USA > California > Sonoma County > An illustrated history of Sonoma County, California. Containing a history of the county of Sonoma from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time > Part 15
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In 1853 the Democratic convention which met at Santa Rosa nominated Joe Hooker and Lindsay Carson for the assembly, and a full county tieket. The Settlers' convention met on August 6th and nominated a full ticket, headed by James N. Beimett and Judge Robert Hop- kins for the assembly. It was a tie vote be- tween Bennett and looker. On the second election to decide this tie vote the removal of the county seat from Sonoma to Santa Rosa became a direet issue. The election came off on Octo- ber 9, and Bennett, who lived and was sponsor for Bennett Valley, beat Hooker, a resident of Sonoma, by thirteen majority. Lindsay Carson having deelined the election to the assembly a new election was called to fill the vacancy on
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY.
the 23d of December. The candidates were W. B. Ilagans, James Singley and Joseph W. Bel- deu, and resulted in the election of W. B. Hlagans.
Ilitherto we have had to grope amid the im- perfect and defaced written records of Sonoma to find the political history of the county. In September. 1855, there was a State and county election held. The Whig party had subsided and the contest was a straight one on the State ticket between the Democratic and American parties. The candidates for Governor were Rigler, Democratic, and Johnson, American. In Sonoma County Rigler received 933 votes and Johnson 892. In the county contest the tickets were Democratic and Settler. The Set- tler's tieket was elected from top to bottom. At this election was submitted the proposition " Prohibitory Liquor Law yes, and Prohibitory Liquor Law no," and the vote stood, yes, 591; and no, 676. The total vote polled in Sonoma and Mendocino counties at this election was 1,896.
As stated above, the contest in 1853, between Joe Ilooker and Bennett hinged upon the pro- posed removal of the county seat from Sonoma to Santa Rosa. This became a leading question in the political issues of the county. To give the reader a correct idea of the whole subject we cannot better do so than by incorporating here the whole history in connection with the county seat removal as related by R. A. Thomp- son in his excellent history of Santa Rosa Town- ship. It is as follows:
" In the year of 1850, in the town of Sonoma, the county occupied a building owned by HI. A. Green, County Judge. The Court of Sessions then transacted the business of the county, now :
entrusted to the Board of Supervisors. The Court consisted of the County JJudge and a munber of Associate Justices. At the time of which I write the members of the court were II. A. Green, County Judge, P. Campbell and Charles Iludspeth, associates. On the ISth of March, 1850, II. A. Green presents his bill to his own court for rent of building for court-
house, from the 20th of May to the 20th of September, 1850 four months, at $125 per month-$500. The bill was allowed, and was the first transaction of any kind regarding a court house.
"On the 18th of February, 1850, the Court made the following order, in the matter of pur. chasing a court-house: . The Court having con- sidered the expense aceruing to the county annually, for rent of a court-house and offices. are of the opinion that it would be a saving to the county to purchase a house already built, and recommend the same to be taken into con- sideration as soon as possible.
" At the next meeting, in March. Peter Camp- bell and Charles Hudspeth were appointed by the court to buy or creet a suitable buikling for a court- house, jail, offices, etc. At the following meet- ing this order was rescinded, and John Cameron and A. C. McDonald were appointed in their stead. They reported at once, and recommended, quite innocently, the purchase of Judge Green's house, as, of course, was anticipated, for $5,500, to be paid for in seven warrants, three for $500 and four for $1,000 each, to bear 3 per eent. interest per month until paid. The court ac- eepted the report-generously, however. redue- ing the interest to 2g per cent. per month. Judge Green made a deed, and the county took possession of the old " casa de adobe' quarters. The interest ran up more than the rent, and was never paid; nor was the principal until long after the death of Mr. Green. The board of supervisors succeeded the court of sessions, and they considered it very questionable whether there was any law whatever for the purchase, and payment hung fire for a long time, but it was eventually paid, as will be seen. The county occupied this building until it left Sonoma.
" In March, 1854, the bill authorizing a vote upon the question of removal of county seat passed the Legislature. It was introduced on the 18th of April, was approved on the 19th and became a law. It was entitled 'An aet to locate the county seat of Sonoma.' It provided for three commissioners, who were named in the
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY.
bill: Charles Loper and Gilbert R. Brush. of Marin County, and James MeNear, of Napa, to locate anew the county seat of Sonoma. Section second provided that the commissioners should locate the county seat . as near the geographical center of the valley portion, or agricultural por- tion of said county, as practicable, having due regard to all local advantages in the selection of the site.'
