*** 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 96--- Scott; a Methodist Episcopal church of sixty members; and near the town the Adventists have a comfortable house of worship. There is a general store kept by J. C. Bonsall one blacksmith-shop kept by Oliver & Harbine, one hotel, one saloon, one butcher-shop, and one wagon-maker. RUSTIC-CHAIR MANUFACTORY The chief industry in Forrestville is the Rustic-Chair Factory now owned and run by John Hamlett. There is quite a little history connected with this enterprise, which will not be out of place here. Over twenty-five years ago Major Isaac Sullivan, in Green valley, made the first rustic chairs, and sold them at five dollars apiece; they are still in use, and are doing good service. The factory for the manufacture of these chairs as a specialty, was started by S. Faudre on Russian river, three miles form Forrestville. He continued the business for five or six years, selling chairs from two to three dollars apiece. He then moved the factory to Forrestville, where it has been for the past ten years. Faudre made at Forrestville about thirty thousand chairs, and sold out to S. P. Nowlin, who ran it at a lively rate for six years, making and selling during that time over sixty-five thousand chairs. He then sold to the present proprietor, Mr. Hamlett, who is making and selling about twelve thousand chairs a year. The material used in the manufacture of these chairs is the chestnut or tan-bark oak, which we have elsewhere described, and ash. Out of these woods the posts and rounds are made; the backs are made of alder and fir; the bottoms of raw-hide cut into narrow stripes, and interlaced when wet and pliable. In drying, the hide draws taut, making an indestructible bottom. The rounds are turned green, and kiln-dried until seasoned. The posts are turned green, are steamed bent, and worked before they dry out, so that when mortised, bored and drawn together with the seasoned rounds and backs, the post seasons on the rounds, and it is not possible to take them apart without splitting the posts from the back or round. The raw-hide bottom is put on last, and binds the whole frame still more firmly. These chairs are disposed of in a manner peculiar to this factory. They are loaded in four-horse wagons, from two to four hundred chairs to the load, and are hauled all over the State of California and Nevada. They have been hauled to Yreka, Honey Lake, Surprise Valley, in fact, to every town in the State where a wagon can get. South they have been sent, on wagons, to San Bernardino, up Owen's river to White Pine and Elko; a great many were sold at Gold Hill and in Virginia City. Some of these seasoned chairs were shipped to Colorado and to Tucson, in New Mexico, where they sold as high as eight dollars apiece. The price was generally regulated by the distance hauled, the scarcity of lumber and the amount of coin in sight. The object was to make the chairs net the manufacturer eighteen dollars per dozen. As an exempli- fication of the benefits of manufactures, we will state that this chair factory alone has brought into the county not less than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars. *** end ***