Sonoma County Courthouse
Completed 1908
After residents voted to move the county seat from Sonoma to Santa Rosa, Sonoma County built two grand courthouses in the center of the town. The first, completed in 1885, was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake. The second, constructed of locally quarried stone and reinforced with steel and concrete, was "built for all time and the earthquake," according to one local historian. But by the mid-1960s the county was forced to declare the building seismically unsafe and it was demolished. After the courts moved to a new county center, the site was rededicated in 1967 as "Old Courthouse Square |
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Sonoma county lies twenty-five miles north of San Francisco, a little west of a due north line. It is bounded on the south by the bay of San Francisco and Marin county, the latter county a peninsula lying between the bay and the ocean; on the west by the Pacific ocean; on the north by Mendocino county, and on the east by Lake and Napa counties. Its sea-coast front, following the sinuosities of the shore line, is about sixty miles. Its average length, from north to south, is about fifty miles, and its average width is about twenty- five miles. Its area is, in round numbers, eight hundred and fifty thousand acres. The district of Sonoma originally included all the vast territory lying between the Sacramento river and the Pacific ocean. At the first session of the legislature the northern line was fixed along the fortieth parallel of latitude to the summit of the Mayacmas range of mountains, and thence south to the bay, including all the present county of Mendocino, and a portion of Napa county. In 1856, Napa county having been previously formed, the limits of Sonoma were contracted to the present boundary lines by the segregation of Mendocino county.
A glance at the map of the State herewith published, will show the great advantages of the location of the county of Sonoma. It fronts on the bay of San Francisco, known in its northern extremity as the bay of San Pablo, once called the bay of Sonoma. Two estuaries lead from the bay inland into the county of Sonoma, navigable at high tide for steamers and sail-vessels of considerable size. The latter, with a fair wind and tide, convey the produce of the county, at the current freight-rates, in a few hours to the wharves in San Francisco. In addition, there are a number of shipping points along the coast, of which more will be said hereafter.
Sonoma county is not so fully known as portions of this State with less advantages of climate, soil, and productions; because it is off the great central line of travel, which follows the Sacramento Valley to tide-water, thence to San Francisco, and turns southward. It has been hidden, as it were, behind the Coast Range of mountains, which separates it from the great Sacramento Valley. From San Francisco, through the Sacramento Valley, you pass along the east foothills of the Coast Range; from the same place to Sonoma county you pass along the west face of the same range. The trend of the coast is northwesterly, and the county of Sonoma lies almost entirely west of the city of San Francisco. Lying west of the greater part of the State, may account for the fact that about one-third more rain falls here than in San Francisco, and fully one-half more than in the counties south and east of the bay of San Francisco. There has never been a season in the history of the county when there was not enough rain to make a crop. There have been years of drouth in other parts of the State; but in this section in those seasons the crops were better than an averageSonoma is an Indian word which means "Valley of the Moon," and was the name originally given to the beautiful valley from which the county was afterwards called. The tribe of Indians inhabiting the valley were called the Chocuyens. On the arrival of the first expedition to establish a mission, the name Sonoma was given to the chief by Jose Altimira, the priest in charge, and after that the chief, the tribe and the valley they inhabited took the name Sonoma.
In 1775 Lieutenant Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, a distinguished navigator of the Spanish navy, in a vessel called the Sonora, entered and explored Bodega bay on his return from a voyage to the northeast coast. The port thenceforth took the name Bodega, from its discoverer. He was the first of the old navigators, as far as the record shows, who touched on the coast of what is now Sonoma county,--though Sir Francis Drake landed, in 1579, just below it; and, in 1542, Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo had discovered Cape Mendocino, and had named it in honor of the "illustrious Senor Antonio de Mendoza," the viceroy under whose patronage the voyage had been undertaken.
From this it will be seen that Cape Mendocino was baptized, and the coast of Sonoma was seen, by European navigators, sixty years before there was any settlement by the English on the eastern side of the continent of America. After its discovery, however, the country lay for two hundred and thirty-five years in the undisputed possession of the aborigines. There was no attempt made to occupy it.