" The commissioners were to notify the su- pervisors of their selection, and the supervisors were to certify the same to the county judge. and the judge was directed to give notice to the qualified electors of the county to vote for or against the new county seat at the following general election. If a majority voted for the new county seat, the board were directed to re- move the archives to Santa Rosa and provide the requisite county buildings; it against the new county seat, then it should remain in Sonoma.
"The contest for removal actually began a year before in the race between Joe Hooker and J. W. Bennett for the Legislature. In Santa Rosa Bennett received eighty-four votes to Hooker's two. The question of removal gave him almost a solid vote. though it was not publicly mentioned. Ile carried the county by a majority of twenty-two votes.
" The Sonoma Bulletin, then edited by that pioneer journalist, A. J. Cox, very warmly ad- voeated Mr. Hooker's election, and up to this date, in his admirably edited paper, had no reference to the removal of the county seat, though he must have thought about it.
"The grand jury, on the 7th of February, 1854, condemned the old court-honse which they called . an old dilapidated adobe of small dimensions, in part rootless and unfit for a cattle shed.' They say it had cost $9,000. of which $3,000 had been paid and 86,000 was still claimed.
" Next week the Bulletin said, editorially: . The old court-house is about being deserted, and high time it should be, unless our worthy officers of the law would run the risk of being
crushed beneath a mass of mind and shingles. for we really believe it will eave in the next heavy rain.'
" When it was known in Sonoma that Mr. Bennett's bill had been introduced, the Bulletin of April 8, 1854, under head of 'Removal of County Seat,' said: . Our representatives at Sac- ramento, hitherto inert and dumb. have at length bestirred themselves to action-some- thing to save appearances at the close of the session. This effort to do something, however, reminds our citizens that they are represented at the capital- a circumstance they had long since forgotten. The first intimation we had of the people's desire to remove the county seat from Sonoma to Santa Rosa was through the legislative proceedings of March 28th, which inform us that the bill had been introduced and passed for that purpose. From what source did our representatives derive the information that a change was demanded by our people? In the name of a large body of their constituents we protest against the measure as premature, un- authorized and impolitic. The county cannot even repair the miserable building, and the only one it possesses; how then can it bear the ex- pense of erecting new ones? Perhaps the Sonoma delegation can perform a financial miracle.'
"The session of the Legislature was drawing to a close, and there was no time to compass the defeat of the bill, hence the rather bitter tone of the above editorial.
" In its issue of August 19th the Bulletin said: . The removal of the county seat claims a large share of public interest. Will it be trans- ferred from Sonoma to Santa Rosa? Of course that can only be positively known when the ballots for and against the new conuty seat are counted. Judging from what we call popular opinion of the matter, Santa Rosa has but a slim chance of success, although every one con- siders it a pretty little town, and located in a pretty spot.' One of the editor's arguments against removal was that if the county should be divided, Santa Rosa would be as extreme as
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY.
Sonoma now is, and, like our famous State capi- tal, the county seat would have to . roll its bones elsewhere.'
" The election took place on the 6th of Sep- tember, as advertised, and the vote stood as follows: for Santa Rosa, 716; for Sonoma, 563.
"On the 14th day of the same month the editor of the Bulletin announces the vote as follows: 'The county seat-that's a gone or going case from Sonoma. The np-country peo- ple battled furiously against us, and have come out victorious. By the way, the people of Santa Rosa, after being satisfied of their sneeess, fired one hundred guns in honor of the event; that is an anvil supplied the place of a cannon, which was let off' 100 times. A great country this, whether feneed in or not.'
" The board of supervisors met in Sonoma on the 18th day of September as a board of can- vassers, and declared the above result. AAt the same meeting they agreed to convene in Santa Rosa September 20th. for the purpose of pro- viding the necessary buildings for the different county officers, and for transacting any othe business pertaining to the new county seat.
" The district attorney was requested to ac- company the boa d on September 20th. A. Copeland, 11. G. Heald, R. E. Smith and Stephen L. Fowler, constituting a majority of the board of supervisors, met for the first time in Santa Rosa. Supervisor R. E. Smith was chairman of the board.
