The stately Napa Valley Opera House is one of the oldest buildings in downtown Napa. Constructed in 1879, when the town was still being developed, the 500-seat theater remains an excellent example of Italianate Victorian style.
Ryan lely/Sonoma Valley Sun
We often compare Napa Valley and Sonoma Valley with the remark, publicized by Tommy Smothers, that “Sonoma makes wine and Napa makes auto parts.” In reality the two valleys were connected in the early history. Napa Valley pioneer George Yount had been a maker of roofing shingles for Mariano Vallejo, and Dr. Edward Bale had been the physician to the Mexican soldiers under the command of Vallejo. Both received generous land grants in Napa Valley from him. Yount built a blockhouse in 1837 and Bale, a mill in 1846 south of present-day Calistoga..
The youngest of the Bear Flaggers who invaded the pueblo of Sonoma the morning of June 14, 1846, was 20-year-old Nathan Coombs, who came from Massachusetts to the Sacramento Valley in one of the early wagon trains in 1843. Coombs worked on a ranch, married the boss’ daughter and then moved into Napa Valley in 1845. Encouraged by John C. Fremont, who was stirring up trouble with the Mexican officials in California, the Americans from the Sacramento Valley halted at the Bale property on their way to Sonoma. Young Coombs was happy to join them.
The early Napa Valley pioneers raised cattle and planted wheat, beans and corn. In 1847, during the war between Mexico and the United States, Coombs and wagon train leader and Bear Flagger John Grigsby were hired by major land grantee Nicolas Higuerra to build a large adobe home Higuera. In payment Coombs and Grigsby received a large plot of land on the Napa River.
Only 21, the enterprising Coombs bought out Grigsby’s share and began laying out a town which would become the city of Napa. Named for the small tribe that lived in the area, originally the name was sometimes spelled Nappa, but finally Napa with a single “p” was agreed upon in 1851. The survey and grid of lots and streets was prepared by James Hudspeth. Coombs was busy selling lots in 1847. Naturally the first building to be constructed was Harrison Pierce’s Empire Saloon on Third Street near the Napa River. The streets were not properly marked on the ground, and the saloon was built in the middle of Main Street and had to be placed on rollers to be shifted to its proper location.
A general store was opened by J. T. Thompson at the foot of Main Street, followed by another store owned by Mariano Vallejo and his son-in-law, John Frisbie. Coombs built the town’s first hotel, The American, in 1850, which was joined by the substantial Napa Hotel and several inns and saloons built on wood platforms with little more than tents for covering. By the mid-1850s brick buildings made their appearance.
There was a delay in the development of the town when the area emptied on the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill in the Sierras in 1848. Most of the menfolk rushed off to get their share of the nuggets, but by 1853 they were back, some richer and some wiser. Restaurants, a blacksmith, and a butcher shop gave Napa an actual commercial district. The city’s population in the official census of 1850 numbered 159. With the return of the gold seekers and more ‘49ers settling in the town on the river, the population doubled each year for half a decade.
A wharf had been built for Higuera at Soscol on the Napa River in 1844, and serviced sail-powered freight boats. The first steam-powered boat arrived from San Francisco in 1850. By 1852 a three-times a week run was established. Transporting companies were founded, the most active created by the energetic Coombs. The road between Napa and Sonoma was gradually improved beginning in 1852. Unfortunately the streets in Napa were a muddy mess much of the year. Bridges across the Napa River and neighboring creeks were flimsy and several washed away after heavy rains. Scraping a county road heading north from Napa began in 1852. By 1857 stage coaches were trundling over the hills to Clear Lake.
Napa Valley’s first school, if it could be called that, was started under a tree on Bales’ property by Sarah Graves Fosdick, a hardy young woman who had survived the disaster of the snowbound Donner Party. After two years in the open, the parents erected a schoolhouse for her in 1849. The first elementary school in Napa was built in 1855.
But what about wine? Pioneer John M. Patchett bought 100 acres on the west side of town, known as Patchett’s Addition. There he planted an orchard and Mission grapes from cuttings received from Mariano Vallejo. His first crush in 1857 produced six barrels sold at $2 a gallon. South of town the Thompson brothers, Simpson and William, put in 45 varieties of vines in 1856. In Oak Knoll north of Napa, Joseph Warren Osborne planted 3,000 vines of European varietals, for the first time introducing zinfandel.
In the late 1850s when “count” Agoston Haraszthy purchased the land which became his Buena Vista Vineyard at Sonoma, he looked to the Thompsons and Osborne for varietals they sold him, including zinfandel. It would be 1861 when Haraszthy he made his famed trip to Europe as a representative of California vineyardists to obtain 100,000 cuttings and kick-off the commercial wine industry in the state.
Poor Osborne was shot and killed by an employee in 1863 in a pay dispute. His killer was the first man legally hanged in Napa County. Note the “legally” since some Napa citizens could not wait for justice to take its course, and lynched prisoners, including a man named Hugh McCaully who had stabbed Napa’s first judge, the Hon. S. H. Sellers.
Nathan Coombs developed his ranch, The Willows, where he raised thoroughbred race horses, and was elected to two terms in the State Assembly. When he died when only 51 in 1877 his coffin was followed to the cemetery by a cortege of 150 carriages and a procession of 50 Napa County pioneers. His descendants include a Congressman, an ambassador, city attorney, grandson Nathan Coombs elected to the State Senate and most recently, great grand-son John Dunlap who served in both the State Assembly and State Senate.
Gerald Hill is co-author with his wife, Kathleen Hill, of more than 25 books including Sonoma Valley – The Secret Wine Country, Napa Valley-Land of Golden Vines, and The People’s Law Dictionary. His radio program “Hill on History” is broadcast on KSVY- 91.3 FM, Tuesdays at 2 p.m.
