SONOMA COUNTY HISTORY & GENEALOGY LIBRARY
 
 
NEWSLETTER JANUARY 2020
Volume 2 Issue 1 

The H&G Library - a History in Pictures
On October 4, 2019, the Sonoma County History & Genealogy Library celebrated its 25th anniversary at the "Annex" building adjacent to the Central Santa Rosa Library. 
Did you know its history began much earlier, as the "Sonoma County Room"?    
 
 The "Sonoma County Room" on the upper floor of the Central Santa Rosa Library, 
1967-1994.
Sonoma County Library Digital Collections
 
 
 
Dedication of the new North Bay Cooperative Library System building at 725 3rd Street, the "Annex", adjacent to the Central Santa Rosa Library, in September 1967. 
Sonoma County Library Digital Collections 
 
 
 On October 4, 1994, the "Sonoma County Room" moved to the Annex and changed its name. The Sonoma County History & Genealogy Library shared the space with the library's Adult Literacy program until 2018.
Press Democrat, October 18, 1994, p.6
  

Patrons at the "Sonoma County Room." In 1991 it held over 2,000 books on genealogy and a collection of local history materials, including maps, photographs and original documents.
Press Democrat, January 29, 1991, p. 25.  
 
  
 Floor plan of the North Bay Cooperative building - as seen from 3rd Street. The North Bay Cooperative Library system connected 16 libraries in six North Bay counties providing inter-library loan arrangements, research facilities and other services. It relocated in the early 1990s, providing space for the library's Adult Literacy program, while the shelving was used by the bookmobile.  

Sonoma County Library Commissioner Randall Neff and other guests at the H&G Library Open House party on January 9, 2019. 
 
After a refurbishment that took about three months, an upgraded and expanded H&G Library reopened on December 10, 2018. It currently contains more than 16,650 print items comprised of local, national and world-wide genealogical books and primary and secondary materials documenting all aspects of Sonoma County history; 1,100 volumes of rare books and fragile manuscripts; a comprehensive collection of Sonoma County maps, select California and Sonoma County city directories and over 45,000 historic photos.
Also available are database services with Ancestry.com, GenealogyBank, Heritage Quest, Newspapers.com and ProQuest newspapers.         
 
Recent Discoveries at the Sonoma County Archives
Sonoma County Public Health Nurse Alice Burton (1890-1973)
By Kim Wallis
 
Working as an Extra Help Librarian at the H&G Library, I come across many interesting documents. This month I worked with a collection of reports written at various intervals from September 1920 to the end of December 1921 by Sonoma County’s Public Health nurse Alice Irene Burton (1890-1973). Reading these reports brought several things to mind. Most important was how much work Miss Burton and a few other nurses accomplished. Second, these documents serve as a great primary source for anyone studying the history of health in Sonoma County, in particular of children attending rural schools.

Health Nurse documents from the Sonoma County ArchivesThe nurses made a myriad of school and home visits. Miss Burton’s year-end report for 1921 states that she examined 1,788 schoolchildren, made 792 house calls and visited 219 schools. She escorted people to various doctor’s offices, clinics, and the County Hospital. She attended 38 meetings, made 88 home bedside visits, assisted at 37 clinics, inspected 25 boarding homes, visited the detention home 30 times, and gave 63 health talks. One August report states “[m]uch time has been spent this month in sanitary inspections at camping grounds.” On several reports Miss Burton expressed that all these accomplishments were rendered especially difficult as she did not own an automobile.

A large number of “defects” found in children were malnutrition, dental issues and adenoids. Spring 1921 reports list diphtheria, chicken pox, scarlet fever, mumps and the measles. The March report discusses a small pox epidemic and the Board of Trustees with the local Board of Health mandating all schoolchildren to be vaccinated or to remain at home. The annual 1920 report lists 111 cases of tuberculosis and delineates that much time was spent selling and coordinating the sale of “Christmas seals.” The sale of these stamps was especially important as 75% of the profits were given to the schools to be used “to supply the under nourished children […] with milk and the poorer class of children with dental work.”
 
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Health Nurse document from the Sonoma County Archives
It's flu season! Interested in further information about the history of healthcare in California? Or have you ever wondered about the difference between 19th century sanitariums and sanatoriums? Alice Burton's December 1920 report mentions Arequipa in Fairfax (see above), a sanatorium "which unlike most other medical facilities of the time treated primarily working-class women and provided the same treatment to all, including Asian American and African American women, despite the virulent racism of the time." Find out more about Arequipa at Sonoma County author and archivist Lynn Downey's free talk at the Sonoma Community Center.  
 