"Julio Carrillo, F. G. Hahman, Berthold Hloen and W. P. Hartman appeared before the board, they being proprietors of the town of Santa Rosa, and agreed to furnish free of rent three rooms in the house owned and occupied by Julio Carrillo (now ex-Mayor James P. Clark's residence), to be used by the sheriff, elerk and treasurer until other buildings were provided. They also agreed that by the 3d day of Novem -. ber, 1854, they would have a court-house and suitable rooms for county officers, said building to be the property of the County of Sonoma for one year gratis. A bond to carry out this agreement was given.
"The board then clinched the removal, and fixed the county seat in its new location by the following order, which was placed upon the minutes:
"' It is hereby certified that at an election held in the County of Sonoma on the 6th day of September, 1854, in pursuance of an act of the Legislature entitled ' An act to locate the county seat of Sonoma County anew,' the new county seat received 716 votes, having a major- ity of the votes east at said election. Now, therefore, know that the town of Santa Rosa is hereby declared to be the county seat of Sonoma ('ounty.'
"Supervisor Stephen L. Fowler offered the following:
... Resolved, By order of the board of super- visors of Sonoma County, that the archives of said county be moved from the city of Sonoma to the town of Santa Rosa, by order of the board declared to be the county seat of Sonoma County on September 22, 1854.'
" When the archives were finally taken the irrepressibly witty Sonoma editor gets off the following: Departed .- Last Friday the county officers with the archives left town for the new capitol amidst the exulting grin of some, and silent disapproval (frowning visages) of others. We are only sorry they did not take the court- house along-not because it would be an orna- ment to Santa Rosa, but because its removal would have embellished our plaza. Alas! old casa de adobe. No more do we see county lawyers and loafers in general, lazily engaged in the landable effort of whittling asunder the veranda-posts -- which, by the way, required but little more to bring the whole fabrie to the ground. No more shall we hear within and around it lengthy, logical political discussions, upon which were supposed to hang the fate of the world. The court-house is deserted. like some old feudal castle, only tenanted. perhaps, by bats, rats and fleas. In the classic language of no one in particular, . Let 'er rip.'
" At the first meeting of the Board District Attorney MeNair put in a bill for $250, for
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY.
helping the supervisors to get legally out of Sonoma; he was allowed $100. The board thought they did most of the work -- at least two-thirds of it. Jim Williamson modestly put in a bill of $16, for getting away with the records, which was allowed, without a groan, as it ought to have been.
"The first said about a jail was December 13, 1855, when Supervisor llarrison. of Geyser- ville, proposed to cast about for plans: the matter was laid over.
" The editor of the Bulletin visited Santa Rosa in October, a month after the removal, and it is pleasant to know how it appears to one so capable of estimating it. Mr. Cox says: . Our friends at Santa Rosa are displaying considerable energy in building up the town. We notice, among other evidenees of enterprise, the partial erection of a court-house. It is a pretty building, and. though seemingly small to those accustomed to the palatial four-story edi- fiees of Sonoma, is sufficiently large for the pur- pose. The citizens of the town certainly possess, in an eminent degree, the great ingredients of success, industry and enterprise.' This is a handsome tribute to the early Santa Rosans.
" The next reference to the subject appears November 30th, in which it is stated that . Judge MeKinstry has decided the mandamus to remove the county seat in favor of Santa Rosa. Citizens, let the question repose."
" On Tuesday, October 2d, 1854, the Court of Sessions. Judge Frank W. Shattuck presid- ing. met for the first time, in the old Masonie Hall, opposite the Santa Rosa House. Judge P. R. Thompson and James Prewett were elected Associate Justices. If his Honor, the presiding Judge, did not make a joke on the novelty of the situation, then he was less witty as a . wise young Judge ' than he now is as the editor of the Petaluma Courier.
