USA > California > Sonoma County > History of Sonoma County, California, with biographical sketches of 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 > Part 25
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CHAPTER XXXIX.
NATURE'S ANCIENT GROVE-REDWOOD TOWNSHIP.
Sequoyah, cultured chieftain of the Cherokees,
Here art thou honored in this Chief of Trees. Sequoia Semperviren,-ever vernal,-good Is thy name and claim, prince. of the western wood. In Rome's imperial tongue the nations call
Thee "evergreen," thou noblest Roman of them all.
You sprang from earth when earth was young and fair, and grew Straight up to God. From nature's mother-heart you drew The best of earth up in that royal heart of thee- The clean, red shaft of thee, O, grand, majestic tree ! No autumn-mark showed on thy leafy-diadem As passing ages marked their cycles in thy stem. Change followed change, you knew no change, O, King! Hail Semperviren; Evergreen, all hail! Ancient of days, and lord of hill and dale. Thou art the glory of the West Coast Range, O, King.
The woods were sacred courts, the forest aisles and lanes Were paths of deity when these were God's first fanes. Among these slender boughs the ocean-gales harped free When burst the thunder mono-hymnal of the sea ; And nature's forest house of prayer from choir to nave Responded in the litany of wind and wave.
In grand recessional the storm-chords died, and then Faint through the trees went whispering a great "Amen."
. Fittingly named is the little Redwood township under its forests, sur- rounded by Analy, Bodega, Mendocino and Ocean townships. Through its center flows the Russian river and along the shores of that stream grow the groves of sequoia-the kingly plants of the vegetable kingdom. On paper and canvas have been faithfully portrayed these splendid trees, but one must stand at the base of the great vertical shaft springing into the air to truly sense the grandeur of that growth; must be within these rare groves where sunshine falls through the tree-tops to first glow silvery on the leaves, then fade away into soft twilight. Here must have been the retreats of the gods of the olden days, ere Pan and his elfin crew forsook the earth and eerie pipes were heard no more in sylvan shade. But the forest temples remained. Forest temple is not a term fitless or fanciful, for the clustered-columns and groined arch of the noble gothic cathedral grew from the tree-trunk and spreading bough of the woods. And later on in the reaches of time the Indian walked
THE GIANT REDWOODS
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the sequoia groves as tenant in fee. How appropriate was the word-selection when the inspired naturalist stood among the red columns and named them for Sequoyah, the cultured Cherokee, who gave his red people an alphabet, and lifted their simple dialect to the dignity of a written language. The tree may fall, but the fame of the scholarly Indian whose name it bears will never pass away.
WHIRR OF THE MILL-THE DIRGE OF THE TREE.
When the pathfinders in the plaza at Sonoma were lifting the Bear Flag to the California breeze, leagues of stately redwoods grew on the Coast range. They hung thickly on the slopes and crowded the vales-the park of the In- dian and the covert of the deer. They drew life from their mother-stream, the green-shored Russian river, and caught in their leafy deeps the silvery echoes of her murmuring flow. But the saw followed the flag, and many of the grand groves are gone. The whirring song of the mill is the dirge of the tree. Even in the primal periods of earth the forests were set apart as things sacred. To the ruder minds they were the hiding places of deity. The Aryan under the trees worshipped the sun, the visible essence of God, and the Inca on his forest heights heard the swell of that golden great harp's mono- chord. The classic grove of Dodona was the sanctuary of Jove before the building of the Grecian Parthenon. The Druidic priest by the sacred oak celebrated his mystic mass ere the later Briton hewed the cathedral shaft and laid the architrave. The bare domes of hill and the treeless cups of valley in the United States are not alone sad themes for the writer's pen and the artist's brush, but are motives for legislative action. The law-mills must reg- ulate the saw-mills if these splendid specimens of the plant kingdom escape the vandalism that is rampant in this country.
In the center of Redwood township is Guerneville, a pretty sylvan town with a scenic river at its front door and a range of wooded hills in its back- yard. With one railway system-another is building-tracking through its grounds, connecting its various forest industries, its fertile lands with the out- side world, Guerneville holds her own on the map of Imperial Sonoma. She is also the center of the numerous summer camps and resorts that flank the Russian river from Healdsburg to Duncans Mills. In little woody nooks at the water-edge or clinging to the steep sides of hill are the tents, brush- cabins and bungalows of the migratory river dwellers. They are known by names as fitting to location as to character. Monte (a wooded, hilly shore or bank) Rio, Monte Cristo, Monte Sano, Mesa Grande, Guernewood Park, Camp Vacation, Camp Meeker, Rio Nido (River-nest), and the grove of the Bohemians-the midsummer camp of this roystering crew. Near Guerneville is the Armstrong Woods, a noble group of sequoia and practically the only redwood grove of any scenic importance in the township. It is a splendid forest, the great trees standing on the level ground making a natural park, and they are yet on their stumps because Colonel J. B. Armstrong, the former owner, insisted on their preservation.
