 1098 Leonard, S. C 499 Leslie, John 708 Leveroni. G. B 993 Lewis, Charles H 715 Lewis, Charles W 515 Lewis, John B 457 Lewis, William A 915 Lichau. Henry P.. Jr 863 Liggett, William T 928 Lippitt, Edward S 315 Lock, William H 965 Lorenzini, D 677 Loser, J. B 988 Lumsden, Arthur G., M. D 898 Luppold, J 924 I.uttringer, Joseph 773 Lynch, John . .' 1007 M McAfee, Charles 690 McCandless, John 891 McCargar, Hugh S 524 McChristian, James 641 McCutcheon, Arthur A 892 McDonald, Mark L., Jr 360 McDonald, Mark L 257 McElroy, William 846 McNamara, Thomas B 354 McNear, John A 263 McPeak, Anthony 523 Maclay, Thomas '. 666 Maestretti, Antonio 1096 Maggetti, Peter 547 Mancini, Dominico 1065 Mandarini, Remigio 1058 Manion, William 661 Manion, William H 922 Mann, Edwin E 1 108 Martin, Albert P 541 Martin, Mrs. Frances McG 569 Martin, Leopold 535 •Masciorini. Joseph 1057 Mather, William 1070 Matzen, Peter 548 Mazza, Romildo L l]01 Meagher, Thomas F 300 Mecchi, Giovanni 1O68 Mecham. Franklyn A 1012 Mecham, Harrison 854 M eek, Thomas 662 Meek, Thomas B., Jr 470 Meeker, Melvin C 289 Mell, Joseph 1027 Merritt, John ' 751 Meyer, Lawrence 1028 Miller, Thomas B 956 X 1 V INDEX Mitchell, Samuel S 979 Mock, Wesley 425 Mock, William 1045 Moebes, August 1067 Moke, H. H 974 Montgomery, De Witt 427 Mooney, Thomas 901 Mordecai, W. B 1112 Moretti, G 667 Morris, Harry B 341 Morse, Stephen C 309 Moser, August 1074 Mossi, Tames 1107 Mowbray, James R 921 Murdock, Glenn E 415 N Nagle, Frederick G 1026 Nay, Lewis G 467 Nay, Samuel A 856 Neil, John 987 Nerz, John 1025 Nesbitt, Tames R 894 Newburgh, Edward 914 Nicoletti, Carlos 1097 Nisson, Christian 923 Nisson, Erick P 563 Noble, W. L. J 877 Nobles, Hermon 866 Nolan, Charles P 857 Nunn, Newton R 1024 O O'Farrell. lasper 565 O'Learv, Edwin F 986 Oellig, 'Howard H 1038 Offutt, Charles A 762 Oliver, Charles C 835 Orr, Thomas L 381 Ottmer, Henry C, M. D 461 Overton, Albert P 402 P Parker, Freman 647 Patocchi, Benjamin T 1086 Patten, Richard R 734 Patterson, Azel S 557 Paxton, B. W 292 Peoples, Joseph S 653 Perkins, Dr. R. E 826 Petakmia & Santa Rosa R. R. Co.... 919 Peters, Lorenz R 964 Petersen, Peter 1022 Peterson, Allen 1110 Petray, Edwin A 696 Piazza, Angelo 1060 Pickrell, Charles E . 654 Plow, Carl 1021 Poehlmann, Conrad 539 Poehlmann, Frank 1043 Pool, Charles A 534 Poppe, Charles J 375 Poulin, Louis 918 Powell, Ransom 895 Price, Wesley A 849 Proschold. Edwin M 517 Prunk, George E ^bU Puccioni, Angelo ^^^ Purrington, Samuel W . .• **•' Q Quanchi, Gilo HOO R Ramatici, Charles 725 Rambo. James H °°^ Rand, Edward C ^^^ Reid. Joseph B ^» Richards, Theodor 1041 Ricioli, AchiUe ^9 Rickman, David H 6W Rickman, George T obO Ridenhour, Lewis W o6i Riebli, Arnold B 1048 Riebli, Sebastian 1056 Rielly, George 899 Robinson, William J 387 Rodd, Sam.uel 909 Rosie, James R 937 Ross, George A 286 Ross, James L 582 Ross, Losson 305 Ross, William 770 Rosselli. Genesio 1095 Rossi, P. C 317 Rule, John 642 S Sacchi, Silva HH Sanborn, George D 781 Sanborn, George N 330 Sandberg, John 810 Sartori, Arcangelo 707 Sartori Brothers 893 Sbarboro, Andrea 376 Scatena, Martin 837 Schieck, Hermann 558 Schieffer, William H 963 Schultz, Gustav 961 Scott, John C 469 Scrutton, H. C 499 Seawell, Judge Emmett 481 Shaffer, Reuben H 571 Shaver, Eli S 1044 Shelley, William N 985 Shelton, Abram C 794 Simi, Casimiro 1054 Sinclair, Henry G 830 Sinclair, James 733 Singley, Frank B 1020 Singley, Hon. James T 404 Skiffington, John 962 Slattery, Patrick A 1083 Small, Joseph B 936 Smith, Tohn K 518 Smith. Patrick 911 Smith. William E 779 Snider, Mrs. Jane 683 Sonoma Valley Water, Light and Power Co , 785 Spencer, Byron M.. 686 INDEX Spurgeon, Sidney F 803 Stagg, Amos A 623 Stengel, Christian 521 Stevens, A. F 841 Stevens, Charles D 976 Stewart, Dell 1111 Stornetta, Louis 1093 Stradling, William C 551 Stratton, W. A. T 564 Strode, John M 908 Strout, G. A 278 Stuart, Absalom B., M. D 848 Stuart, Anabel McG 842 Sullivan, Frank A 897 Sullivan, John D 1019 Sweet, James S. P 774 T Taylor, Benjamin F 692 Taylor, John S 867 Temple, Jackson 684 Thomas, Mary Jane 907 Togni & Dado 1090 Tombs, William L 474 Traversi, Joseph 1092 Tripp, Hiram 1 840 Trondsen, Thorwald 960 Trosper, Ernest £ 500 Trosper, Francis D 636 Trosper, Thomas G.. W 486 Trowbridge, George T 475 Truitt, Roland K 347 Turner, John W 1069 u Urban, Kurt, M. D 853 V Valentini, Louis 1094 Vallejo, Gen. Mariano G 413 Varner, Philip E 703 Varner, Samuel 768 Vogensen, H. P 617 W Waldrop, Mrs. Helen L 695 Walker, Edward L 852 Walker, John 1109 Walker, John 1079 Walker, Joseph 905 Walker, Willis Y 797 Walls, David 828 Ward, Thomas B 910 Watson, Capt. Greenville 527 Weeks, Lewis 