Santa Rosa History (The County Seat!)

Sonoma being the only town in the district, was named county seat when the legislature established counties after statehood in 1850. (Sonoma also included present-day Mendocino County until 1859.) Rivalry between Sonoma and fledgling Santa Rosa was a hot issue in 1854, when State Assemblyman James Bennett of Santa Rosa introduced a bill to let Sonoma County voters choose their county seat. Santa Rosa boosters Barney Hoen and Julio Carrillo pledged to donate land for a new courthouse. Even the Sonoma Bulletin admitted the Sonoma courthouse had it's failings, noting that officials ran "the risk of being crushed beneath a mass of mud and shingles, for we really believe it will cave in the next heavy rain".

To impress voters with the splendor of Santa Rosa, town fathers held a Fourth of July barbeque and fed everyone within voting distance, about 500 citizens. The shindig had the desired effect. In September 1854, 716 voted for Santa Rosa versus 563 for Sonoma. Santa Rosans feared Sonomans would not lightly surrender their court records. Slow moving bureaucracy was not the Santa Rosa style in those days. Following the vote, Jim Williamson hitched two mules to a wagon and in the company of county clerk N. M. Menefee, road into Sonoma, loaded up the dusty documents and took off for Santa Rosa, 22 miles away. The one-legged Memefee sat beside Williamson, occasionally prodding one of the mules with the end of his peg leg. In this fashion, the county records entered the new county seat full tilt. Williamson's charge for the 100 minute freight was $15.

After the hijacking, A. J. Cox, the wry voice of the Sonoma Bulleton remarked, We are only sorry they did not take the adobe courthouse along. Not because it would be an ornament 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 laudable effort of whittling asunder the veranda posts, which by the way, require but little more cutting to bring the whole dilapidated fabric to the ground.