Father Begart, a Jesuit, who lived many years in Lower California, is authority for the statement that no white man ever lived in California before 1769, just one hundred and seven years ago.
The first expedition made inland into Sonoma was the year after the discovery of Bodega, for the purpose of finding out if there was not a connection between the waters of San Francisco and Bodega bays. It must have been supposed by the missionaries who had but recently occupied San Francisco that the peninsula now included in the boundaries of Marin county, was an island. Captain Quiros made a boat voyage up Petaluma creek, and proved there was no such connection as had been supposed.
The port of Bodega was occupied for a short time, in 1793, by a Spanish garrison and four guns, which were soon removed, however, to Monterey, there being no indication of the threatened English occupation which had caused the alarm.
We now come to the first permanent settlement of Europeans north of the bay of San Francisco. In January, 1811, Alexander Kuskoff, in a Russian ship from Alaska, occupied Bodega bay, under the pretext that he had been refused the privilege of getting a supply of water in San Francisco. He claimed that he had purchased a small tract of land on the bay from the natives. To the bay of Bodega they gave the name of "Romanzoff," and called Russian river the "Slavianka." Kuskoff, the commander of the Russians, had a wooden leg, and was called by the Californians, "Pie de Palo." General Vallejo says, as the Russians "came without invitation, and occupied land without permission, they may be called the first 'squatters' of California."
So soon as the permanent settlement was known to the authorities of California, news of the event was forwarded to the seat of the supreme government at Madrid. It may well be imagined that a long time was occupied in sending this news and receiving a reply from the viceroy, which was an order commanding the Russians to depart. The reply of the Northmen to this communication was that the viceroy's orders had been forwarded to St. Petersburg for the Emperor's action.
Four years later, in 1816, we find the Russian and Spanish authorities debating the question of occupation, on board a Russian vessel in the waters of San Francisco. Nothing came of the conference. The Russians continued to trap for furs all along the coast, and in all the interior streams of Northern California. They removed their settlement higher up the coast, and built a stockade fort, called Ross; which was singularly well adapted for defence,--it was, in fact, impregnable against any force which the Spanish government could send against it.
The fort was a quadrilateral stockade. It contained houses for the director and officers, an arsenal, a barrack for the men, store-houses, and a Greek chapel, surmounted with a cross, and provided with a chime of bells. The stockade was about ten feet high, pierced with embrasures, furnished with carronades; at opposite corners were two bastions, two stories high, and furnished with six pieces of artillery. The gardens were extensive, and the work-shops were supplied with all the tools necessary for working in wood and iron. The orchard was large, and some of the trees, now over fifty years old, are still living, and bear fruit. The church above described was the first, not only in Sonoma, but the first north of the bay of San Francisco; so, among other things to the credit of Sonoma county, must be set down the fact that she can boast of the first church north of San Francisco in what is now the State of California.
It is almost certain that the Russians did contemplate a permanent occupation and possession of the country north of the bay of San Francisco, as they were greatly in need of a grain-producing country to supply their fur hunters on the bleak and sterile coast of Alaska. The promulgation of the doctrine by President Monroe, in 1823, that the American continents were henceforth not to be considered as subjects for foreign colonization by any European power, was a damper on Russian aspirations in California.
Nothing came of the conference in San Francisco, and the Russians remained, continued to trap, and made annual shipments to Sitka of grain raised in and around the fort, and at Bodega, where the town of Bodega now stands.
It will be seen from this that Sonoma was also the first wheat-exporting county on the coast of California.
An extract from the journal of Captain John Hall, who visited this coast and Bodega in 1822, will show the products of the fat pastures of Sonoma even at that early day. Captain Hall entered the port of Bodega on the 8th of June, and was visited by the Russian governor, who came from Ross. He brought with him, "says Captain Hall," two fine fat sheep, a large tub of butter, and some milk, which was very acceptable after a long voyage, and gave us proof at once of the governor's hospitality, and of the abundance and cheapness of provisions. The price of a bullock at that time was twelve dollars, and of a sheep two dollars; vegetables were also plentiful, and in their proper season.