277 Welch, Charles 906 Welling, Charles W 755 Weyhe, Charles P 983 Whitaker, Fred 709 Whitaker, George N 419 White, Harry 6 1020 White, Josiah H 859 Whitney, Albion P 283 Whitney, Mrs. Susan D 285 Wickersham, Isaac G 271 Williams, George S 516 Wilson, John 782 Winkler, Clayton 358 Winkler, George H 833 Winton, Homer W 904 Wolfe, Abraham L 780 Wood, James W 973 V/oods, Robert 903 Woodward, Edward F 845 Wyatt, Charles E 932 Y York, Charles W 934 Young, Ernest I 902 Young, Peter 473 Z Zamaroni, Peter 1055 Zanolini, Guissepi 1089 Zartman, William 763 Zartman, William H 756 Zweifel, Walter J 650 HISTORICAL CHAPTER I. SONOMA— VALLEY OF THE MOON. Sonoma, "Valley of the Moon," was the fitting name which the Indian gave the most eastern vale of this many-valleyed county. It was in a day beyond the dawn of written history when the red Chocuyen looked over that graceful line of level land sweeping from the farther horn of its crescent in the Napa hills, around by the circling rampart of northern peak to its west- ern point where a spur of the great Coast Range dips under the tides of the San Pablo. To his nature-trained mind was that perfect lunar shape — its arc to the north, and to the south its chord — a wide frontage on the big inland water. And he called it Sonoma. And the rancherias of the aboriginal set- tlers multiplied in the Valley of the Moon, for within those oaken groves and along the willow-bordered streams they found in their early period that which has made this portion of the Pacific the most gifted land under the sun. The two great luminaries of the skies were the chief deities of the Indian's primi- tive worship, — the sun that brought, and yet brings, days of plenty and peace to that favored region; and the moon that mellowed the night there and gave her name to the valley, — and the eves are as nights in Eden when the moon silvers Sonoma's vine-clad plain. The fitness and the triple-vowel melody of the title, with the sweet tonal harmony of its three syllables sounding like a Spanish word, so appealed to Padre Jose Altimira, sent to establish a mission there, that he immediately applied it to the local Indian tribe, and afterwards to the pueblo which soon grew around the adobe church which he built. This new mission Altimira called San Francisco de Solano, in honor of St. Francis Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order of priesthood, and of St. Solano, the celebrated "Apostle of the Indies." It was the most northern and the last of the chain of missions that linked the coast settlements of the Calif ornias to- gether. Like its kindred institutions Mission Solano droops under the bur- dens and the neglect of tim.e. Even its sacred title once voiced in veneration by the neophytes kneeling before its altars, is now seldom spoken by men. But the Indian's name lives not only in the town and valley where the pioneer padre wrought for the moral uplift of the primitive Sonoman, but it has passed across the western mountain range. It has spread over a noble territory bordering the wide waterways of the state and fronting twenty leagues on the Pacific, the present and future battle-wave where the world's commerce will struggle for supremacy, and throwing back from the sea into the interior of this grand domain a breadth of thirty miles. "The valley was found best adapted by rea- son of its climate, location, abundance of wood and stone for building pur- poses," wrote Father Altimira in his journal, "and above all for its excellent springs and streams." The far-seeing padre had looked over many proposed places for his mission and his choice of Sonoma proved him unusually wise in his generation. 1 6 HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY The name "California" has come through broken accounts from an ongm, vague, distant, impalpable. The treasure-mad adventurers from Spain always seeking undiscovered golden troves, believed, in the fierceness of their desire, there were other places on the new continent rivaling the stored wealth of the Peruvian Inca, from whom Pizarro looted so richly and murderously, or of Montezuma, the pitiful victim of the insatiable Cortes. Fictionists of the time wrote lurid stories of the cities in the mystic west peopled by semi-supernatural beings who jealously watched their vast treasuries. One of these writers was Ordonez de Montalvo, and his book, "Sergas de Esplandian," published in 1 5 ID, told of the magic "Island of California," where beautiful amazons ruled and grim griffins guarded not only the feminine wealth, but the mineral treas- ure as well. The young and valiant grandee and knight of belt and spur, Esplandian, meets