The Bear Flag Revolt
American settlers, inspired by stories of the paradise land of California, headed over the Sierras and to Sonoma. The infamous Donner Party was one such group of pioneers. Two of the little girls who were left orphaned by that fateful trek, ended up living with a family in Sonoma. One of the girls, Eliza Donner eventually wrote “The expedition of the Donner party and its tragic fate,” which is included in the book California As I Saw It: First-Person Narratives of California's Early Years, 1849-1900 (A full text of her account can be found here.As more and more settlers poured into the area, tensions grew between the newcomers and the Californios who felt their land was being overrun. Vallejo wrote: “The emigration of North Americans to California today forms an unbroken line of wagons… it is frightful.”
There were rumors that Mexico would expel the Americans. And in the summer of 1846, yet another rumor swept over the area that Mexico had ordered the Americans out of California. This time, a ragtag group of settlers rode into Sonoma to confront General Vallejo.
They surrounded his Sonoma home and the captain of the impromptu group, Ezekiel Merritt, went inside to talk terms with the General. After several hours, Merritt didn’t come out. So, another man from the group went in to investigate. He didn’t come out either. Finally, a man named William Ide went in to see what was happening. He later wrote: “There sat Merrit – his head fallen…and there sat the new made Captain as mute as the seat he sat upon. The bottle had well nigh vanquished the captors.” It seems that General Vallejo, always a good host, was kind enough to offer some brandy to his would-be captors.
The guests were not as hospitable. The rest of the group kidnapped Vallejo plus several members of his family and took them to Sacramento, where they remained detained for several months.
In the meantime, the group of pioneers proclaimed a new republic. And they created a flag with the words “California Republic” and an image of a grizzly bear. Some of the onlookers said it looked more like a pig. It seems that the Bear Flag was created by the nephew of Mary Todd Lincoln, President Lincoln’s wife.
Pioneer John Bidwell, who chronicled many of the events surrounding the “Bear Flag Revolt,” wrote:
“Among the men who remained to hold Sonoma was William B. Ide, who assumed to be in command… Another man left at Sonoma was William L. Todd who painted, on a piece of brown cotton, a yard and a half or so in length, with old red or brown paint that he happened to find, what he intended to be a representation of a grizzly bear. This was raised to the top of the staff, some seventy feet from the ground. Native Californians looking up at it were heard to say ‘Coche,’ the common name among them for pig or shoat. More than thirty years afterwards I chanced to meet Todd on the train coming up the Sacramento Valley. He had not greatly changed, but appeared considerably broken in health. He informed me that Mrs. Lincoln was his own aunt, and that he had been brought up in the family of Abraham Lincoln.”
For 22 days, the bear flag flew over Sonoma as the settlers declared California an independent republic. But then the conflict became part of the larger Mexican-American war. Mexico eventually lost the war and ceded California to the United States.
Later on, the fires that followed the 1906 Great Earthquake burned and destroyed the original bear flag. But, its spirit lives. California adopted the bear image for its state flag.
Part 2 of Sonoma County History coming soon.