The “dominion of Spain over the Californias” terminated in 1822, after fifty years of peaceful prosperity for the country. Mexico having established her independence in that year, California gave in her adherence, and declared the northern possessions henceforth dependent alone on the government of Mexico. The Federal constitution of 1824 was afterwards adopted, and California was governed by a political chief, aided by a council known as the territorial deputation.
Prior to this change in the government the authorities had commenced to fence against the Russians, who, it was feared, intended to get a foot-hold on the bay of San Francisco, coming south from Bodega. The mission of San Rafael had been established. In June and July, 1823, Jose Altimira came with a military escort from San Francisco to select a proper site for a new mission, to which it was proposed to transfer the mission of San Francisca de Assis. Padre Altimira left San Rafael on the 25th June, and passed, the following day, the point called by the Indians, Chocuali, where Petaluma now stands, and encamped near the old adobe house on the Petaluma plain. The following day they came to the valley of Sonoma. The description of the pioneer, Padre Altimira, is so graphic that it will bear quoting in full. “About 3 P. M., June 28th, 1823,” says the Father, “leaving our camp and our boat in the slough near by, we started to explore, directing our course northwestward across the plain of Sonoma, until we reached a stream (Sonoma river) of about five hundred plumas of water, crystaline, and most pleasant to the taste, flowing through a grove of beautiful and useful trees. The stream flows from hills which enclose the plain, and terminate it on the north. We went on penetrating a broad grove of oaks, the trees were lofty and robust, promising utility in the future for fuel and building purposes. This grove was three leagues from east to west, and a league and a-half from north to south. No one can doubt the poplar, and laurel, and especially the abundance and luxuriance of the wild settlement can be formed, truly a most convenient circumstance. We see from these, and other facts, that Sonoma is a most desirable site for a mission.” The explorations were continued in various directions until it was decided that the present site of the old town and mission of Sonoma was the best place for settlement. So, on the fourth day of July, 1823, Father Altimira planted a cross near the spot where the Catholic church now stands, and the second settlement, (the first having been made at Ross,) was founded within the present limits of Sonoma county.
The mission buildings were commenced that year. Altimira writes to Governor Arguello at San Francisco, that he cut one hundred redwood beams for a granary in four days, and that he was highly pleased with the site, and alleged that it afforded more inducements than any other place between it and San Diego.
The mission was destroyed in 1826, by the Indians. Padre Altimira escaped with his life, and soon after left the country. In 1827 the mission was revived, rebuilt, and flourished until the decree of secularization, (promulgated by the Mexican government in 1833, and enforced in 1834), led to the overthrow of the authority of the fathers, the liberation, and dispersion of the Indians, and to the final partition of the mission lands and cattle; in short to a complete revolution in the ecclesiastical government of California. Whatever may have been the effect on the Mexican population, the result to the Indians was disastrous.
It is stated that some of the missions, which in 1834 had as many as one thousand five hundred souls, numbered only a few hundred in 1842. The two missions of San Rafael and Sonoma decreased in this time, the former from one thousand two hundred and forty souls, to twenty; and the latter from one thousand three hundred, to seventy. On the other hand, those who most favored the secularization scheme, contend that in this section at least the decrease of the Indians was caused by the small-pox, which broke out among them in a virulent form in the year 1837--contracted from a subordinate Mexican officer, who caught the disease at Ross. The officer recovered, while sixty thousand Indians are said to have perished from this scourge, in the territory now included in the counties of Sonoma, Napa and Solano.
