My Sonoma

Bear Flag Monument

I found a copy of an original "Official Programme" from the "Semi-Centennial Anniversary of the Raising of the Bear Flag" tucked away in a folder in my dad's oak file cabinet. The date for the local celebration was June 15, 1896.  The actual date of the first raising of the Bear Flag is June 14, 1846.

The 1896 event included a parade with Major E.A. Sherman as the Grand Marshal.

The program described the "Line of March" as follows:

"Start at the depot of the S.F. & N.P. R.R., thence south on First Street West, then East to Broadway. Countermarch on Broadway continued on Napa Street to First Street East, thence to the grandstand near the flag pole. The parade starts upon arrival of the morning train."

The program includes music, an address from Mayor Henry Seipp, introductory remarks by H.C. Gesord, Grand President of the Native Sons of the Golden West, a raising of the Bear Flag by Harvey Porterfield, Ben F. Dewell and Henry Beeson, three survivors of the original Bear Flag party, the reading of a historical essay by E.A. Thompson and a "Grand Oration" by Merton C. Allen.  

Also included in the file was an account of the parade and celebration including a verbatim reprint of Thompson's essay.  Space does not permit reprinting all of either, but some of the description helps paint the picture of how we celebrated history in Sonoma 111 years ago.

"The procession was headed by the Petaluma band, and behind it came the veterans of the G.A.R., Ellsworth Post, fifty strong.  The Native Sons of Santa Rosa Parlor No. 28 followed...Santa Rosa band came next. Behind it came the pioneers and ladies of the Bear Flag Party. The Pioneer Society of San Francisco marched in line...then came Native Daughters and citizens generally in carriages and vehicles. The procession was nearly a mile long.  During the triumphal entry into the city a salute of fifty guns was fired. All principal buildings were decorated and suspended across the streets were banners."

Thompson's essay heaped praise on the Bear Flaggers and scorn on the Mexican authorities.

Here are a few examples of his lengthy address that day:

"The ground upon which you now stand echoed the footfall of the vanguard of pioneers in the acquisition of California. Here, in the answer to General Castro's order for them to leave the country, they crossed the Rubicon of Mexican sovereignty, and rested not upon their arms until he who made that order was forced to fly from Santa Clara to Soledad, from Soledad to the Ohitas, and from the Ohitas to San Luis....It drove him and not the Americans from the province of California.

"Of that gallant band of thirty-three men who captured Sonoma only three are now known to be living...the rest have passed away...though unseen, the spirits of these brave men are in our midst today."

Thompson then read out the names of every member of the Bear Flag party.  And then his address continued on for what must have been (based on the text I read) another hour.

Thursday marks the 161st anniversary of the raising of the Bear Flag here.

The basics not easily gleaned from the old clippings include: There was a "revolt" against Mexican rule in California with the intent to establish a California Republic and ultimate union with the United States.  It began in Sonoma on June 14, 1846 with the "capture" of General Mariano Vallejo and the raising of the Bear Flag. The Bear Flaggers were in charge of Northern California for about 25 days and then the republic was dissolved and became a U.S. territory on July 9, 1846 with the news that the United States and Mexico were at war and that the American Flag had been raised over Monterey.

Whether the Bear Flaggers were a drunken bunch of frontiersmen, hapless agents of the U.S. government or visionary lovers of liberty and the American way depends on which "historian" one reads.  There is no doubt that during the Sonoma celebration of 1896, those three surviving Bear Flaggers were considered heroes.