This month’s featured artifact, #630-1, is not only beautiful; it is also historically valuable as a research document and for its association with a significant Sonoma County pioneer settler.  The artifact is an original Illustrated Atlas of Sonoma County, published by Reynolds and Proctor in 1897.  The large-format volume is replete with photos and descriptions of important industries, businesses and people in turn of the 20^th century Sonoma County.  The atlas is an indispensable reference for researching Sonoma County land-use and genealogy, containing cadastral maps (showing property boundaries and owner names) of the entire region.  A more battered version of this atlas is used every day in the museum’s research department.

This 1897 atlas is especially prized, because it was originally purchased by Sonoma County/Healdsburg pioneer David Hopper.  The book was 100 years old when Pat Sorensen, Hopper descendant and longtime Healdsburg Museum member/volunteer, donated it to our collection. Incredibly, the donation even included the 1896 bill of sale, signed by David Hopper.  The atlas was beautifully restored in 1966 by Paul Mucci.  It is in excellent condition.

Page from Atlas showing Healdsburg area and the location

of The Hopper Ranch

The Hoppers were true pioneer settlers of California.  David Hopper was born near Chattanooga, Tennessee in 1825, and was about 15 when he moved to Lafayette County, Missouri with his parents.  There he met and married Miss Dicie Young in 1845.  In the spring of 1853, David and Dicie Hopper and daughters Mary (b. 1845) and Sarah (b. 1848) journeyed from Lafayette County, Missouri to Sonoma County by ox team, arriving in the fall of that year.  The Hoppers moved several times, living in Penngrove, Petaluma, Cotati, Healdsburg and the Skaggs Springs/Gualala River area, before returning to Dry Creek to settle permanently, farming and cattle ranching.  A third daughter, Ida, was born in 1860.  David Hopper acquired large tracts of land during his lifetime and presented each of his daughters with fine ranches.  In 1865, Hopper bought the A.B. Aull ranch on Westside Road, where he built a fine house and resided with his wife until his death in 1907.  Dicie Hopper died six years later in 1913.  In 2006, the Hopper house still stands at 1710 Westside Road.

The above was researched and written by Holly Hoods.

For more information about the Museum's collection of historical artifacts, contact the Museum