In 1834, Governor Figueroa visited Sonoma, for the purpose of establishing a presidio, which was to be named Santa Anna y Farias. The site selected was on Mark West creek, on the land now owned by Henry Mizer, near to a well-known red-wood tree, which is still standing. The future city was to be called after the then President of Mexico, Santa Anna, and the Vice-President Farias. That the city did not survive the infliction of such a name, is not surprising. It was killed in its baptism. This town was intended to be colonized by a company of Mexicans, known as the Cosmopolitan company, who came to California under the command of one Hijas. The leaders of the scheme disagreed with the head of the government here, and though they arrived in Sonoma, the whole party were returned to San Francisco. The town on Mark West was abandoned, and the same year General Vallejo laid out the town of Sonoma as it now exists, and established his headquarters as the military commandant of California. General Vallejo took command in 1835, and was ordered to extend the settlements in the direction of Ross. For this purpose he sent three men, McIntosh, James Black, and James Dawson, in that direction, and they settled on what was afterwards the O'Farrel tract, near the present site of the town of Freestone. The tree men built a house there, and agreed, as we have heard the story told, to get a grant of land. One of the party went to Monterey for that purpose, either Black or McIntosh, and procured the grant in the name of the two, leaving out the name of Dawson. Dawson was so incensed that he sawed off one-third of the frame house, and moved it over the line of the grant which his companions had secured, and applied for a grant in his own name adjoining them, which grant was afterwards confirmed. Black and McIntosh continued to reside for some time on the Jonive grant, and built a kind of mill there, the remains of which may still be seen near the residence of the late Hon. Jasper O'Farrel.
The Russians were then occupying the tract afterwards known as the Bodega ranch, but six miles from the new comers, and disputes soon arose, as it was intended they should. The colonists, ever ready for a quarrel, and the Russians, who were making up their minds to leave, gradually contracted their lines toward Ross. They found the Anglo-Saxon, like all the race, stout in the maintenance of the right they had acquired to the soil. Matters grew worse, and finally, in 1839, the Russians made arrangements to abandon the country. In 1840 they disposed of their rights at Ross, including houses, stock, and fixtures, and embarked from San Francisco for Sitka--in all, men, women and children, about four hundred souls.
Some time during his administration, Rotscheff, the last commander at Ross, with a party of Russians, crossed over to the highest peak of the Mayacmas range, which looms up grand and beautiful from the highest hills back of Ross; on the summit on which he fixed a plate inscribed in his own language, and gave the mountain the name it now bears, St. Helena, in honor of his wife the Princess de Gagarin, said to have been a woman of rare attractions, both mental and physical. But the Russians, who for thirty years had been a thorn in the side of the California authorities had departed, and with them all fear from that quarter.
The Russians were hardly out of sight before the rulers of the colony found themselves face to face with a more formidable invader than those who had just sailed quietly away. Between 1840 and 1845, a number of Americans had scaled the Sierra, and, with their families, their wagons, teams and cattle, were settling in the valleys of California. Many of these emigrants had started for Oregon, and were turned hitherward from Fort Hall; attracted by the reports which reached them of the salubrity of the climate, and rare fertility of the soil. No dream of gold then in the hills of California. But for the old trappers, many of whom had crossed the mountains, reported it a fair and goodly land.
Capt. Stephen Smith next obtained a grant of land at Bodega, which had formerly been framed by Russians. He purchased the buildings on the land from Capt. Sutter, who claimed them under his Russian purchase. In 1846, he arrived at the port of Bodega, bringing with him a steam engine, the first ever seen in California, and with it he run a steam saw mill. When he was ready he sent out invitations to the rancheros and grandees to come and see it start. Among others, Gen. Vallejo, then military commandant of California, was present, and says he remembers having predicted on the occasion that before many years there would be more steam engines then soldiers in California. While the native Californians, the lords of the soil, are enjoying the hospitality of Capt. Smith, and admiring the novelty of the steam engine, we will take the opportunity to tell our readers of what tenure and in what quantity they held in their landed estates.
There were twenty-three land grants confirmed to original owners in Sonoma county. The largest was the Petaluma grant, which included all the land between Sonoma creek to the east, the bay of San Pablo on the south, and Petaluma creek on the west. It embraced within its far-reaching boundaries at least seventy-five thousand acres of the finest and most fertile land in the State; every acre of it was arable, and a fence of twelve miles along the north line from Sonoma to Petaluma creek, would have enclosed the whole. This tract of land is now assessed for not less than three million dollars.