the wild queen, "Califa," in her capital city, where after many fierce fights between his followers and her dragon-like people, he suc- ceeded if not in conquering the place, at least in having her fall in love with him. Califa was devoted to her Spanish cavalier, something of the devotion of a tigress, and it took all the watchfulness and valor of her lover to keep his life secure when she had an unusual "tender spell." Her savage soldiers had an unpleasing habit of flying around on their bat-wings and picking up the soldiers of Sergas, which they would lift to a great height and then drop. Of course the soldier thus treated was of no use afterwards. Because of their birdlike manners Montalvo in his book dipped into the Greek and called them "ornis," and "Califa" is from "Kalli" (beautiful) in the same language. "The f was inserted for the sake of euphony," says Professor George Davidson, the translator, hence "California," beautiful bird. This golden Ali Baba tale was popular with the Spani.sh knights of fortune, and doubtless Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo, when he saw the islands of? the southern coast of this state, named them after the mystic amazon queen, as they were first known as "Las Cali- fornias." Could this Portuguese in the naval service of Spain have gone farther into the province he found and named so fittingly he might have won the golden lure that drew him to the threshold of a greater discovery. But he died sud- denly in that vicinity and was buried on one of his Santa Barbara islands, in a grave nameless and unknown. But this portion of the Golden West assumes no indefinite or foreign derivation for her title. She has supplied it from within herself; and her almost nine hundred thousand acres of soil — lowland and upland — have never felt a drought, and where the fauna of all earth's zones blossom in richest beauty and fruit in generous harvest, is — Imperial Sonoma. The surveyor who chained off Sonoma County from the rest of the con- tinent smoothly moved along lines of least resistance — along natural boundary lines. The reader may imagine him setting his first stake in the southeastern corner, on the San Pablo bay shore. Starting northward he is soon on the crest of a range of high hills and on this elevated course he travels throuo-h innumerable turnings and twisting, passing Napa county on his right, and over the slope of Mount St. Helena, where he reaches the corner meeting place of Sonoma, Lake and Napa counties. Turning west he tramps along the parallel of latitude, tending to the south of this line, and finally striking the upper waters of the Valhalla — now known as the Gualala — river, and this dashing mountain stream is his guide till he reaches the sea. The Pacific is the western boundary HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY 7 from that northwest corner as far south as the mouth of the Estero Americano on Bodega Ba}-. He travels easterly up this creek to Valley Ford, thence he chains a southeast, cross-country Hne to the upper part of the Estero de San Antonio. This stream down to its end in San Pablo Bay he marks on his survey the division line between Sonoma and Marin. It would seem that this county found for herself a place within the natural barriers of hill and bay, stream and sea, during those distant days when mighty terrestrial forces were heaving hemispheres into form. And this amphitheatre of virile vale and mesa awaited through the unwritten savage years for the coming of the day when these acres would yield their wealth to the home-building Saxon. LAS CALII'ORNIAS EARLY STORY. Nor does Sonoma begin her life with the sisterhood of counties in a late historical period. Her discovery came in 1774 — five years after somebody, said to have been Caspar de Portola, seeking Monterey, found Yerba Buena. Who- ever found what is now known as San Francisco certainly was not so successful in finding a name for the place, as no later botanist or vegetarian has ever found there the "good herb" that suggested the Spanish title "Yerba Buena." Sonoma continued incognito for tv/o hundred and thirty-two years after Cabrillo at San Diego saw and added this, the last, domain to the empire-kingdom of that monarch who was at once an emperor — Charles V of Germany, and a king — Carlos I of Spain. Charles, then only the German ruler (having suc- ceeded his maternal grandfather, l^aximillian), was fighting in the Nether- lands when the death of his paternal grandfather, Ferdinand, lifted him to the Spanish throne. The warlike qualities of the sturdy Dutchman kept him so busy in the Low Countries that he did not see his