Women’s influence has been felt in Sonoma Valley since the pioneer days

In exploring the history of Sonoma Valley the usual names – Father Altimira, General Mariano Vallejo, Jack London and so on – are all men. In reality, much of the development of the Valley of the Moon, along with its beauty, growth, charm and culture, is the result of the efforts and influence of the women of Sonoma Valley beginning in pioneer days and accelerating in modern times.
When young Lieutenant Mariano Vallejo was ordered to secularize the lands of the Mission San Francisco de Solano at the settlement of Sonoma in 1835, at his side was his bride, Francisca Benicia Carrillo Vallejo. The extensive Carrillo family, which specialized in daughters who married prominent men, was related to almost all California provincial leaders, both political and commercial. The female social stars of Santa Barbara, Monterey, San Luis Obispo and the new town of Santa Rosa were all Carrillos. Señora Vallejo was well aware of her heritage, but was also dedicated to managing a household and raising her own children. Most, but not all, of her 15 babies survived to adulthood.
Señora Vallejo established a pleasant and sophisticated home on the frontier, first on the Plaza and then at the Vallejo Victorian-style mansion, Lachryma Montis. As his helpmate, she reinforced the General’s prestige as the foremost Californio in the state.
In a famous double wedding, daughter Natalia married Attila Haraszthy (did she call him ‘hun’?), and her sister, Jovita, exchanged vows with Arpad Haraszthy in 1863. Lolita Vallejo Emperan (‘Lulu’), the last surviving daughter, lived in and maintained the family home as a park that she eventually gave to the State of California (reserving a life estate) and managed the water company that supplied the town.
At the turn of the 20th century the Plaza remained a mess without landscaping and a drainage ditch cutting across it. So the newly-formed Sonoma Valley Woman’s Club (originally called the Ladies Improvement Club) in 1903 began a campaign to make the eight acres an attractive and useable centerpiece of Sonoma. With substantial financial contributions from Phoebe Apperson Hearst, wife of Senator George Hearst (who owned a ranch in Glen Ellen), a landscape design was prepared, soil and fertilizer laid down, trees planted and a fountain was installed.
The Woman’s Club, with an assist from the Native Daughters, successfully lobbied the City Trustees to build a City Hall, which was completed in 1908, and apply for a grant from the Carnegie Foundation for $6,000 to construct a library. In 1914 a Bear Flag statue was unveiled with the Governor of California in attendance. The ladies had led the transformation of the town center.
More than any other Sonoma woman, petite Celeste Granice Murphy was a moving force in Sonoma Valley between 1915 and 1961. On the death of Celeste’s father, Harry Granice, owner of the Sonoma Index-Tribune, Celeste and her husband, Walter Murphy, bought the newspaper from Granice’s estate on borrowed money. A graduate of the University of California in 1901 and with experience on her father’s former paper, The San Rafael Independent, Celeste became editor of the I-T. In that role she championed municipal water, highway access to the valley, the dream of a Golden Gate Bridge, and state funds for preservation of historic buildings. Putting money where her mouth was, the Murphys saved the aging barracks by purchasing it in 1937. They restored the building and created an upstairs apartment for themselves. That same year Mrs. Murphy published a narrative history of Sonoma entitled “The People of the Pueblo.”
While still in her teens, six-foot-tall beauty Alma Spreckels had earned her way through art school posing nude for professional artists. The model for the dramatic statue atop the Dewey memorial in San Francisco’s Union Square, which was completed in 1902, Alma caught the eye of sugar multi-millionaire Adolph Spreckels, and they married in 1908. She quickly became an enthusiastic patron of the arts and museums. When Adolph died in 1924, part of her inheritance was the 280 acres of Sobre Vista in the hills in the northwest valley. Eventually Alma turned Sobre Vista into an upscale development of large lots, attractive homes and natural landscape. When the Great Depression plunged the Sonoma Golf Course into debt and potential foreclosure, Alma came to the rescue by purchasing the course and holding it until a buyer could be located ready to preserve the golf links for the future.
In 1915 Lolita Coblentz purchased the Temelec tract, including the magnificent Temelec Hall, dating from the 1860s. She and her husband spent what it took to save the Hall, which had fallen into disrepair. The real property was eventually developed into a well-planned community for older residents.