The foreigners to whom land was granted in this section were Jacob P. Leese, John Fitch, Juan P. Cooper, John Wilson and Mark West. The three former were brothers-in-law of General Vallejo. The site of the present town of Santa Rosa was granted to Mrs. Carrillo, the mother of Julio Carrillo, and the country between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol, to Joaquin Carrillo, a brother of Mrs. Vallejo. Captain Stephen Smith was granted the Bodega ranch, which included thirty-five thousand four hundred and eighty-seven acres. Captain Smith was a remarkable man; he came to California from Chili, and was a fine type of the pioneer, honest, hospitable and generous to a fault. Juan B. Cooper was another old sea-captain; he owned the rancho "El Molino," translated--the mill-ranch. He had just gotten up his mill when a tremendous freshet came in 1840-41, and washed it all away. The Ross ranch was granted to Manuel Torres. The German ranch on the coast above Ross was granted to a number of Germans, and they gave to the stream which flowed through their land the appropriate name of Valhalla.
Jasper O'Farrel exchanged a ranch in Marin county for the Canada de Jonive, and purchased of James McIntosh the Estero Americano. The reader will remember that Black, McIntosh and Dawson were the very first English-speaking settlers in Sonoma county. The home of Jasper O'Farrel, in Bodega, in the early history of Sonoma county, was the seat of princely hospitality. From far and near it was made a stopping place, and we have been told by old settlers, that a beef was killed every day and consumed at his generous board. He possessed the genius, the wit and the liberality which distinguish his race. He was afterwards a member of the State senate, in which he ably represented Sonoma county.
Mark West was a sailor, and a different type of man from those above described. His grant included six thousand six hundred and sixty-three acres between Mark West and Santa Rosa creeks, and was the richest body of land of the same number of acres in the State. There was not an acre of it that would not produce from seventy-five to one hundred bushels of wheat. He lies buried on a stony point near the residence of H. C. Mizer, and none of his descendants own a foot of his splendid estate, which is to-day worth over half a million of dollars.
The total number of acres included in all the grants in the county was four hundred thousand one hundred and forty-three, just less than one half its whole area as now bounded, which is estimated at eight hundred and fifty thousand acres. All of the valleys we have elsewhere described were covered by grants without an exception. The public land all lay in the low hills on the border of the valleys, and in the mountains. Fortunately for the future welfare of the county, these grants were sub-divided and sold in small tracts at a very early day. The titles to most of them were settled without much dispute or delay; and the sub-divided lands were purchased by industrious and enterprising farmers, who have since lived upon and improved them. They have converted the long-horned worthless Spanish cattle into the short horn, and the mustang horse into the thorough-bred, and the pastures of this worthless stock into homes of beauty and teeming abundance. With one exception all the grants have been sold in small tracts, and that is the Cotate ranch, on the plain between Petaluma and Santa Rosa. This tract belongs to an estate, and under the will cannot be divided until the youngest child comes of age. This is the largest farm in the county, the railroad passing through it for six miles. The dairy is supplied with the milk from two hundred and fifty cows; there are five hundred head of cattle on the place, and ten thousand head of sheep; each cow averages daily one pound and a quarter of butter during the season, and the sheep shear an average of six pounds of wool each.
We brought the early history of the county up to about 1845, when the twenty-three grants we have just described were held by their original owners, who kept herds of cattle and horses upon them, and cultivated enough corn, beans and peas, to supply the Spanish population, a light tax indeed upon the most fertile of the rich agricultural valleys of California. In the early part of 1846, it was estimated that there were at least two thousand foreigners of all ages and sexes, scattered over the territory of California.
