*** Source: Thompson, Robert A., Historical and descriptive sketch of Sonoma County, California. Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co., 1877, 122 pgs. Notice: This data is donated to the Public Domain by TAG, 2004, and may be copied freely by anyone to anywhere. *** ---page 101--- of excellent houses upon it, built by them. After the departure of the Rus- sians the land was granted to Captain Stephen Smith, who was the first Amer- ican settler in that part of the county. Captain Smith owned a small vessel called the Fayaway, which he run between the Port of Bodega and San Francisco; in '49, fare was the moderate sum of fourteen dollars from Bodega to San Francisco, on the Fayaway. The town of Bodega, near the Smith homestead, took its start in 1853. A man named Robinson started a saloon; Hughes, a blacksmith shop. Hughes and a man named Bowman built the first hotel, which was afterwards burned. Donald McDonald and Rositer Bros. were the first merchants in the town of Bodega. The oldest settlers in the neighborhood were James Watson, ex- Sheriff Potter, Mr. Higler and J. L. Springer. The town is now quite a prosperous place. It is situated in the center of a rich dairy country. It has three churches and a school-house built at a cost of five thousand dollars. There are one hundred and twenty-five children in the district, and two teach- ers are employed. There is also in the town a Masonic, Odd Fellows and Good Templars' Lodge. There are three stores, one shoemaker, one black- smith and wagon shop, one hotel and two private boarding-houses, one livery stable, two physicians, and one butcher-shop. J. L. Springer is justice of the peace and postmaster. The population of the town is about two hundred and fifty. TWO ROCK POST-OFFICE. This post-office takes its name from two rather peculiar rocks, which were Called by the Californians Dos Piedros. These rocks stood on a point where the Blucher and Balsa de Tomales ranchos cornered. They were also a landmark on the northwestern boundary of the Laguna de San Antonio, or Bojorques Ranch. The old Mexican trail, from San Rafael to Bodega and Ross, passed between these two rocks, which were referred to, far and near, in speaking of that section. The first settlers, in the neighborhood of Two Rocks, were Samuel Tustin, J. R. Lewis, Charles Purvine, S. M. Martin, James and E. Denman. The post-office is at the junction of the Bloomfield and Tomales roads, about a mile and a-half from the two rocks from which it takes its name. The farm where the post-office is located was first settled by John Schwobeda. He sold it to Charles Weigand, who now owns it and is postmaster. There is at the cross-roads, a Grange hall, a Presbyterian church and a black- smith-shop. Two Rock is eight miles from Petaluma. It is surrounded by a rich and fertile country. Of the farms thereabouts that of S. M. Martin, con- taining three hundred and twenty acres, is one of the very best. VALLEY FORD. The town of Valley Ford is situated on the Estero Americano, four miles from its mouth. Here the old Spanish and Indian trail leading from the interior ranchos to Tomales bay and the coast, crossed the Estero, hence the name which was given to the farm adjoining and subsequently to the town. At this point the *** end ***