Sonoma County, California History

Transcribed by Sally Kaleta

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Source:  History of Sonoma County....San Francisco, 1880.
HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY
 
 
PREFACE
 
                 In presenting this work to our patrons we disclaim all literacy 
merit. We offer no apology for the want of those elaborate dissertations, 
thrilling incidents, or poetic descriptions to be found in the pages of 
Macaulay, Prescott or Irving.
                From the outset of our labors we have given the public to 
understand that our volume should contain naught but a pure and unvarnished 
record, as far as it was  within our power to obtain, of the chief doings in 
Sonoma, which have been instrumental in placing her in that proud position among 
the other counties of California which she holds today.
                To do even this has been no easy task, yet, if the task has been 
laborious, it still has been a toil in which we have received much kind 
assistance.
                To the old settler, to the pioneer citizen, the events recorded 
in these pages, many of them in which he has figured, and which have been 
gradually and surely fading from the mind, will be as a revival of by-gone 
associations. The emulation of the sire will be revived in the son. The ground 
that he rescued from the wilderness will be made holy, while the infant will be 
taught to look with reverance upon the book which holds the annals of his 
parents' wanderings, and the rise  and progress of his native Sonoma. 
                In a  county of magnificent distances, every inch of which is 
replete with interest, and every township of which teems with historic lore, it 
may be said that more should have been accomplished. Should remarks of such a 
nature be made, we grant them, but reply, not in the limited space to be found 
in a volume of a little over seven hundred pages.
                More, much more, could have been effected  had the county 
records from the beginning  been extant; they were not, therefore it is no fault 
of ours if this particular portion of our work  would appear to have received 
less attention than others. Still, what we have affected we are not ashamed to 
give to our readers; our pride is that what is told in the History of Sonoma 
County will be found correct, and above all valuable, not only as a matter of 
interest to the general public, but also as a work of reference.
                It may happen that some may cavil at what might appear to them 
the excessive use of quotations. To our thinking it is no evil,  in a volume 
which purports to be a history, to seek the aid of those minds that have already 
given mature thought to an especial subject.
                In conclusion, we would here tender our best thanks to those 
ladies and gentlemen of Sonoma County who aided us with appropriate suggestions 
and valuable information, while our acknowledgments are more especially due to 
the veteran General Vallejo and to R. A. Thompson, County Clerk of Sonoma, from 
whose admirable work on the county we have received much excellent assistance. 
To Messrs. Weston & Cassiday, of the Petaluma Argus; Frank W. Shattuck, of the 
Petaluma Courier; Thomas L. Thompson and Will Acton, of the Sonoma Democrat; 
Ragsdale Brothers, of the Santa Rosa TImes; L. A. Jordan and F. C. S. Bagge, of 
the Russian River Flag; Mulgrew Brothers, of the Healdsburg Enterprise; W. S. 
Walker, of the Cloverdale Reveille, and Ben Frank, of the Sonoma Index, are our 
thanks due for many kind notices and other courtesies; while we owe our 
gratitude to L. L. Palmer, A. M., of Suisun, Solano County, for his very 
valuable chronicles of Analy, Bodega, Ocean, and Salt Point townships. We are 
also deeply indebted to Doctor W. W. Carpenter, of Petaluma, for his interesting 
and instructive contribution on the Geology of the county; while lastly we must 
not forget our own staff, W. A. Slocum, and L. L. Bowen, who have given much 
zealous labor in our behalf.
                                                                                 
       ALLEY, BOWEN & CO.
                                                                        J. P. 
MUNRO-FRASER, Historian
 
San Francisco, January 1, 1880.