*** 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 50--- TOTAL CASH VALUE OF EACH KIND OF PROPERTY. Real estate other than city or town lots...........$7,531,277 Improvements on same................................1,890,517 City and town lots..................................1,280,562 Improvements on same................................1,370,686 _________ Real estate and improvements......................$12,073,042 RECAPITULATION OF TOTALS. Real estate and improvements......................$12,073,042 Personal property...................................2,762,758 Improvements on mining claims, etc....................479,283 ___________ Total value of all property.......................$15,315,033 THE CITY OF SONOMA. The early history of the city of Sonoma is the history of the county. It is inseparably connected with the stirring events which led to the occupation of this State by the Americans. For a long time it was a place of the first impor- tance. Here General Percifer Smith made his headquarters. Captain, after- wards General, Lyon, Lieutenant, afterwards General Stoneman, General Leonard, General Hooker, and the inimitable Lieutenant Derby, were all former residents of Sonoma. Its society was polished and intellectual, and could the unwritten records of the old town be brought to light, it would in itself make up a volume of extraordinary interest. Though surrounded by an intelligent and wealthy population, the town has not flourished, as has been elsewhere stated in this sketch. It has, however, good schools, a bank, several large wine manufactories, four large stores--two of which are kept respectively by the pioneers, Pauli Brothers and J. Poppe. The old mission church still stands, and there are besides several other churches. It has good hotels, an I.O.O.F. and Masonic lodge. General M.G. Vallejo, the distinguished ex-commandant general of California under the preceding regime, resides at his elegant home, Lachryma Montis, on the edge of the town. All honor to the gallant general, who was at the cradling of Sonoma in 1835. All honor to the pioneers who raised the Bear flag on the plaza of Sonoma, and all honor to the ever-memorable old town which was the scene of the first in the series of events which led to the acquisition by the United States of the fairest of the sisterhood of States, with its rich dower of valley land yielding one hundred fold, and uplands eager for the tap of the ab- sorbing vine, and mountains rich in gold as the hills of Ophir. THE FIRST NEWSPAPER. The Sonoma Bulletin,--Sonoma county made a clever start in its newspaper history. The Sonoma Bulletin was established in the town of Sonoma in 1850 by A.J. Cox. It was a very lively sheet for several years, and would have done credit to a much later period in the history of the State. Contributions from the inimitable Derby and other army officers stationed at Sonoma, were not infrequent in its columns. *** end ***