new kingdom — the greatest on earth — for years, and the maladministrations of his six immediate succes- sors further sent Spain on the downward road that ended when her flag dropped in Cuba and the Philippines. In constant turmoil at home, her far western possessions, Mexico and California, were left to get along with only intermit- tent attention. Between Portola, (1769) and De Sola (1822) ten Spanish appointees had more or less governed Alta CaHfornia, but these easy-going soldiers of fortune had staid prety close to the shore. They found the pueblos of San Diego, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Monterey and San Francisco more comfortable than the Indian-infested inland. The work of civiHzing the wilder- ness and incidentally raising food and other luxuries for the government officials and their soldiers were left to the mission padres and their native converts. These Franciscan priests, when Charles had expelled the Jesuits from Spanish dominions accusing them of plotting- against his' crown, succeeded to the rights and holdings of the deposed order on the Pacific. They also succeeded to the "Pious Fund", which had been set apart for the support of the Jesuit mission- aries in Lowe:r California. This fund grown to large dimensions and withheld by the Mexican government, was returned to the church a few years ago by a decision of the Hague. The Dominican order, however, demanded a share in the mission field, and Junipero Serra, president of the Franciscans, looking over the sterile, uninviting hills of Baja California where the Jesuits had labored under such discouragements, was willing to cede the whole peninsula to the other order. This Serra cHd and the following years find him wil'\ his co-work- ers building missions from San Diego to Sonoma, seeking the ? uil-salvation 8 HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY of a sordid savage who had more veneration for a pot of "carne y fnjoles, beef and beans, which the good fathers cooked, than for cross and creed held up to his primitive mind. After the seizing of the pious fund, then grown to $78,000, and upon which Mexico had kept hungry eyes for years, and the secularization of the mission property, the institution went down and the great adobe chapels began to crumble back to their mother dust. The Spanish era was the "sleepy" period of California— the slumber just before the grand awakening when "the Gringo came." Of course the different governors and comandantes frequently aroused themselves for family quarrels in which there was generally more fluent talking and letter writing than real fighting, but a few concessions and cheap compli- ments brought peace — till the next row was due. Even when Mexico threw off the yoke of Spain in 1822 and had her own emperor, Iturbide, crowned as "Agustan I," for a few months, the change hardly rippled the placid surface of this portion of the new Mexican empire. And when luckless Iturbide lay dead before a file of Mexican soldiers, as did Maximillian, another emperor, later on, the Californians quietly hauled down the new imperial standard and as quietly hauled up the old tricolor of the RepubHc of Mexico. It was "on again, off again" without any powder burned over the changes, in this "mafiana" land. Yet there was one question that drew these sons of old Spain into some- thing like unity, and while it did not cement the aggregated mass, it helped the Californians to present a considerable front to the common family enemy That question was the man from the "States,"' the North American, — in contra- distinction to the Mexican of the South. From their minimum of geographi- cal knowledge they knew that the Great Wall of the Sierras stood guard on their eastern border and over those icy crests they desired no immigrant .should come. For generations Spain had seen her standards torn and tossed on English bayonets and her armandas go gurgling down in the deep at the mere will of the invincible Albion, and no descendant of Castile and Aragon cared to come in contact with even a branch of that militant race. Moreover, the eagle of America and his brother-bird of Mexico were screaming warlike from shore to shore of the Rio Grande, and Texas was preparing the way for a march to the ancient city of Montezuma. The Spanish in California, with- the purblindness which has been a distinct characteristic of that race always, carried their senseless antagonism to their only and more powerful neighbor occasionally to extreme lengths. They even desired to annex themselves to anyone of the European governments whose fleets were hovering watchfully on this coast. They knew that it