*** 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 85--- good judgment of Mr. Myers, the people are indebted for that greatest of all blessings—-a cheap and bountiful supply of water. Mr. McDonald, by his public spirit, has inseperably connected his name with the city of Santa Rosa. GAS WORKS. The Maxim Gas Company was incorporated April, 1872, the citizens of Santa Rosa taking one-half the stock, and Maxim Gas Company, of San Francisco, holding the balance. They erected a brick building on Fifth street near Mendocino, and laid about four thousand feet of mains. The citizens subsequently bought all the stock and ran the Maxim works until the spring of 1876, when they were sold to the new company, formed under the name of the Santa Rosa Gas Light Company, incorporated March 9, 1876, under L. A. Kelly’s supervision. The company put up, at an expense of thirty thousand dollars, one of the finest and most complete set of coal-gas works on this coast. The new works are located on First street, just below Main, and consist of a large brick retort house, with iron roof, brick purifying house in the rear, office and workshop, with large holder, twenty thousand cubic feet capacity, with brick cistern. They have six-inch pipe running from their retorts all through the works, and up First and Main streets to the plaza, about two thousand feet, when it connects with four-inch pipe. The new company have laid about eight thousand feet of mains the last year, and expect to lay fifteen thousand feet this year, and as much main as is necessary to keep pace with the rapid growth of the town. Mr. Kelly said, when building the works, that he would build with capacity for supplying a town of fifteen thousand inhab- itants without having to make any change, and expected to live and see them run to their complete and full capacity. The officers of the company are: John C. Paxton, president; E. T. Farmer, vice president; John Ager, secretary; L. A. Kelley, superintendent. CITY STREET-CAR RAILROAD COMPANY. This company was organized in 1877, and the capital invested in it was mainly furnished by Mark McDonald. The builder of the road and manager of the company is Jackson R. Myers. The route is two miles in length, lead- ing up Fourth street from the depot to McDonald avenue, and out the avenue to the cemetery. The cost of the road was about $10,000. STREETS. There are between forty and fifty miles of streets in Santa Rosa. They range from fifty to eighty feet in width; the side-walks are from eight to twenty feet in width. Both streets and side-walks are macadamized with coarse gravel. Fourth street is a mile and a half long; it is the principal business street, pass- ing along the north side of the plaza. Sonoma avenue is on the south side of Santa Rosa creek, in E. T. Farmer's addition. It is eighty feet wide, and will extend in a short time for three miles. It will eventually become a fash- ionable drive and promenade. *** end ***