Mission San Francisco Solano

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Another mission bearing the name San Francisco Solano is the Mission San Francisco Solano in Coahuila, Mexico.

**Mission San Francisco Solano**
Location	{{{location}}}
Mission San Francisco Solano circa 1910.
Name as Founded	La Misíon de San Francisco Solano de Sonoma ^[1]
English Translation	The Mission of Saint Francis Solano of Sonoma
Patron	Saint Francis Solanus of Montilla, Spain
Nickname(s)	"Sonoma Mission"
Founding Date	July 4, 1823 ^[2]
Founding Priest(s)	Father José Altimíra ^[3]
Founding Order	Twenty-First
Military District	Fourth ^[4]
Native Tribe(s) Spanish Name(s)	Coast Miwok, Patwin, Pomo, Suisunes, Wappo
Native Place Name(s)	Huchi ^[5]
Baptisms	1,008 ^[6]
Marriages	263 ^[6]
Burials	500 ^[6]
Neophyte Population	996 ^[7]
Governing Body	California Department of Parks and Recreation
Current Use	Museum
Coordinates	38°29′38″N, 122°45′59″W
California Historical Landmark	#3
Web Site	http://www.napanet.net/~sshpa/mission.htm

Mission San Francisco Solano was founded on July 4, 1823 and named for a missionary to the Indians of Peru born in Montilla, Spain, known as the "Wonder Worker of the New World." Originally planned as an asistencia ("sub-mission") to Mission San Rafael Arcángel, it is the northernmost Alta California mission ^[8] (an attempt to found a twenty-second mission in Santa Rosa in 1827 was aborted).^[9] The mission is located in present-day Sonoma, California.

1 History
- 1.1 Other historic designations
2 Notes
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

During the years the Mission was active, General Mariano Vallejo resided in town. He was tasked with monitoring the activities of the Russians at their nearby settlement of Fort Ross (krepost' rus'), and with establishing peaceful relations with the Native Americans of the region.^[10] Vallejo helped to build the town of Sonoma and even paid for the rebuilding of the small Mission chapel. There were always soldiers and settlers in the town of Sonoma during the Mexican period. The Franciscan Fathers grew grapes and produced sacramental wine from the first vineyard in the Sonoma Valley, which was first planted in 1825.

By 1839, the Mission was in ruins and unoccupied. Through the years the Mission saw many different uses, among these a blacksmith's shop, a barn, and even a storeroom. In 1846, European settlers took over the town in what has come to be known as the "Bear Flag Revolt." It was during this time that the Mission was sold to a man who used the chapel entrance as a saloon and stored his liquor and hay in the chapel. The Mission eventually became a parish church serving the Pueblo and Sonoma Valley until it was sold to a private interest in 1881. In 1903, the Historic Landmark League bought the remains of Mission San Francisco Solano. Restoration was completed in 1913. The restored chapel burned in 1970. Today, the Mission is part of the Sonoma State Historic Park. It is open to visitors and has a small museum located in the padres' quarters.

[edit] Other historic designations

National Register of Historic Places #NPS-75000489 — Sonoma Plaza District
California Historical Landmark — San Francisco Solano Mission Vineyard

[edit] Notes

^ Leffingwell, p. 161
^ Yenne, p. 182
^ Ruscin, p. 196
^ Forbes, p. 202
^ Ruscin, p. 195
^ ^a ^b ^c Krell, p. 315: as of December 31, 1832; information adapted from Engelhardt's Missions and Missionaries of California. Mission Solano witnessed the fewest number of baptisms, marriages, and burials of any settlement in the Alta California chain.
^ Krell, p. 315: as of December 31, 1832; information adapted from Engelhardt's Missions and Missionaries of California.
^ Hittell, p. 499: "...it [Mission San Francisco Solano] was quite frequently known as the mission of Sonoma. From the beginning it was rather a military than a religious establishment—a sort of outpost or barrier, first against the Russians and afterwards against the Americans; but still a large adobe church was built and Indians were baptized."
^ Hittell, p. 499: "By that time, it was found that the Russians were were not such undesireable neighbors as in 1817 it was thought they might become...the Russian scare, for the time being at least was over; and as for the old enthusiasm for new spiritual conquests, there was none left."
^ Nordlander, p. 10

A view of Mission San Francisco Solano on a rainy December day in 2004.

[edit] References

Forbes, Alexander (1839). California: A History of Upper and Lower California. Smith, Elder and Co., Cornhill, London.
Hittell, Theodore H. (1898). History of California, Volume I. N.J. Stone & Company, San Francisco, CA.
Jones, Terry L. and Kathryn A. Klar (eds.) (2007). California Prehistory: Colonization, Culture, and Complexity. Altimira Press, Landham, MD. ISBN 0-759-10872-2.
Krell, Dorothy (ed.) (1979). The California Missions: A Pictorial History. Sunset Publishing Corporation, Menlo Park, CA. ISBN 0-376-05172-8.
Leffingwell, Randy (2005). California Missions and Presidios: The History & Beauty of the Spanish Missions. Voyageur Press, Inc., Stillwater, MN. ISBN 0-89658-492-5.
Nordlander, David J. (1994). For God & Tsar: A Brief History of Russian America 1741–1867. Alaska Natural History Association, Anchorage, AK. ISBN 0-930931-15-7.
Paddison, Joshua (ed.) (1999). A World Transformed: Firsthand Accounts of California Before the Gold Rush. Heyday Books, Berkeley, CA. ISBN 1-890771-13-9.
Ruscin, Terry (1999). Mission Memoirs. Sunbelt Publications, San Diego, CA. ISBN 0-932653-30-8.
Smilie, Robert A. (1975). The Sonoma Mission, San Francisco Solano de Sonoma: The Founding, Ruin and Restoration of California's 21st Mission. Valley Publishers, Fresno, CA. ISBN 0-913548-24-3.
Yenne, Bill (2004). The Missions of California. Thunder Bay Press, San Diego, CA. ISBN 1-59223-319-8.