USA > California > Sonoma County > History of Sonoma County : including its geology, topography, mountains, valleys, and streams > Part 45
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FISHERMAN'S BAY .- This place was first settled in 1858, by A. L. Fisk, who erected a store and hotel building, and put both in operation. The first
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
saw-mill was put in operation at this point in 1867, by a firm composed of H. B. Platt and H. A. M. Cook of San Francisco, known as the Platt Mill Company. The capacity of this mill was thirty thousand feet per day. It was located near the town, and the building is still standing, though the machinery is all gone and the tramways all broken up. The Clipper Mill was put in operation in 1869, by Rutherford & Hook. Its capacity was forty thousand feet per day. It, too, has suspended operations. It is doubtful whether these mills will ever be put in operation again or not. There are two chutes at present at this point. The schooner " Lottie Collins " runs regularly in this trade. . The business interests of the place are a store, a hotel, and one black- smith-shop. J. C. Fisk has a shingle-mill, built in 1878,, with a capacity of thirty thousand shingles daily. There is a post, telegraph and express office at this place. The postoffice was established July 10, 1863, with A. J. Fisk as postmaster. The official directory is as follows: J. C. Fisk, postmaster and agent for Wells, Fargo & Co .; Eugene Fisk, telegraph operator; J. Carleton, Justice of the Peace; and D. Stump, Constable. The enterprising Methodists have put a man on the work here, and given him the following circuit: Fisherman's Bay, Miner School-house, Henry's Hotel, Ruoff's School- house, and Fisk's Mill. This circuit extends over a territory ten miles wide and twenty miles long, and containing some of the roughest country to be found in California. The name of the man who is doing this great and good work is L. W. Simmons. He has been in this field since November 10, 1878. The church organization at this place is twenty-two. The blue-ribbon brigade organized there during the Spring of 1879, and they have no saloon now.
BLACK POINT .- This is a small shipping point, now owned by Wm. Bihler and D. L. B. Ross. They built the chute in 1875. Considerable quantities of produce is shipped from this point, there being some good farming land near by. There is a wagon and blacksmith shop here.
LODGES .- There is but one lodge of any order in the township, and that is a lodge of U. A. O. D. It is Plantation Lodge No. 32, and is located near the " Plantation House," a wayside inn, back from Fisk's mill about three miles. This lodge was organized October 9, 1878. The charter mem- bers were, Jos. Luttinger, Benj. F. Warren, Simon Von Arx, August Rad- diti, D. A. Raymond, Wm. A. Richardson, Chas. Thompson, Geo. Decker, Victor Durant, Fred Joerjason, E. Rule, Herman Tucker, Jno. Caponal, Angelo Cerena, and Peter Eckhardt. The first officers were, P. Eckhardt, N: A .; F. Warren, V. A .; F. Joerjason, Secretary, and J. Luttinger, Treasurer. The hall building was erected in 1878, at an expense of two thousand dollars. It is a very neat building, and the lodge room very cosy., The present membership is twenty-two.
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
WAYSIDE INNS .- On what is known as the "ridge road," i. e., the road which passes along up the coast, a distance of perhaps three miles back from the ocean, and on a sort of a ridge or back-bone of the first range of hills, are situated two wayside inns, one known as Henry's Hotel, and the other as the Plantation House. Henry's is situated directly back of Fort Ross, and the Plantation not far from Fisk's mill. The latter was built in 1871. The present proprietor has a fine pond .of trout and carp, which he is culti- vating successfully.
SCHOOLS .- It must not be presumed that because the face of the country presents such a rough appearance that there are no schools herein. On the contrary, there are nearly a dozen school houses in the township. It is true, some of the children have to make long pilgrimages to reach the school house; still they are within the reach of all.
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
SANTA ROSA.