They were mainly in the Sacramento, Santa Clara and Napa valleys; a few had drifted into Sonoma, among them Cyrus Alexander, for whom Alexander valley is named,--and Mose Carson, a brother of Lindsay Carson, of Lake County,--and Frank Bedwell, the genial and sturdy old pioneer, who has resided in Sonoma ever since he purchased his place of Mr. Alexander, which was in 1845. The venerable Joel Walker, now a resident of the county, assisted in driving the cattle and horses from Ross to Sutter's ranch, in the Sacramento valley. There are a number of anti-territorial pioneers in the county, who did not reside here at the time of which we write, among them Major Snyder, of Sonoma, the Marshals, James Gregson and the McChristians, of Green valley, and doubtless others whose names and date of arrival we do not know. Of those here, some came by sea and some came by land, none dreamed that they were the forerunners of a great tide which would gather from all climes, and that their footfall on the unaccustomed path was but "the first low plash of waves, where soon would roll a human sea."
But we anticipate. Events in California in the early part of 1846 were rapidly approaching a crisis. The Unites States and Mexico were at war. An American fleet was on the coast; Fremont, with a small command of regular soldiers, was hovering on the boundaries of California, ostensibly on a topographical survey; England and France, through their representatives, were watching with eager interest the turn of affairs, and were anxious and willing to assume a protectorate, or to take forcible procession of the country. The native Californians were comparatively few in numbers, were scattered over a great space, were badly armed, and divided in council. The crisis was approaching, and the town of Sonoma was destined to become the theatre of the first act in the drama which ended with the acquisition of the territory of California by the United States.
On the morning of the 16th of June a company of thirty-three Americans from Sutter's fort, Napa, and Sonoma vallies, marched into the town of Sonoma about daylight, captured the garrison, and took General Vallejo, the commanding general of the province of California, a prisoner. They garrisoned the town, and a few days after the capture they sent General Vallejo, his brother Salvadore, Jacob P. Leese and Victor Prudon to Sutter's fort, on the Sacramento river, This company of men had elected one of their number, named Merritt, captain; they acted on their own responsibility, and committed no excess.
They were not authorized to raise the American flag, and determined to make a flag on their own account. Three men,—Ben Duell (now of Lake county), Todd and Currie,—made the flag. Duell and Currie, as it happened, were both saddlers, and did the sewing; Todd painted the stripes and the bear. The material of which the stripes were made, was not, as has been stated, an old red-flannel petticoat, but was new flannel and white cotton, which Duell got from Mrs. W. B. Elliott, who had been brought to the town of Sonoma,— her husband, W. B. Elliott, being one of the bear-flag party. Some blue domestic was found elsewhere, and used in making the flag; the drawing was rudely done, and, when finished, the bear,-—from which the flag and party took their name,—resembled a pig as much as the object for which it was intended. The idea of the bear was, that having entered into the fight there was to be no back-down, or surrender, until the end in view was accomplished. We have this account of the making of the bear-flag from Mr. Duell, who was then a young man, and whose memory was perfect in the matter of which he spoke. A few days after the making of the flag, Cowey and Fowler were sent, or volunteered to go, to the Fitch ranch to get some powder from Mose Carson. They were waylaid and killed, and their bodies mutilated. An Indian gave the information; the bodies were found and buried where they lay, and their graves may still be seen on the Catron ranch, next to the county farm, about three miles from Santa Rosa. The graves are unmarked, and soon no trace of them will be seen,—all but the names of these two daring pioneers will be lost forever.
A man named Todd, while out looking for Fowler and Cowey, was captured by the Californians and taken to an Indian ranch called Olompali, about eight miles below Petaluma. They were pursued by a party of twenty-three bear-flag men, under command of Granville Swift and Sam Kelsey. A fight ensued at Olompali, in which seventy-three mounted Californians were forced to retreat, leaving their prisoner Todd, who was rescued. Frank Bedwell was in this fight; a number of the Californians were killed, but none of the Americans. Having recovered Todd, the object of their search, the scouting party returned to Sonoma.