" Hloen, Hahman and Carrillo, it will be re- membered, had given bonds to the Board, that they would have a building suitable for the pur- poses of the county ready by the 3d day of November. This building, which stood on the
ground now occupied by C. D. Frazee's drug store, on Fourth street, near the corner of Men- docino, was rapidly pushed, and was finished in December. The Board had to furnish it, and the following funny order appears upon the minutes on the 12th day of December, 1854:
". It is ordered that the elerk be authorized to receive sealed proposals for the construction of twelve benches for the court-room, seven and one-half feet long, and to be made of two-inch stuff, and fourteen inches wide, with strong baeks to them, and the clerk be authorized to set up for sealed proposals, to be delivered on the 26th inst.'
" Whether the clerk . set up' all night to receive these proposals is not anywhere stated.
"This temporary court-house moved down Fourth street in 1875, to make room for im- provements. It was mounted on two trucks, drawn by a big, six mule team. The mules stuck with it, just opposite the recorder's office, on Fourth street, and it was pulled out by four little. half-breed mustangs, belonging to James Shaw. of the Guilicos Valley, all of which is facetiously related by the chroniclers of that day
"The clerk was, at this December meeting of the Board of Supervisors, authorized to receive deeds from Julio Carrillo for lots 406 and 407, upon which the court-house now stands. The lots donated by Hahman and Hoen were sold at auction, and were purchased by Mr. Hoen, the original owner.
"On the 27th of December 11. P. Mullison was ordered to make a plan of the jail by June 8th, 1855. The Board took no further steps in the matter until that time, when they deter- mined to build both court-house and jail. The plan of D. Il. Huston was adopted, for which he was paid $150, and the lower story of the pres- ent court-house, not including sheriff's office, jail or Judge's chambers, was contracted for with James M. Philips; the building was to be set on the lots 406 and 407, deeded to the county by Julio Carrillo.
"In November, 1855. II. A. Green's execu-
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY.
tors presented a bill for the old Sonoma two- and-a-half-per-cent-a-month-adobe, amounting to $10,843. The Board did not see it as the exeentor did-they finally offered $3,250 to settle the claim; it was accepted. The Board offered the old seat of justice, ' Casa de Adobe,' for sale, and it was purchased by the Sonoma Lodge, I. O. O. F., No. 27, for their hall. The erection of a one-story court-house and jail was going on during the summer and fall of 1855. A special meeting of the Board was called to receive it December 28, 1855. They met, but would not receive the building, on the ground that it was not built in accordance with plans and specifications. Both sides got mad. The Board offered $7,000 to settle, which was promptly refused. On the Sth of February. 1855, the Board went up to $10,400, which was accepted by the contractor, and the county took possession of the premises. On the 6th of March Judge W. Churchinan, J. A. Reynolds, A. C. Bledsoe and D. Me Donald were appointed a committee to furnish the building at an ex- pense of $1,000. A further appropriation of 8500, for the same purpose, was made. Total cost of building, $14,400; and furnishing, $1,500.
.. After this there was no more court-house trouble for four years, when it broke out again, the same old ery-more room; same trouble in getting plans, and same complications in settling with contractors was to follow, but all this was in the, then, future. The proposition this time was, as the sailors would say, to put an . upper deck . on the one-story court-house of 1855, and attach a jail and hospital as tender. It was ordered to be done on the 12th of May, 1859. Bids were received on the 14th day of June, 1859. The contract was let to Mr. Philips and Joseph Nouges; Samuel West was appointed superintendent ; the contract price was $15,000. The building was to be completed by Christmas: that portion over the jail was originally in- tended for a hospital. The work progressed during the summer of 1859. On the 19th of November the Board made an order that. after- 7
ward put them to much trouble; it was as fol- lows:
".That the superintendent of construction of publie buildings, Samuel West, be empowered to make such changes in plan of jail and court house as in his judgment is necessary, having in view the best interests of the county. Under this order radical changes were made.
"The work was finished in January, 1560, and a special meeting of the Board was called to re- ceive the building and settle with contractors.
"The contractors furnished the following bill : Original contract. . $15,000 00 Charges extra. 25,891 23
$10,891 23
By county orders received. .. $17,000
Work not done. 1,813- 18,813 00
Balance due contractors. $22,078 23
" The Board could not settle, and John I). Grant, II. R. Leonard and Volney E. Howard were selected to arbitrate. A large number of witnesses were called, and finally the sum of $6,000 was awarded to the contractors -making $26,500 paid contractors in all. Cost of arbi- tration, paid by county, $1,601 ; salary of Super- intendent West, $1,200. Total cost of building, $29,601.30.