The pleasingly cuphonious name of Santa Rosa was first given to the stream which winds through the beautifully wooded valley and from which it, as well as the township and city, derives its cognomen. The story of the baptismal rite is thus told by Mr. Robert A. Thompson, County Clerk, than whom no better authority on this part of the county lives: It is recorded. of Juan Amoroso that he was one of those missionaries who dared every- thing in behalf of the Cross; earnest, faithful and bold, he preached the story of the Master without fear. He was a true disciple of the Church militant on earth and believed in teaching the heathen the practices of Christianity, and, as far as possible, the arts of civilization, by force if they did not adopt them by persuasion. His zeal led him, in 1824, to accept the difficult, not to say dangerous, task of founding the mission of San Rafael. He success- fully accomplished that task. Five years after, in 1829, he made an excur- sion northward in company with one José Cantua, hoping, doubtless, to find some stray heathen who by his zeal might be brought into the fold of the faithful. He came to the territory of the Cainemeros tribe of Indians who resided on the river Chocoalomi, the Indian name of what is now Santa Rosa creek. At the rocky point opposite the "old adobe, " a mile and a-half from the present town, he captured an Indian girl, baptized her in the stream and gave her the name of Santa Rosa from the fact that, on that very day, the Church was celebrating the fast of Santa Rosa de Lima. He was attacked by the natives and fled, arriving safely at his mission of San Rafael.
In June, 1834, Governor Figueroa undertook an expedition to the northern part of the county to survey the position of the Russians and to make some preparations for the reception of colonists who were reported as coming from Mexico to settle in California. He personally explored the sorrounding country and chose a site on the banks of Mark West creek-then called Potiquiyomi-which he named "Santa Ana y Farias" after the then Presi- dent and Vice-President of Mexico. Shortly after, the Governor returned to Monterey, having left the pueblo in charge of a few soldiers under the com- mand of Ensign (now General) M. G. Vallejo; he, however, finding his position untenable, being sore pressed by the Indian tribes who had inter- cepted direct communication with San Francisco, reported the state of affairs to the Mexican Government, when he was ordered to take a position nearer the bay, and thus Santa Ana y Farias was abandoned and the pueblo of Sonoma settled.
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
In 1838-9, the building already mentioned as the " old adobe" was erected by Mrs. Carrillo, a sister of General Vallejo's wife, and mother of Julio Car- rillo, who was granted a large tract of land, including the site of the present city of Santa Rosa, the country lying between Santa Rosa and Sebastopol being given to Joaquin Carrillo, her brother. The adobe still stands on Santa Rosa creek, a mile aud a half above the town, and was the first build- ing erected in the valley, or indeed anywhere north of the city of Sonoma, saving those constructed by the Russians at or near Fort Ross. It is now owned by F. G. Hahman of Santa Rosa.
The following pen-picture of this historical establishment, as it was in July, 1850, when in the possession of Ramon Carrillo, we reproduce as a graphic description of the manners and customs of the pre-American occu- piers of California:
" In front of the house was a court-yard of considerable extent, and part of this was sheltered by a porch; here, when the vaqueros have nothing to call them to the field, they pass the day looking like retainers of a rude court; a dozen wild, vicious-looking horses, with wooden saddles on their backs, stand ever ready for work; while lounging about, the vaqueros smoke, play the guitar, or twist a new riata of hide or horse-hair. When the sun gets lower they go to sleep in the shade, while the little horses that remain in the sunshine do the same apparently, for they shut their eyes and never stir. Presently a vaquero, judging the time by the sun, gets up and yawns, stag- gering lazily towards his horse, gathers up his riata, and twists it around the horn of his saddle-the others, awakening, rise and do the same, all yawn- ing, with eyes half open, looking as lazy a set as ever were seen, as indeed they are when on foot. 'Hupa ! Anda!' and away they go in a cloud of dust, splashing through the river, waving their lassoes around their heads with a wild shout, and disappearing from sight almost as soon as mounted. The vaquero wants at all times to ride furiously, and the little horses' eyes are opened wide enough before they receive the second dig of their rider's iron spurs."
Let us briefly relate the further history of this ancient landmark. In 1851 Don Ramon returned to his native clime, and left the adobe in the pos- session of David Mallagh, who had espoused a daughter of Mrs. Carrillo; and in the Fall of that year, in conjunction with Donald McDonald, he opened a public-house and grocer's shop within the hitherto hallowed walls; this was the first launching into the mysteries of merchandising in Santa Rosa valley. At this period the daughters had succeeded to that portion of the tract lying between Santa Rosa and Bennet Valley creeks, while Julio Carrillo owned all the north side of the creek.
