*** 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 19--- San Francisco and Sonoma, and a line of stages left every Saturday for Bodega, returning next day--Peter Peterson, proprietor. In 1853 the city of Sonoma stood still, if it did not retrograde, and Petaluma gained in wealth and population. The great Central valley was filling up, and the balance of population, wealth and political power was shifting to the west side of Sonoma mountains. Sonoma had reached the high-water mark of its prosperity, and the ebb set outward, very slowly, so slowly that those who drifted were not conscious of it, but surely it was going down. At the meeting of the board of supervisors in March of this year, Joe Hooker, "fighting Joe," was appointed road-overseer. Washington township was created this year, and in the fall the polls were opened at the store of A. C. Godwin, where Geyserville now stands. We noticed that on the 23d of July wheat is quoted at four and three-quarter cents in Sonoma, with a prospect of a rise, a good price in a region with a virgin soil, capable at its best of producing eighty bushels of grain to the acre. This year the Democratic convention met at Santa Rosa, and nominated Joe Hooker and Lindsay Carson for the assembly, and a full county ticket. The Settlers' convention met on the 6th of August, and nominated a full county ticket, headed by James N. Bennett and Judge Robert Hopkins for the assem- bly. The election came off on Wednesday, September 7; Carson was elected to the legislature, and there was a tie vote between Bennett and Hooker. The question of the removal of the county seat from Sonoma to Santa Rosa entered into the first contest quietly, but was not openly discussed; the second race between Bennett and Hooker hinged directly on this issue. The election came off on the 29th of October, and Bennett, who lived in Bennett valley, and for whom it was named, beat Hooker a resident of Sonoma valley, thirteen votes. Before the legislature met, Lindsay Carson resigned, and there was another special election on the 23d of December. W. B. Hagans was elected. This was a triangular fight between W. B. Hagans, James Singley and Joseph W. Belden. When the legistlature of 1854 met, nothing was said the first of the session about the removal of the county seat by the Sonoma delegation. When the bill was sprung, it was put through without delay, and before the drowsy So- nomians in the historic old city knew what was going on, the bill submitting the question to a vote of people, had passed. The Sonoma Bulletin, of April 8th, says: "The first intimation we had of the people's desire to move the county seat from Sonoma to Santa Rosa was through the legislative proceed- ings of March 28, which inform us that a bill had been introduced and passed for that purpose." The bill provided that at the fall election the vote of the people should be taken on the question of removal. The election took place on the 6th of Sep- tember. We let the Sonoma Bulletin tell the result. In its issue of the 14th of September, it says: "The county seat--that's a gone, or going case! The up-county people worked furiously against us, and have come out victorious. What majority the new seat got, we are not aware; but whatever it is, why it is as it is, which incontestable truth consoles us." On Thursday, the 22d of September, the archives were removed to the new county seat, and further *** end ***