Lynn Downey is a widely-published historian of the West and the fifth generation of her family to live in Sonoma. She has degrees in history and library science from San Francisco State University and the University of California, Berkeley. She was the company historian for Levi Strauss & Co. in San Francisco from 1989 to 2014. Her biography of the company’s founder, titled Levi Strauss: The Man Who Gave Blue Jeans to the World, was published in 2016 and won the Foreword Reviews silver INDIE award for biography.

Lynn retired from Levi Strauss & Co. in 2014 and today works as a historical/archival consultant and writer.
 
More information
 
Meet our Patrons - Jeremy Nichols
Photo of Jeremy NicholsHi Jeremy, please tell us who you are and why you came to the H&G Library.
I am a retired engineer from Silicon Valley and came to Sonoma County in 1997. A few years later, the H&G Library and the Healdsburg Museum helped me research local relatives I discovered during a visit to the Healdsburg Oak Knoll cemetery. Records also mentioned a "Long Ranch family cemetery" which we were able to find after some serious searching in the Alexander Valley area (it involved asking at the historic Jimtown Store that closed last month) - and all my relatives were there! This experience prompted me to write Cemeteries of Sonoma County, a guidebook to 130 local cemeteries to help other family historians.
 
What do you wish people knew about the H&G Library?
Many people don’t really know the depth of the H&G Library’s collections. They not only consist of what you can see, like books and microfilms, but encompass a lot more, like, for example, online databases, the Interlibrary Loan system and materials kept at the Sonoma County Archives.
 
What would you like to see added to the H&G Library’s collection?
The Sonoma County Archives! Accessing them now is very difficult. Yes, they are located off-site, but this wouldn’t be a problem, if they were staffed and a person would be available on a regular basis to answer your questions and retrieve material. Of course, having the Archives closer to the H&G Library or on the same premises would be most wonderful.
 
What might someone be surprised to know about you?
For 30 years I toured the nation on my motorcycles visiting 28 states and 6 Canadian provinces. I owned a total of four Yamahas and four BMWs but gave up riding about ten years ago. I also collect vintage electronic test equipment and have a “lab” in my home where I play around with the stuff I wasn’t able to afford when I was working for Hewlett-Packard.   
 
What was your most interesting find at the H&G Library or in the Sonoma County Archives?
The monthly and annual reports written by the County Physician. Elected by the Board of Supervisors, he was today’s Health Services Department rolled into one person. The reports cover issues we wouldn’t think about now but were routine at the time, like horse-related accidents – people kicked by horses or overturned carriages. The County Physician also oversaw the Sonoma County Hospital, which was a comparatively modern facility: running water, acetylene light, and an early sewage "system." It also served as a home for the elderly and infirm who weren't able to care for themselves and had no relatives to take them in. It is fascinating to see how, in many ways, it took the place of today's social organizations.  
 
Jeremy D. Nichols currently serves on the board of directors for the Sonoma County Museum and is president and chairman of the board of directors for the Santa Rosa Bird Rescue Center. He is the author of the following publications: Cemeteries of Sonoma County, California: a History and Guide. Heritage Books, 2002; Potters Field: the Chanate Historic Cemetery in Santa Rosa, California: a History of the Old Sonoma County Cemetery: plus a Biographical Record of Burials, 1881-1944. Heritage Books, 2009; “William Mark West, a Sonoma County Pioneer” in Portraits of Early Sonoma County Settlers. Sonoma County Genealogical Society, 2016. Future writing projects include a history of the Sonoma County Hospital and a history of Sonoma County pioneer Mark West.
 
Interview: Simone Kremkau. Photo: Jeremy holding a framed copy of the Rancho San Miguel de Marcos West plat map he donated to H&G. Original at the UC Berkeley, Bancroft Library.
 
Updated Databases: Newspapers.com
Santa Rosa Republican
Petaluma Argus
Thanks to Petaluma History Room Librarian Connie Williams, Sonoma County Library patrons now have access to the digitized Petaluma Argus Courier 1899-2018 (previously 1899-2000). Another addition to our digital local newspaper collection: The Santa Rosa Republican 1904 - 1948. Available at any Sonoma County Library branch with your library card! 
 
Also available: Cloverdale Reveille 1879-2004; Petaluma Courier 1876-1896; Petaluma Daily Morning Courier 1891-1928; Petaluma Argus 1861-1864; Petaluma Weekly Argus 1867-1889; Sonoma County Journal 1855-1864; Evening Press and Santa Rosa Republican 1948-1949; Press Democrat 1923-1997; Sebastopol Times/Sonoma West Times and News 1895-2016. 
 