ARMSTRONG WOODS.
The effort recently made to purchase the Armstrong Woods for $100,000, and make that four-hundred acre tract with its splendid grove of redwood trees a state reservation, was a partial success. The proposition to appropri- 13
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ate that amount for the purpose received the full approval of every con- servationist in California. It was endorsed by such organizers as The Cali- fornia State Grange, The State Federation of Women's Clubs, The Outdoor Art League of the California Club, The Sierra Club, Women's Improvement Clubs and Chambers of Commerce. The purchase price, coming from the entire state, would be an infinitesimal addition to individual taxation, and the preserving of a portion of the few remaining trees would be a noble object. The bill for the purchase passed unanimously both houses of the legislature, but Governor Gillett failed to sign it into a law. He gave as his reason the big batch of appropriation bills for that session, which he considered of more importance. Hon. William Kent, of Kentfield, Marin county, present repre- sentative in Congress from this congressional district, purchased and pre- sented to the public the noble Muir grove of sequoia situated in that county. This is the only group of trees, in the redwood belt north of San Francisco, which has been reserved, and being near the great Pacific metropolis, is a gem in the great scenic zone of this wonderland. The Muir woods are de- scribed and pictured in the route-folders of the Southern Pacific Railroad Company, but evidently Congressman William Kent is unknown to that great corporation, as his name does not appear in the railroad literature. Possibly some day ere the axe and saw have completed the destruction of the remain- ing trees a philanthropist will appear in Sonoma county and bid the vandal woodman spare the last of "God's First Temples" along the Rio Russian.
Guerneville takes its name from the big sawmill of George Guerne and Thomas T. Heald, one of the several lumber-producing plants in the neighbor- hood. Several miles north from Guerneville is the Mount Jackson Quick- silver mining district; the principal mine, the Great Eastern, is largely cele- brated for the huge lawsuit that has been connected with it for years.
MENDOCINO TOWNSHIP.
Mendocino township is a rather narrow district, and starting from the county of that name, maintains about the same width as it extends in a south- easterly direction until it reaches the north bank of Russian river, where it takes in Healdsburg. . This is the only city or town in the township, the entire area being a succession of high wooded hills and fertile wooded val- leys, most important of the latter being Dry creek. This creek flows-when it does flow-into the Russian river within the limits of Healdsburg, its head- waters being well up towards Mendocino county. The valley of this stream is a perennial testimonial that there is "nothing in a name," as the soil of that vale between the hill-ranges is of marvelous richness, without any indication of aridity. The bedrock is far below the surface and while a deep and wide creek in winter sweeps violently down to the river, the waters sink through the alluvium before the summer is well on, leaving the name-Dry creek.
Healdsburg began when Harmon Heald, in 1852 began "keeping house" in a small clap-board cabin on the west side of the city plaza near the site of the Sotoyome hotel. It was on the road leading from Sonoma town into Mendocino county. Heald's store was soon doing "a good business." Thomas W. Hudson and family arrived in 1853. and their son Henry H. was the first white child born in the settlement. August Knaack built his blacksmith shop near Heald's store as the village was then known. In 1857 the town site was surveyed by
SCENE ON RUSSIAN RIVER NEAR HEALDSBURG
1.