" The building was occupied in 1860, and all seemed well. But the Santa Rosans had hardly got through admiring the blindfolded statue of Justice with equal scales, which surmounted the new court-house, when they found they had something to occupy them inneh nearer . terra firnia.'
" The question of removing the county seat always breaks out when there is any change made in the court-house. The trouble with the contractors and the expense of the improve- ments brought on a violent attack of this sym- pathetie disease. Before the Santa Rosans knew it they were face to face with the same issue they had formerly made with the good people of the town of Sonoma.
"Hon. Henry Edgerton introduced a bill in the Legislature of 1861, in April, providing that the question of removing the county seat of
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY.
Sonoma should be voted on at the next general election. IIe put it through under whip and spur, and the Santa Rosans were put upon the
Under the new organization of the court defense for their right to the new court-house, . Jackson Temple and Jolm G. Pressley occupied after all their trouble in building it. They met the bench. Judge Temple having been elected one of the Supreme Judges of the State, Thomas Rutledge was appointed to fill the vacaney. At the election of 1888 S. K. Dougherty was elected to that position and now, with J. G. Pressley, discharges the duties of that court. the issue fairly and squarely, and on the 4th day of September their title to the county seat was again elinched by a direet and decisive vote of the people. If the Santa Rosans had been at all alarmed, the sequel to this agitation proved that they had no occasion to be so, as the tabu- lated vote upon the question will show: for re- moval, 314; against removal, 1,632.
" For twenty years after this verdiet there was no further county seat agitation.
" In 1866 a new roof was put on the court- house, and it was plastered on the outside, at a total cost of 82,600. In 1867 the jail was re- built and improvements were made at a cost of $8,999. Total cost of building, with furniture, about $60,000. The old structure was recently sold for $26,000, which leaves the net cost of the court-house to the county $34,000.
" The first district judge of Sonoma County was Robert Ilopkins. IIe was practicing law in Sonoma in 1849, when the Legislature met in San Jose. There was a movement on foot to attaeli the Valley of Sonoma to Napa County. The citizens of Sonoma sent the Hon. George learee and Mr. Hopkins as a committee to counteraet this seheme. When they got to San Jose they found that the Legislature was about to appoint a district judge for the distriet who was a non-resident. Mr. l'earee proposed his colleague Mr. Hopkins on the committee. and had him appointed to the office. They returned home, having accomplished their objeet and also seeuring the appointment of district judge.
" The Hon. E. W. MeKinstry succeeded Mr. Hopkins. Ile served a number of years. and is now a distinguished member of the Supreme Court of the State of California.
"Judge J. B. Southard succeeded Judge Me- Kinstry, and he was followed by Judge W. C. Wallace and Jackson Temple. The superior
judges sueeeeded under the new constitution to the jurisdiction of the distriet judges."
Under the old county judge system we find that the following named gentlemen served in that position in the order in which they are named: HI. A. Green, Charles P. Wilkins, J. E. McNair, Frank Shattnek, P. R. Thompson, William Churman, C. W. Langdon, A. P. Overton and John G. Pressley.
Sonoma County had so increased in popula- tion and wealth that all saw and admitted that hier county buildings were inadequate to the county's need. After the usual amount of frie- tion and sparring about location and cost of eonrt-house, the plaza of Santa Rosa was selected as the site and the cost of building was fixed not to exceed $80,000. This was in 1883. Bids for constructing the building were advertised for, and the contract finally awarded to Messrs. Carle & C'roly, at $80,000, with the condition that the building was to be completed by the 1st of January, 1885. On the 7th of May, 1884, the corner-stone of this editice was laid, with im- posing ceremonies, and in due time reached con- pletion. It is ornate in appearance, and a eredit to the people of Sonoma County. The building is classie in design and built principally of stone, briek and iron. Its form approximates the Greek cross with projeeting center (and flanks), having a dome. The building has four pendi- ments, each surmounted by a figure of the God- dess of Justice. The dome is topped with a figure of Minerva. It will measure 107 by 115 feet, exclusive of portieoes, stairs and all other projections; besides the basement and dome, it is two full stories in height. Base- ment 12 feet, first story 15 feet, court-rooms in second story 22 feet, all other rooms in upper
Sonoma County Court House.
L. of C.
101
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