Women's Vote Centennial at the Sonoma County Library
Women's Suffrage Centennial
 
Sonoma County Library joins its partners, Sonoma County 2020 Women’s Suffrage Project and the League of Women Voters Sonoma County, in hosting a yearlong centennial celebration with programming and events throughout the county that explore the long and complex history of the suffrage movement.
 
Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner, H&G Library manager Katherine Rinehart, and Sonoma County Library commissioner Barbara MacKenzie
 
Suffrage centennial events will take place at participating locations through 2020.
See a calendar of all the events throughout Sonoma County. Library events are free and open to all.
 
From left to right: Author and speaker Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner, H&G Library manager Katherine Rinehart, and Sonoma County Library commissioner Barbara MacKenzie after the well-attended Speaker Series kick-off event on December 16, 2019 at the Central Santa Rosa Library. Dr. Roesch-Wagner is the editor of The Women's Suffrage Movement, an anthology of works by women that shaped and established the suffrage movement - with a foreword by Gloria Steinem. Listen to an interview on KSRO.
 
Photo by Jake MacKenzie. 
 
January 2020
Photo of Dr. Sally Roesch
 
 
 Native American Voting Rights and the Citizenship Question 
 Dr. Khal Schneider
Saturday, January 25, 2020
2:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Central Santa Rosa Library
Forum Room
 
Please join us for a presentation by Dr. Khal Schneider, who will discuss voting rights within the context of the Native American experience. Dr. Schneider is a Sacramento State University Assistant Professor of History (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 2006: Citizen lives : California Indian Country, 1855-1940). He teaches Native American History and writes about Indian policy and politics as well as California Indian communities and their land in the 19th and 20th centuries. He is a tribal citizen of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and a member of the California Indian History Curriculum Coalition, a group that has been working since 2014 to change what is known as the "California Mission Project." With an introduction by Whitney Olson, California State Coordinator for National History Day.
 
February 2020
Robert P. J. Cooney, Jr. - Winning Political Power for Women: Carrie Chapman Catt and the League of Women Voters - Saturday, February 15, 2020 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM Rohnert Park-Cotati Regional Library
 
More Sonoma County Library Events 
Emergency Preparedness Training at the Sonoma County Library
 
A preparedness education series presented by the Sonoma County Library and the Sonoma County Department of Emergency Management. See the SoCoEmergency event calendar for a full listing of classes at all branches and check out the Sonoma County Library's website for more details. Free and open to all, no reservations necessary – see you at your local library and "Let’s Get Ready Sonoma"!
 
Sonoma Ready Schedule
Book How a Mountain was made
A Sense of Place: Author Greg Sarris in Conversation with Jonah Raskin
 
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Rohnert Park-Cotati Regional Library
 
Greg Sarris holds the Graton Rancheria Endowed Chair in Writing and Native American Studies at Sonoma State University, is the Tribal Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria and acclaimed author and screenwriter.
 Join him and local journalist Jonah Raskin for an evening of conversation and connection.
Book Historical Travels through Sonoma County
Historical Travels Through Sonoma County
 
Wednesday, January 29, 2020
6:30 PM - 8:00 PM
Healdsburg Regional Library
 
Join us for an evening of short presentations on Sonoma County history. Topics have been drawn from the chapters of the recently published book Historical Travels through Sonoma County by the late John Crevelli, a Sonoma County native son, historian, teacher, and storyteller extraordinaire. 
 
Book There There and photo of author
 Distinguished Speaker Series: New York Times bestselling Author Tommy Orange 
 
  Friday, January 31, 2020
8:00 PM - 9:30 PM
Petaluma Regional Library
 
 
 
Tommy Orange is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel There There, a multi-generational, relentlessly paced story about a side of America few of us have ever seen: the lives of urban Native Americans. There There shows us violence and recovery, hope and loss, identity and power, dislocation and communion, and the beauty and despair woven into the history of a nation and its people. Orange talks about his craft, the writing process, and Native American history and culture, often with meticulously researched visual presentations. Doors open at 7:30 PM.
 
Winter Reading Challenge
From January 1-31, 2020, Sonoma County Library is participating in the nationwide winter reading challenge. Communities who read the most minutes during the month of January will have the chance to win books and author visits. The Sonoma County Library has set the goal to read one million minutes during the month of January, and we are asking each participant to read at least 600 minutes during that time! How to log your minutes and more information here.
 
Local Events
Model Train Show
Local Women Exhibit
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Email the editor: skremkau@sonomalibrary.org           
Sonoma County History and Genealogy Library
Mailing Address: 211 E Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Physical Address: 725 3rd Street, Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Phone: (707) 308-3212 
Monday - Saturday 10 AM - 6 PM 
Read about us in the Press Democrat
Sonoma County Library
707-545-0831www.sonomalibrary.org