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H. P. Mock and "Healdsburg" took its place on the map. There were many among the pioneer population in the town and valley who wished it named the more musical and more fitting "Sotoyome" for the tribe of Indians in the neigh- borhood and Captain Henry Fitch's big rancho, but "Heald's store" was nearer and more immelodious. Whatever the name. it is a beautiful spot in the heart of the Russian river plateau and the rich lands of the valley soon drew the home-seekers. The pioneer of all the pioneers of this section of Sonoma county is Cyrus Alexander, who came to California in 1837. At San Diego he met Captain Fitch by whom he was sent north with a drove of horses and cattle for the Captain's grant of eleven leagues, the Rancho Sotoyome. He was to care for the property for four years, his payment to be one-half of the stock increase and two leagues of the ranch. On the completion of the contract Alexander built the well known Old Adobe at the foot of Fitch Mountain, a prominent peak on the river bank near Healdsburg. A flouring mill and a tannery were also of his handiwork during that stirring early period. The beautiful forest valleys of the Sotoyomes were zoological gardens and the flesh eaters headed by the grizzly-the ursus horribilis of the California carnivora-were quite fond of Spanish beef and mutton, and no objection to a feast of mustang now and then. This kept the settlers' rifles loaded for instant use and their dogs in leash for a bear-hunt. Now this monarch of the Sonoma wilds-except in the Parlors of the Native Sons -- is only a memory. His size, ferocity, courage and appetite made him a foe worthy of the pioneer's steel and he passed away. Even his milder brothers, the black and brown bears, whose vegetarian tastes made the huckleberry patches their habitat, are almost extinct. Occasionally hunger and a hope of getting a colt or calf will tempt a panther on a night trip from his deep woods, but the guns and dogs have made the big cats timid. The little brother of the once plentiful gray wolf, the coyote, remains on visiting terms with the hen-houses and sheep-corrals, but the bounty on his scalp gen- erally keeps him to a rabbit or grass-hopper diet among his native hills. The great herds of antelope, the fewer flocks of elk, are gone, but the black-tailed deer, his slaughter limited by law, inhabits the northern woods and affords game for the city clerk turned hunter for his two-weeks vacation. The hares, rabbits and squirrels practically complete the "field force" of Sonoma's mammalia, though a smaller fry of animal life might be listed.
PARK-LIKE HEALDSBURG.
The township grew rapidly in population and presently most of the arable land was taken up by the settlers. Naturally the grants were objects of interest by the new comers and the usual squatter troubles were on. But these subsided and nothing has occurred to check the progress of this fertile region. Healdsburg because of its favorable location on the river was presently a "city" working under corporate regulations. Schools and churches were organized and public buildings constructed. Among the early arrivals were the printing people and Healdsburg had her pioneer newspaper. A. J. Cox who had run a paper in Sonoma opened the journalistic field in Sotoyome with the Review. This was in 1860, and four years after it passed into the Advertiser. After a series of changes in names and publishers it appeared under the name of Russian River Flag, owned by John G. and S. S. Howell who afterwards sold out to L. A. and A. D. Jordan. In 1876 John F. and Felix Mulgrew began printing
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the Healdsburg Enterprise. It was Democratic in politics-the Flag being Republican-and was edited with exceptional ability, in fact the two papers did much to promote the early growth of the city and locality. The Sonoma County Tribune was established in 1888 by Isadore Abraham, a merchant in Healdsburg, and Louis Meyer. The same year the Flag passed into the Enter- prise, and ceased to "wave." R. E. Baer is the publisher of the Enterprise. and Alexander Crossan directs the weekly issue of the Tribune. The So- toyome Scimitar conducted by Ande Nowlin is the third newspaper of the city.
Among the excellent training and educational institutions of this county is Golden Gate Orphanage in Mendocino Township, conducted by the Salvation Army. It is not an orphanage in the usual meaning of the word, but is an. agricultural training school, where a large number of children of both sexes are given a practical education in farm management. It is the well known Lytton Springs property of 650 acres, four miles north from Healdsburg, and is conducted by Major and Mrs. C. Wilfred Bourne, S. A., and a corps of as- sistants. While the farm is a private property the school course of instruction is under the jurisdiction of the County Superintendent of Public Instruction. When its grammar school pupils are graduated they pass to the high school at Healdsburg. In addition to their school-room work the boys do practically all the work of the dairy, poultry-yard and farm, and the girls under qualified instructors are drilled in all branches of household duties, including cooking and laundry work. Situated as it is in the heart of the rich Russian River valley, this fine industrial farm is almost self-sustaining, but is burdened with an in- debtedness-the remainder of its purchase price. Major Bourne says : "We have no uniforms, no needless rules, no oppressive regulations, no formidable high-walled fences. no yard guards, and at all times one hears the hum of free and proper conversation. We base this tuition upon a carefully developed sense of right and wrong, and the knowledge that if he be good and in all things honest, he is in all things worthy. Thus is the child made a law to himself."
RUSSIAN RIVER TOWNSHIP.