Before proceeding further with our record, let us here interpolate a description of the Santa Rosa valley. The plains, as the fertile strath is oftentimes called, rise gradually for some sixteen miles, the grade taking a
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
southerly direction from the Russian river, there being just enough inclina- tion to shed the water back to the larger stream. Two considerable streams flow into the Russian river, which having found their source in the moun- tains on the east, pursne their way across the plains into a sequence of lakes on the west, and debouching therefrom, finally deposit their water into the river above named. The eye is pleasantly relieved by groves of oaks, which in no wise interfere with the cultivation of the soil, the yield under the shadow of the umbrageous trees being very nearly, if not quite, as good as it is in the open ground; cereals fruits and vines all grow in the greatest profusion and perfection, while on the eastern slope of the valley, built along the banks of the creek, stands the county seat of Sonoma, the beautiful city of Santa Rosa. Within easy distance of the town are Bennet, Guilicos and Rineon valleys, all lands rich in agricultural results, and peopled by hardy, honest, well-to-do farmers.
Up to the period when the district was first settled Santa Rosa and the small valleys contiguous to it were very different from what they are to- day. At that time the broad level plain was one vast field of waving corn, in the months of March and April, looking like an emerald sea, dotted with islands, as it were, formed from the clumps of oaks among the only perish- able landmarks which still remain, and limited by a horizon of bold, wooded highlands and more noble mountains, rocky-peaked, and clothed with dense chapparal to their summits. Roads there were none, save the divergent trails which twisted through the luxuriant growth of wild oats, that reached, on every side, shoulder high with the passing equestrian. Fences there were none, therefore the prospect was unbroken, save by those objects already noted. The low-lying land teemed with game of every kind, both four- footed and feathered, that had scarcely known the meaning of death, save by natural means; the rivers were stocked with finny gambolers, whose numbers had been lessened by none, except the aboriginal red man, while the cañons and mountain sides gave shelter to the panther, the puma, and the grizzly bar. Around the vista was variegated with flowers of the richest perfumes, lending a pleasing sensation of sweet repose; the smallest sounds were heard in the vast solitude, and each in concert-the hard, grating noise of the cicada, the hum of bees, the chirping of gorgeously plumed songsters-all these signs of animation made the solitude still more profound and oppres- sive, until it became a relief to watch for the obstruction of the path by an infuriated beeve, or gaze in expectation for the rapid stampede of a drove of elk or deer.
In the year 1846 the first immigration to California from the Atlantic States took place, and a few found their way to this district and settled in what is now known as Los Guilicos valley. This influx to the population received no further impetus until 1848, the year of the discovery of gold, when a few others arrived; notable among these being David and William Hudson, John
THOMAS HOPPER.
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York, and William Elliott; these had families. In 1848, in the Fall, the small settlement had an accession of strength in the arrival of Martin Hud- son, his wife and five children. In this winter, Mrs. Martin Hudson, a hale old lady with a wonderfully clear and retentive memory, informs us that she and her family and her brother-in-law and his four children, occupied small log huts. At this time there also eame Ben Jewell and several others, whose names cannot be traced. In 1849, William Hood arrived and occupied land in Los Guilicos valley. The lives of these pioneers were anything but a bed of roses; the daily recurring round of hardship; was hard to face, but it had to be met. As time went on, the mind was kept active in order to provide for their wants. Those with families were frequently put to it to find comforts for delicate females and helpless babes. Did siekness show itself, it had to be averted with the simplest aid at hand, for physicians had not yet found their way into the impenetrable wilds; therefore it is wonderful how many there are who live to tell the tale. In the year 1848, or perhaps before that, we find that William Elliott had constructed a water-power grist-mill on Mark West creek, where his distant neighbors-if the almost antithetical expression may be used-were wont to have their grain turned into flour. The raising of wheat had not as yet taken any hold upon the settlers; indeed it was doubted if it would grow at all. Barley was produced in, for those days, considerable quantities, that is to say, little more than enough for home con- sumption. Tea, sugar and coffee were luxuries indeed, a substitute for the latter being frequently found in burnt corn or wheat; meat and game were, fortunately, plentiful, while now and then the real treat of baked bread would be indulged in. Most of the commodities in use were procured from San Francisco, which was reached first by horseback to the bay, and after, by a rough passage in an open whale-boat to the city, yet with all these difficulties to contend against, we are told that existence was by no means unpleasant then, while now there are many who have almost retired from active labor and lead a life of ease and comfort; there are others, again, who have been called across the dark river after the passing of useful and event- ful years; while lastly, there are still those who, young then, are now filling prominent positions in the world, each proving that their early teachings have stood them in good stead in fighting the battle of life.
