1925 — 101 years ago
From the Sonoma Index-Tribune of August 15, 1925:
The Highway as Landfill. Motorists on the Fetter ranch stretch have taken to dumping garbage on the highway, a practice the road crew notes is against the law. A watch will be kept, license numbers taken, and prosecutions promised for those who mistake the public road for a private tip.
A Marvel on Broadway. George Dolcini, an agricultural student who has yet to re-enter high school, has raised a garden on his Broadway acreage that draws motorists from the bay cities. His sweet corn stands ten feet tall, his tomatoes are of mammoth size, and Kentucky Wonder beans are his banner crop.
Wedding Bells at Agua Caliente. Miss Genevieve B. White, the popular postmistress of Agua Caliente Springs, has become the bride of Earl Adams of Cloverdale, at the home of her sister. The honeymoon will be spent in Lake county and other Northern California points before the couple settles in Cloverdale.
Passing of Curly-Headed Jim. Jim Albertson, city marshal and tax collector for almost thirty years, has died at his Broadway home at the age of 82. In earlier days he drove the stage on some of the state's most dangerous roads, and his ashes will return to repose on the Sonoma hillside he loved so dearly.
A Comfortable Feeling. An Index-Tribune patron advertised all his household goods last week and, by the afternoon his notice appeared, buyers had arrived to take everything—down to a comforter in which one prospective sleeper had curled up for the night. Such a comfortable feeling, the paper observes, to have sold everything. Maybe.
Bargain Days, Twelve a Year. Sonoma's merchants continue their monthly bargain days, put on regularly since the first of February. Thrifty folk are urged to patronize the featured stores and so encourage the offering of further specials.
1905 — 121 years ago
From the Sonoma Index-Tribune of August 12, 1905:
The Church Adopts a Working Calendar. Mass is to be celebrated at St. Francis' Church in Sonoma and at Mervyn Hall in Glen Ellen on an elaborate rotation keyed to the ordinal Sundays of each month, with special provision made for those months in which five Sundays happen to occur. The faithful are advised to keep track.
A Room at the Bohemia for a Dollar. A San Francisco hotel conducted on the European plan, midway between the wholesale and retail districts and convenient to all car lines, offers rooms at rates of "$1.00 per day and up." Street cars, it is noted, run direct to the hotel from the depots and wharves.
Agua Caliente Completes Its Stone Bathhouse. The Agua Caliente Springs Hotel, whose mineral waters are held to cure kidney, bladder, skin and blood disorders, has just completed a new stone bathhouse said to be the largest of any resort in the state and able to accommodate 500 guests. A tennis court, croquet lawn and archery are among the diversions on offer.
1885 — 141 years ago
From the Sonoma Index-Tribune of August 15, 1885:
A Modest Proposal, Loaded and Cocked. Noting that five or six men have been shot dead in the district this season by hunters who mistook their companions for deer, the paper ventures that a gun exploding to remove the shooter's own head before the bullet reached its victim would make a good item, which it would publish with pleasure. The soberer remedy, it concedes, is simply to keep firearms out of the reach of fools.
The Case for a Cannery. Observing that others buy fruit and profit handsomely by canning and drying it, the paper urges local orchardists to take the matter into their own hands and form a joint stock company. A cannery and fruit-drying establishment here in Sonoma, it suggests, would furnish a market for their orchards without the produce ever leaving the valley.
A Bargain in Firearms, and in Footwear. Readers wanting a new double-barreled, breech-loading gun worth $75 for $60 are advised to call at this office and inspect it. Elsewhere, ladies' shoes once marked at $2.50 to $3.50 have been reduced to $1 and $2.50.
Items retold from the original pages, which are in the public domain; the scans are courtesy of the Sonoma Valley Historical Society collection at the Internet Archive. The century-old OCR is imperfect — where a name or figure was illegible, we have left it out rather than guess.