was the world's belief that California was a logical part of the United States and that the stars and stripes would wave on the Pacific beach whenever those Yankee color-bearers so desired. So to these colonists playing like children at state-building, galloping their mustangs over vast hidden mineral and agricultural wealth yet finding it not, slumber- ing in a long siesta on the threshold of a great waterway that was to bring to their harbors — after their day — the cargoed riches of countless argosies, it was anything but the hated "gringo." It was this knowledge that in 1842 hurried Commodore Jones with the United States frigate United States into Monterey, where he hoisted his flag, even if he did haul it down next day. HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY 9 learning that General Taylor had not yet got his guns to working on the Mexican, Santa Ana; and it was this knowledge four years afterwards that sent Commodore Sloat in the United States steamship Savannah racing up the coast with the British frigate Collingwood, Admiral Sir George Seymour commanding, in the speedy Yankee's wake. War was on with Mexico and the good old wooden ship Savannah, fit mother of the modern cruiser of steel, was outsailing her Britanic majesty the Collingwood, and a state was the prize. That was a glorious "ride" over the sea that merits a place in song with the runs of Revere and Sheridan, for when Seymour came in port next day Sloat's ensign was over Monterey, and it has never come down. From July i6, 1769, the day Junipero Serra founded his first Upper Cali- fornia Mission at San Diego, the Spanish colonists, if comparatively straggling bands of ill-clothed, poorly paid or no-paid soldiers often with poverty-stricken families, can be called colonists, began to settle along the fringe of coast. This wave of civilization rolled sluggishly towards the north, led always by the mdefatigable lame padre of whom Pope Qement said, "I would that I had in my garden more junipers like that one." Under Serra's supervision mission after mission arose in the California vales fair as gardens of the Lord, until his body, bereft of the flame of a life-zeal, lay dead in the Valley of EI Carmelo. In 181 7 the Mission San Rafael was established, the beautiful Marin valley chosen for an establishment to relieve the poor, unselfsupporting Mis- sion Dolores in San Francisco. This brings the reader along the chain of missions whose links measure seven hundred miles and whose walls were a half century in the building, until he stands at the door of the twenty-first and the last — San Francisco de Solano, at Sonoma. 10 HISTORY OF SOX(.)MA COL'NTV CHAPTER H. SONOMA ENTERS HISTORY. To write the history of Sonoma one must, in part, write the history ol Cahfornia, for in this fifteen hundred and fifty square miles of Pacific slope were for awhile the northern and final ends of the records that began with the landing of the first European on this western rim of the continent. Hence the foregoing narration of events which marched county by county,— to give the different localities their present geographical designation,— into the north. Sonoma may be said to start the second half of California's colonial history, San Francisco and San Pablo bays being practically the division line, with Sutter's "New Helvetia," now Sacramento, the only settlement beyond. But though written into the history of the state, Sonoma has a story as distinct as the five epochs marked on her pages, and even few of her own native sons and daughters know or feel the importance of that tale, or of the part this county played in the drama of Las Californias. Indian, Spaniard, Russian, Mexican, American, with the ubiquitous EngHshman hovering near, each in turn, has worked out his role on this stage of the continent. Four have gone leaving imperishable names, blood and racial characteristics in the soil they trod, and in the invincible race that remain. Each strove for the "goodlie" land ; each surrounded by different conditions lived his day, accomplished his political life work and passed at the coming of the fifth, — the last — who, like the march of empire, was holding west his way till the ultimate sea beating against the bases of the hills thundered — "No farther." The primitive aborigine faltering in the strange first steps of Christian civilization, saw the soldiers of Castile's knightly king with sword and cross move over these waters and valleys and stamping their monarch's signet into the land that had been the Indian's land since the day the Supreme signed the title deeds. Then the bearded boyars of the Romanoff appeared out of the