A few days after, Fremont arrived in Sonoma and fitted out an expedition to pursue the Californians. He took command and marched to San Rafael, meeting no resistance; the enemy had crossed over to the San Francisco side of the bay. Arriving at San Rafael, two men, non-combatants,-—the Hanro [de Haro] brothers,—-were captured and shot by Fremont’s orders. All the old bear-flag men, without exception, condemn the killing of these men as cruel and unnecessary; no resistance whatever having been made to the Americans, and the two men killed were on a visit to their parents from another part of the country.
The latter days of June and the first days of July, 1846, were destined to become eventful in the history of California. While the events described were occurring on the frontier;--as the Californians called Sonoma county,-- Commodore Sloat was enacting another important part in the work of conquest at the capitol of Monterey. He arrived at that place from Mazatlan, in the frigate Savannah. Five days after (on the 7th) he sent Captain Mervin and two hundred and fifty marines and seamen on shore; took possession of and raised the American flag on the capitol of Monterey. He was just in time, for the Collingwood,--the flag-ship of Rear-Admiral Sir George Seymour, of the British navy,--was speeding under full sail for the port of Monterey, with the purpose of taking possession of it in the name of his government.
On the 10th of July Captain Montgomery, of the sloop-of-war Portsmouth, who had taken possession of the port of San Francisco, dispatched Lieutenant Revere with a detachment from his ship to Sonoma. Lieutenant Revere hauled down the banner of the bear, and raised in its stead the American flag, which then first swelled to the breeze in Sonoma county. This ended the conquest as far as this portion of the State was concerned. Commodore Stockton succeeded Sloat, and the further progress of events has no special local interest. The town of Sonoma was garrisoned from that time until 1851,--a number of officers, since distinguished, having been stationed there. Among them, General Hooker, Lieutenant Derby and General Sherman. The first civil officer was one John Nash, who was commissioned by General Kearny as alcalde of Sonoma. Nash had a very exalted idea of the dignity of his office; assumed ministerial as well as judicial powers; signed himself “Chief Justice of California,” and having been removed by the military governor, he refused to recognize the authority and held on to the office. Lieutenant Sherman,-- now General Sherman,--captured him and took him before Governor Mason, at Monterey, who reprimanded and released him. This first civil officer of Sonoma,--“Chief Justice Nash” as he called himself, and “'Squire Nash” as his neighbors called him,--was a good natured, illiterate but honest man. When the rumors of gold reached Sonoma, 'Squire Nash was employed by a number of persons to go to the mines, take observations and report. This was in 1848; he returned with gold dust to the value of eight hundred and thirty- seven dollars. He then went to Mormon Island with a party of Sonoma miners, and died there that winter. Ex-Governor Boggs succeeded Nash to the office of alcalde. The county remained under the control of military governors from its conquest in 1846 up to the fall of 1849.
In June, 1849, General Riley, who had succeeded General Mason, issued a proclamation for the election of delegates to a general convention to form a State constitution, and for filling the offices of judge of the superior court, prefects and sub-prefects. These officers were to be voted for, and the successful candidate was to be appointed by General Riley. A first alcalde, or judge of the first instance, was also to be elected. The district of Sonoma included all the territory between the Sacramento river and the ocean, and Oregon and the bay of San Francisco. The election was held on the first day of August, and that was the first general election in the State. The delegates elected to the convention from Sonoma, were General Vallejo, Joel Walker, R. Semple. L. W. Boggs was also elected but did not attend.
In August, General Riley issued appointments to Stephen Cooper as judge of the first district, and to C. P. Wilkins as prefect of the district of Sonoma. The convention to form a constitution for the future State of California, met in Monterey on the first of September. R. Semple, one of the delegates from the Sonoma district, was chosen president. The constitution was framed, was submitted to the people, and on the 13th day of November was ratified by them. At the same time Peter D. Burnett was elected the first civil governor. At this election the district of Sonoma polled but five hundred and fifty-two votes, of which four hundred and twenty-four were for Burnett, and one hundred and twenty-eight were for Sherwood. One of the last civil appointments made by General Riley before the adoption of the constitution, was that of Richard A. Maupin, a well-remembered Sonoma pioneer, to be judge of the superior tribunal, vice Lewis Dent, who had resigned. Jacob R. Snyder, now a resident of this county, was a member of the constitutional convention from Sacramento district.