Across the stream from Healdsburg is the township of Russian River, the smallest township in the county. This district extends south to Santa Rosa township and contains one town, Windsor, though the building of the railroad made two towns. The surveyors arbitrarily declined to run the line through the pretty little village and passed about a mile to the west. A portion of the town went down to the track and was called West Windsor. Some early settler, more comical than correct in his statements, called this portion of the great central valley "Poor Man's Flat." That was before the flat became vineyards. hop-yards, orchards and grain fields and the homes of men who are anything but "poor." Practically all of the 41,000 acres of land of the township are under cultivation. Its southern boundary line is Mark West creek, named for the ancient Scotch mariner who "went ashore" on the bank of that stream in an early day. Near the old home and picturesque wreck of a flouring mill for- merly owned by Mark West, is located the noted Burke's Sanitarium, and farther up the creek are the well known Mark West Springs, both places popular health resorts. Russian River township is occupied by portions of the Sotoyome, San Miguel and El Molino ranchos; the former tract containing the ranch and home of Cyrus Alexander, the first white settler in the township.
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
CHAPTER XL.
THE DALE OF THE CLOVER BLOOM.
Like the name of Redwood township, the name of this section of Sonoma county is a growth from the soil. Here yearly for uncalendared ages the little blossoms have blown over the grassy levels and the place of the red and white floral jewels in their emerald settings could only be a clover dale. The time is lost among the unrecorded things of the past when this bit of vegetation became the symbol of pastures rich in the drapery of riotous plant life, and the pas- toral theme of "flocks thick nibbling through the clovered vale." It may have been when "belted earl" taking from the wayside as he rode to the tourney- field, the green trefoil which on his shield became a sign-manual of knightly valor, and to be one of the blooms when knighthood was a-flower. Or it may have been when the master-mason of the grand gothic temples saw in the three- leaf growth at his feet the graceful form that now appears chiseled in the tri- foliated ornamentation of architecture. The saintly missionary of Ireland, the land where the clover is the fadeless emblem of nativity, plucked from the sod a spray of the triple-blade of green and taught the fierce pagan Celts the faitlı of a Trinity, three in one, divided and indivisible; and the shamrock, dainty and sweet clover of the Irish turf, grows green in the Irish heart when all else lies withered and dead. To the island-exile wandering afar over distant lands and seas it is the token of home.
The name of this district fits into the fertility of its fields, and the grassy places among its hills. That wide map of valley and highland lay unrolled be- fore her as Mrs. R. B. Markle, just from "across the plains" fifty-five years ago, gave it the title it bears today. Probably a full degree of latitude north of the cooler bay airs, its warm volcanic soil under foot, Cloverdale township lies with- in a thermal zone. "Semi tropic" here is not a shop worn term of the real estate expert, nor was the local climatic condition invented for use in the scenic vocabulary of the railroad transportation agent. The Russian river watershed from its beginning in the Mendocino mountains to its ending in the sea is a vast plain of stored richness, not all of which the plow-share has touched and turned into activity. But time and intelligent tillage are widening the cultured area and the generous soil responds in plenteous harvests. Tree and vine here flower and fruit as successively as the seasons cycle on their orbits. The citrus and the grapes of this region are its specialties, the first coming near the open- ing of the year and the second when the leaves grow yellow in the forests. Thus Cloverdale appears as a winter bride in her orange blossoms and again as a russet-robed matron when the vineyard workers are calling blithely on the warm slopes. Cloverdale is the central market for fruit, wool, hops and stock of the surrounding country, even from Mendocino and Lake counties. Here in this mild climate grow oranges, lemons and olives to a high state of perfection and the annual Citrus Fair held in Cloverdale is the chief agricultural feature of Sonoma county. The exhibits in this institution at the "Citrus City" every year
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are equal to the production of Southern California and Florida. Like Santa Rosa. Cloverdale owns her own water system, installed in 1906 at a cost of $18,000. It has a weekly newspaper, The 'Reveille, published by Clayton T. Coffey. Its origin was the Cloverdale Vewes, first issued in 1876, then removed to Santa Rosa, where it suspended. The plant was returned to Cloverdale, where the publication settled down under its present name.
ASTI'S FAMOUS CAVE OF WINE.
In this bloomy, vine-clad vale is the famous Asti-the name smacks of the winey slopes of the southern Alps. This is the property of the Italian- Swiss Colony, whose people dress and harvest their splendid vineyards as they did on the Mediterranean seaboard. The president is Chevelier P. C. Rossi, a broad minded, cultured man, graduate of the university of Turin, and who has made technical and practical grape growing the study of his life. M. Charles Jadeau, French expert, with a corps of experienced assistants-no other are em- ployed at the colony-under the direct supervision of Mr. Rossi, make the noted wines of Asti. It is a beautiful place though English speakers mar the melody of the Italian name, as they do that kindred tongue, the Spanish, by pronouncing the word with a nasal a and long i. Another citizen who has done heavy team work for Asti is Chevelier Andrea Sbarboro of San Francisco, secretary of the colony. Like Mr. Rossi, he was knighted by the King of Italy in recognition of his labors in behalf of fellow Italians in this country. Not only has Mr. Sharboro labored assiduously for this county, but for this state, making her grand possibilities known to worthy home seekers across the seas.