north and planted the two-headed eagle of their sovereign and the double-beam cross of their faith on the sea-cliffs of the Redrhan's hunting-ground, and the crosses of Spain and Russia shone at the same time over Sonoma's soil. They too passed, — the Castilian back along the track Columbus had charted across the sea, and the Moscovite into the white wastes of his north. Then he saw the petty-ofScials of the nearby republic that had been reared on the blood-red ruins of the Aztec, rule and wrangle for awhile and cease to be, swept awav by the irre- sistible Saxon. And finally the Indian turned from the successive coming and going to pass before the last and fittest. The curtain goes down on each following act, and vale and mesa of this golden plateau hear the actors no more. On moves destiny, unswerving, inexorable. The soil of Sonoma has been claimed by a kingdom, an empire, a king- dom and two republics, while between the two last appeared for brief periods a "homemade" empire (Iturbide's) and an independent principality equally home- made but more homel}-, also more vigorous thaTi the weak, imperial thing HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY n attempted on the Mexican republicans. The Bear Flag was only a smear of lampblack on a piece of white cloth, it was without national sanction or recog- nition and the strongest argument for its existence was down in the barrels of its thirty-three rifles, but it foreshadowed the approach of a new order, the approach of that which was to vitalize this portion of the hemisphere. So, the hoisting of the grizzly mildly regardant — to apply a fitting heraldic term- over virtually the last Mexican and the last mission, was well timed, or the banner of the bear might have dropped ignobly like Jones' ensign at Monterey. But events just then began coming, crowding and overlapping, and the Repub- lic of California gently annexed itself to the United States. "perfidious ALBION." While writing the introductory pages of the history of Sonoma County the scribe must not miss an allusion to a man who has made' more ocean history than any other individual in his day. He is of England — traveler in every land and sailor on the "seven seas," and to catch his first appearance on this coast the reader must slip back to 1579, the year Francis Drake trans- ferred his ship-activities to the^Pacific, or "Calm Sea," as he called it, remem- bering the three, out of his five vessels, which he had left in the stormy Atlantic. On the southern coasts he had conducted himself in a manner to win no little hatred from the Spaniards, and at that period in his career this pious people in both the new and the old world were cursing him most prayerfully. As in the Spanish Main, he had pretty well swept this ocean of the fat treasure-laden galleons homeward bound from the Philippines to far Espafia, and with $2,000,- 000 or more of loot in the hold of his clumsy little "Golden Hind," Drake was himself trying to make home. Well knowing that the Spaniards were cruising over the southern seas supplicating all the churchly saints in their calendar and the heathen god of winds to waft him safely into their hands, he had elected to sail west by way of Cape Good Hope instead of east through the Straits of Magellan. But unfavorable winds had blown him back on to the California coast, in this vicinity, which he then saw for the first time. Though his ship was loaded down with the pirated property of Spain he calmly annexed the entire country to the British crown, calling it "New Albion" because the white summer-hills reminded him of the chalk cliffs of Dover. The hard strain of the long cruise and of the stiff fights he had put up had told on his insignificant craft, so in a bay, either Bodega in Sonoma or one in Marin now known as "Drake's Bay," he careened and repaired the "Golden Hind.'' What a prize she and her skipper would have been to the Spaniards could they have found them helpless on the beach of New Albion in that far June of 1579! But Drake went home, rounding the continent of Africa, the first circumnavigator of the globe, and his queen knighted him in return for the Spanish dollars and domin^ ion he presented her. She doubtless put the money to immediate use, but there is no existing record that she ever attempted to "prove up" on her Sonoma real estate claim. Somewhere on that shore is a pile of stones and near it is an English penny bearing the august profile of Elizabeth, elaborate head-dress, high ruff collar and all, and this was the pre-emption notice left by Sir Francis Drake. When this coin is found it will mark the exact place of his twenty- six