In the year 1850, a Presbyterian preacher named Townley held services in Los Guilieos valley, under the shadow of a spreading oak. The congre- gation which gathered to this sylvan church, though few in number, were sincere in their devotion, and listened to these expositions of Divine truth in the wilderness of unreclaimed solitude with deep-seated feeling. It is pleasing to record that this early pioneer minister had the doing good to his fellow-creatures at heart, for we are told that in this same year he started a school on Cottonwood ereek, on the edge of the valley, which he maintained for three months. In this year we also hear of the first wedding. What a
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HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.
day of rejoicing must such a social event have been. How easy it is to pic- ture the friends, or even strangers, hasting to the wedding, each mounted on his fleet steed, and all arrayed in such fineries the like of which had not been hitherto donned in the new country. While writing, we feel the geneality which then prevailed pervade ourself, and have, in our mind's eye, the hearty hand-shakings, the fervent congratulations and loud-sung praises of bride and bridegroom. The contracting parties on this occasion were Miss Celia Elliott and Benjamin Jewell, mentioned above. The first birth is supposed to have been that of Mary, now Mrs. McCormick, daughter of William Hudson, who is still a resident of Sonoma county. This event occurred in 1846, while the first death was that of the old English sailor and intrepid pioneer, Mark West, whose name is so familiar in the mouths of the present generation. He died of cancer in 1849. Marcus West is described as a tall man of commanding presence, mild in manner and kind to a fault.
Let us now glance at the history of the town of Santa Rosa, its location, progress, and present prosperity.
SANTA ROSA .- We have already said that Mallagh and McDonald started a store in the old adobe in 1851; in June of the next year Alonzo Meacham, who with his partner, Barney Hoen, suffered disaster in San Francisco in the great fire of May, came up from that city, and buying out Mallagh and MeDonald, opened a store and trading post for general merchandize, Not long after this Meacham applied to Washington for the establishment of a postoffice at this point, which was duly done, Donald McDonald being appointed on the 22d of April, 1852; to it was given the name of Santa Rosa, and thereafter the city succeeded to the cognomen. In the end of that year Meacham's former partner, Barney Hoen, landed at New Town, then the limit of steamer communication, from the "Red Jacket," on her second trip, and coming up to Santa Rosa, on horseback, purchased a half interest of Meacham's business, who had by this time acquired the right, by purchase, from Julio Carrillo, of the tract of seventy acres, comprising the site of the city of Santa Rosa, for which he had paid twelve dollars per acre. In this year James Cockrill owned a residence on a position near to the Pacific Methodist College. At the time of the first survey it was considered a great distance from town. Mr. Cockrill died of small-pox during the epidemic in 1853.
The interest of Alonzo Meacham in the business of the " old adobe " was sold to F. G. Hahman on May 1, 1853, the firm then becoming Hoen & Hahman, but in a few weeks Hartman purchasing an interest from them, the designation of the copartnership was changed to Hoen & Co. During the Summer of this year a prosperous trade was carried on at the " old abobe;" it became the mart to supply all the country to the north, while their goods found ready purchasers in the adjoining counties. Trains of pack mules daily passed their doors, while they themselves did a
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considerable freighting business, not only in receiving accessions to their stock of goods, but also in despatching commodities to the Russian River valley and Lake and Mendocino counties. In the month of August, 1853, Hoen & Co. purchased from Meacham the seventy acres already alluded to, for the sum of sixteen hundred dollars, being at the rate of twelve dollars an acre, the balance being paid in consideration of the fence which had been constructed around it. The western boundary of this property ran through the plaza.