The first legislature met in San Jose in January, 1850. General M.G. Vallejo was a member of the senate from Sonoma. J. O. Bradford and J. E. Brackett were members of the assembly. General Vallejo's seat was first given to Jonas Spect, but on the 22nd of December the committee reported that the official return from Larkins ranch gave Spect but two votes instead of twenty-eight, a total of but one hundred and eighty-one votes against General Vallejo's one hundred and ninety-nine. Mr. Spect then gave up his seat to General Vallejo. At this session of the legislature General Vallejo made his well-known report on the derivation and definition of the names of the several counties of this State; a report unequaled in its style and in the amount of interesting information crowded into its small compass. In that report first appeared the explanation of the Indian word Sonoma, signifying "Valley of the Moon". The Senator further said, the tribe occupying Sonoma valley was called the Chocuyens, but, in 1824, on the arrival of the first expedition to establish a mission, the name Sonoma having been given the chief by Father Jose Altimira, the Chocuyens then adopted the name, which they still retain. This tribe was subject to a great chief named Marin de Licatiut, who made his headquarters near Petaluma.
There was not much done at this session further than organizing the State and county government. Assemblyman J. E. Brackett was elected major-general of the second division of the militia, and Robert Hopkins was elected district judge. Mr. Hopkins was a lawyer, living in Sonoma, and had been appointed, with the Hon. George Pearce, a committee to visit San Jose, the then capital, and prevent the establishment of a boundary line which would include the valley of Sonoma in the county of Napa. Arriving, they found the question of appointing a district judge for the Sonoma district coming up, and the only candidate was W. R. Turner, who had never been in the district, or at all events did not reside there. Pearce proposed to Hopkins to run for the office. Turner, who up to this time had, as he thought, no opposition, and a sure thing was beaten just as he was stretching his hand for the prize. Hopkins got a unanimous vote, and Turner went for some other district, and was appointed. Mr. Pearce who had gone to San Jose for one purpose, very unexpectedly accomplished another, and Mr. Hopkins returned as the district judge of Sonoma.
On the 9th of September of that year, the State was admitted into the Union, and the second legislature met at San Jose, January 6, 1851,--Martin E. Cook, representing the eleventh senatorial district, composed of the counties of Sonoma, Solano, Napa, Marin, Colusa, Yolo and Trinity-–in fine, all the territory west of the Sacramento river. John S. Bradford and A. Stearns represented, in the lower house, the counties of Napa, Sonoma, Marin, and Solano. A report of the census agent to the legislature that year gave the population of the county of Sonoma at five hundred and sixty-one souls. The State government this session was fully organized, and the machinery of the county governments was set to work.
On the first Wednesday in September, 1851, there was a county election, and the local government vested in a court of sessions, presided over by the county judge, and two associates chosen from the justices of the peace. A complete list of the county judges, associates and supervisors will be found elsewhere. The court of sessions assumed control of the affairs of the county, and divided it into townships, naming Analy township after a sister of the Hon. Jasper O’Farrell, a pioneer and large land-owner in that district.
In November, 1851, the Hon. C. P. Wilkins succeeded H. A. Green as county judge. Israel Brockman was sheriff, and the late Dr. John Hendley was county clerk and recorder. A few people had gathered about the present site of the town of Petaluma, which was becoming a shipping point for Bodega and Green Valley produce. James McReynolds built that year for James Hudspeth a potato warehouse, which was the first building erected there. There were a number of hunters for the San Francisco market in the valley, and the place was mainly known for the abundance and excellence of its game.
In 1852 Sonoma county may be said to have first felt the impulse of the coming Anglo-Saxon. A number of persons were then in Petaluma. Kent, Smith & Coe had a store about opposite the site of the American hotel; the late Tom Baylis had a sloop plying between that point and the city, and also built a warehouse and hotel. At Sonoma, the county-seat, the year was signalized by the appearance of the Sonoma Bulletin, the first paper published |
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