davs' stay, and will also be evidence of his claim to the countrv. Then it 12 ' HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY will be in order in this Augustan age of litigation, for George V of England to commence suit-if only a friendly suit-for the purpose of quietmg title to New Albion. ANOTHER ONE. In 1792— two hundred and thirteen years after Drake's day— so slowly time flew then— Captain George Vancouver, another wandering Englishman, came sailing down the coast. He visited the Spanish at Yerba Buena, enjoyed their hospitality but quietly ignored their name and claim. He also noted that the Spaniards were ill-prepared to defend their possessions against foreign invasion and advised his government to grab the grand domain. Great Britain just at that propitious time, was trying to keep out of the great French Revolution, and was also taking an occasional shot at Holland, and at Spain nearer home. Also she was out of money and the Bank of England had suspended specie payments. Moreover, she had lately come out of the conflict with her rebellious colonies on the Atlantic seaboard— second best, and had no strong desire to get into a fresh fight so' near the warlike Yankees. Other- wise, it is probable that a British fleet soon would have made short work of subduing the few, weak Spanish settlements on this coast, and California might have become a sister province of Canada. After Vancouver's departure the Spaniards awoke to the danger of having foreign officers spying out the land, and they set themselves to work making their position stronger. Ports and other exposed points were to be fortified, and one of these was Bodega. Since 1775, when Lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra in the Spanish warship "Sonora" explored the bay and gave a portion of his considerable name to the place, the comandante at San Francisco had apparently forgotten the discovery. Now a military road running along the east shore of Tomales Bay, through Marin county was projected, and four guns were mounted in a small redoubt on Bodega Point. But the military road only reached the dignity of a sheep-trail and the guns gathered rust until somebody hauled them back to San Francisco. Spain had troubles at home and the other European nations were busy with one another, and no more dangerous foreigners appearing, California was left to sleepily work out her destiny. A band of fur-dealing Russians from Alaska settled on Bodega beach and the bluffs at Fort Ross, but as they were more interested in sea-otter and agriculture than in adding more territory to the already over-wieldy empire of the White Czar, they were practically left unmolested to hunt skins, and smuggle garden-truck to the scnrv^•- . racked Spanish soldiers in Yerba Buena. LAST OF THE MISSIONS. Sonoma, as has been stated, was the last stand of the padres whose mis- sions commenced at the southern cape of the Californias. The friars of St. Francis, generally native and loyal subjects of Spain, openly or secretly sympa- thized with the mother country and against rebellious Mexico, and moreover, the Mexican in California was at best a weak churchman. The vast wealth of the missions in cattle that practically "roamed a thousand hills," and their leagues and leagues of land that covered most all the arable acreage of the southern half of the state were not calculated to moderate the growing ill will of the improvident government officials. Added to this the mission people set their faces like flints against the immigration which the most enlightened Cali- - HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY i3 fornians desired. From all this, secularization of the mission was inevitable. Also, the California Indian had not shown himself to be satisfactory or plastic material for whiteman's education, just as the Spaniard has never shown him- self to be a patient, just and practical teacher of subject native races. So not- withstanding the zeal of his ecclesiastical: instructors the neophyte would "jump" the school, the chapel, and revert to the wilds of his native tribe. Hence, between the original natives who were indifferent and the original native sons, who were inimical, the mission of the Missions was failing. Yet Padre Jose Altimira, in obedience to the orders of his superior and the command, "Go ye and preach my gospel," sought a new field for labor. With Captain Alfres Sanchez and nineteen soldiers, accompanied by Senor Francisco Castro, repre- sentative of Governor Arguello, Altimira carefully explored favorable localities in Suisun and Napa valleys, finally selecting Sonoma because, as he wrote in his daily journal, "the