We now come to the reasons of the laying out of the town. The "old adobe " was sold to a man named Walkinshaw, from Santa Clara, by David Mallagh, and on the new landlord's taken possession he demanded a rental of three hundred dollars a month from Hoen & Company for the whole of the building, instead of twenty-five dollars per mensem, which they had hitherto been paying for a portion thereof. This extortionate price they refused to listen to or acknowledge, therefore, as a solution of the difficulty, the above mentioned purchase was made on the 9th August, as appears by the books of the firm, and the determination arrived at to lay out a town, Julio Carrillo agreeing to give a like quantity for that purpose. In the original survey of the site, Mr. Robert Thompson tells us, "the creek was taken for a base and a line was run northerly from an oak stump, which stood near the old Masonic Hall, to Fourth street-leaving the Plaza trees on land of Hoen & Company. The price of lots was fixed at twenty-five dollars a piece, with- out any regard to location. Julio Carrillo's house on Second street-now owned by J. P. Clark-was built by John Bailiff in the Summer of 1852. This was the only house in the town when it was first surveyed. Achilles Richardson had a small store near the creek, which was outside of First street-the southern limit of the embryo city." In the natural sequence of things, transactions in land follow the laying out of a town. The first sale made was six lots to Henry Valley, who paid at the rate of twenty-five dollars each for them; on one of these he constructed a house which still stands on the south-west corner of E and Second streets. In the winter of this year (1853) a quiet determination had fixed itself upon the minds of the residents of Santa Rosa that theirs was the true point at which the county seat should be located; to gain this they strove secretly and manfully. J. W. Bennet had beaten "Joe " Hooker in the race for the Legislature, and the bill he introduced after his election was one of great moment to Santa Rosa. The city of Sonoma, where from time immemorial had been gathered all the county's perfection, feeling a presentiment of impending evil, were afraid to raise the issue, but awaited the result: the Santa Rosans were keen cautious and confident. The bill introduced by Bennet provided that the question of the removal of the county seat should be submitted to the votes of the people at the next general election; the long looked for and anxiously expected September day dawned and waned, the Santa Rosa sympathizers
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were in the majority and she became the capital of Sonoma, the bill legal- izing her as such being passed in March of the following year.
In the Spring of 1853, there arrived in the Santa Rosa valley one John W. Ball, who located on the south side of the Santa Rosa creek, but losing several of his children here from small-pox, which was epidemic in this year, removed to certain land, about three-fourths of a mile from the present city, the property of Oliver Boleau, a French Canadian, a part of whose house (now in the occupation of Dr. Simms) he rented, at one hundred and fifty dollars per month, and opened a small store and public house. The then direct road from the Russian river, the districts to the north of it, and Bodega country, to Sonoma, at that time the only place of export from the county, met at this point, therefore Boleau conceived the idea of here estab- lishing a town. He had about half a mile square surveyed, and named it Franklin, after a brother in Canada; it was placed at the junction of the Sonoma road with the Fulkerson lane. That Spring, S. G. Clark, Dr. J. F. Boyce and Nute McClure bought out Ball and erected a small dry goods store of split redwoods, in size, twenty-four by thirty-six feet, where they continued business until the Fall, when the firm of Clark, Boyce & McClure was bought out by McClure and Coulter. In the same season John Ball erected a wooden hotel, there being then in the town H. Beaver, who kept a blacksmith shop, and W. B. Birch, a saddle-tree manufacturer, while in the early part of 1854 S. T. Coulter erected a dwelling-house.
The selection of Santa Rosa as the capital of the county, put an end to all rivalry which may have existed between Franklin, the old adobe, and it. One by one the buildings erected in Franklin were transferred to Santa Rosa, until in 1855 their entire removal was effected; the first house in that short-lived city being now located on Eighth, between Wilson and Davis streets, occupied by J. T. Campbell, while that erected by Coulter is now the Boston saloon, on Fourth street. A Baptist Church, free to all denomina- tions, which had been there constructed in the Fall of 1853, was also moved, and after serving the purpose for which it was originally built, on Third, between E and D streets, was, in 1875, sold and converted into two tenement houses. This was the first church built in the township and city.
The first event of any importance which occurred in the year 1854 was the passage of Bennet's bill authorizing the taking of a vote on the all- important question of transferring the county seat from the now waning Sonoma to the rising Santa Rosa. As the Summer advanced the fight between the partisans of the contending parties became keen, the citizens of Santa Rosa counting so far ahead that grand arrangements were made for holding a barbacue on the fourth of July. Mr. Thompson says: "It was a master-stroke of policy-the people came and saw, and were conquered by the beauty of the place and the hospitality of the people, who, on that occa- sion, killed the fatted calf and invited to the feast the rich and poor, the
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