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.