Napoleon Primo Vallejo

Biographical Notes

A prominent early native Californian, Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo (1807-1890) was born in Monterey in 1807. In 1834, with the title Military Commander and Director of Colonization of the Northern Frontier, the Mexican Army sent him to take charge of secularization of Mission San Francisco Solano at what is now Sonoma. On June 24, 1835, he founded the Pueblo of Sonoma, laying out the 8-acre plaza and structures facing the plaza such as the soldiers’ barracks and his first home Casa Grande. A portion of the site of Casa Grande, the barracks, and the Mission are now on the site of the Sonoma State Historic Park. General Vallejo’s private rancho in Petaluma was a highly productive agricultural empire. The Petaluma Adobe is one of the largest adobe structures still standing in California, and is also a State Historic Park.

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