Out of its 1,750 acres of dry wines comes a vintage of about 4,500,000 gallons of dry wine, one sixth of the 27,000,000 gallons annual dry wine out- put of the state. As a storing place for its rich vintages, Asti has the largest tun in the world, a mammoth cellar drilled in solid rock, and out of that rock- crypt gushes the nectarous Tipo Chianti which has made Asti famous far and near. In this cave-reservoir lined with cement and its wall glazed like marble. with a mountain for its roof, five hundred thousand gallons of wine sleep and gather richness for the tables of the world, unless the earthquake should fissure its floor and drop that ruby flood to mingle with the waters of some deep, sunless sea. The subterranean lake is ten times larger than the great tun of Heidelberg. long the theme of verse and song along the viney Rhine. From Asti's cavern store of the Sonoman vintage 20,000,000 people could at once from goblet-brim pour out a libation to the ruddy god of vintners. Hebe, the girl cup-bearer of Olympus, could serve Jove through an con of space ere she dip the last red drop from this cave of wine-providing, with the gods, the time is not too short between drinks.
KNIGHT'S VALLEY AND WASHINGTON TOWNSHIPS.
In 1853 Thomas Knight arrived in the beautiful mountain township and valley that bears his name, and purchased from the Spanish Berryessa family their 13,000-acre grant, this being about one-third of the 36,800 acres of the entire township. William McDonald seems to have been the first American settler in the region, having preceded Knight about three years. Afterwards came Calvin Holmes, the most prominent of the valley's pioneers. With his brother, Henderson P. Holines, he first settled near Santa Rosa, thence to the splendid estate of twenty-five hundred acres in the valley, a portion of the orig-
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mal Rancho de Malacomes. Knight's valley nestles among the oak-covered hills of the Mayacmas range, its rich plant-promoting soil and rare alpine scenery making it an ideal choice of home. And towering above is its great landmark, grand sentinel of the coast range-blue peak with the sacred and princely title- St. Helena. The principal industries of the township are grain and fruit grow- ing and sheep-raising. The Great Western Quicksilver mine is in this township and in Lake County. Near the fine property of the Holmes estate is the ranch and residence of George Hood. The summer resort known as Kellogg is situ- ated in the valley, seventeen miles from Healdsburg and seven from Calistoga, Napa county. It is the most picturesque place in Scenic Sonoma, the hotel being Berryessa's old abode with modern additions. Fossville is a station on the road between Kellogg and Calistoga and was named after Clark Foss, the well known stage-owner and driver of these mountain grades. The name of Foss is so associated with the famous ridge and ravine roads, and with the steaming geysers of the vicinity that he with his stage-outfit seem to be a creation of the infernal place. Even his remarks to his six "half-broke" horses-the blue sul- phuric profanity of the California stage-whip-appear to have been heated in the devilish caldrons of that boiling canyon. The Pluton river drops its fresh and pure waters down through this plutonic locality, and two forks of Sulphur creek-their streams quite un-sulphurous-splash cool and refreshing toward the distant Russian. What a choice and fitting collection of names is here, and how well they play the part. "Crater," "Witches' Caldron," "Proserpine's Grotto," "Devil's Machine Shop," "Devil's Canyon," "Devil's Canopy;" a black sul- phur pool called "Devil's Ink:" "Devil's Oven," and close by, as it should be, the "Devil's Tea Kettle." In fact if Satanus should conclude in propria persona to make a summer-stay at the Geysers, he would find the place well furnished, and doubtless looking quite home-like. Front some of these places issue jets of hot water and from others white clouds of steam that gush out of the clefts of the rocks with hissing sound. For ages these wonders have existed. Down in volcanic fires streams of water are heated to the boiling point and the high- expansion forces it up into the open. That the chemical works below are in activity is shown by the carbonates and salts of magnesia, iron, sulphur, alum, soda and other substances washed and boiled from the earth's crust. The ground is hot and vibratory under the rush of the uplifting streams. Scattered along the canyon are slumberous pools-"baths," they are called-Indian baths, acid baths, soda baths, and the atmosphere is thick enough with the fumes of sulphuretted hydrogen to tickle the nasal nerves of the most exacting student in chemistry.
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