Editing Santa Rosa, California (section)

===19th century===
[[File:María Ygnacia López de Carrillo (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|[[María Ygnacia López de Carrillo]], a [[Californios|Californio]] ranchera and founder of Santa Rosa]]
Santa Rosa was founded in 1833 and named by Mexican colonists after [[Saint Rose of Lima]]. The first known permanent European settlement here was the homestead of the [[Carrillo family of California]], in-laws to [[Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo]], who settled the [[Sonoma, California|Sonoma]] [[pueblo]] and [[Petaluma, California|Petaluma]] area. In the 1830s, during the Mexican period, the family of [[María López de Carrillo]] built an adobe house on their [[Rancho Cabeza de Santa Rosa]] land grant, just east of what later became downtown Santa Rosa. By the 1820s, before the Carrillos built their adobe in the 1830s, [[Spanish people|Spanish]] and Mexican settlers from nearby Sonoma and other settlements to the south were known to raise [[livestock]] in the area.

They slaughtered animals at the fork of the [[Santa Rosa Creek]] and [[Matanzas Creek]], near the intersection of modern-day Santa Rosa and Sonoma avenues. This is thought to have been the origin of the name of Matanzas Creek; because it was a slaughtering place, the confluence came to be called ''La Matanza.''

By the 1850s, after the United States annexed [[California]] following its victory in the [[Mexican-American War]], a [[History of Wells Fargo|Wells Fargo]] post and general store were established in what is now downtown Santa Rosa. In the mid-1850s, several prominent locals, including Julio Carrillo, son of Maria Carrillo, laid out the grid street pattern for Santa Rosa with a [[public square]] in the center. This pattern has been largely maintained in downtown to this day, despite changes to the central square, now called Old Courthouse Square.

[[File:Bird's eye view of Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, Cal., 1876. LOC 76693083.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.2|Panoramic map of Santa Rosa in 1876]]

In 1867, the county recognized Santa Rosa as an [[municipal corporation|incorporated]] city; in 1868, the state officially confirmed the incorporation, making it the third incorporated city in Sonoma County after [[Petaluma]], incorporated in 1858, and [[Healdsburg]], incorporated in 1867.

[[United States Census Bureau]] records show that after California became a state, Santa Rosa grew steadily, though it lagged behind nearby Petaluma in the 1850s and early 1860s. In the [[1870 United States census|1870 census]], Santa Rosa was the eighth-largest city in California, and county seat of one of the most populous counties in the state. Growth and development after that was steady but never rapid. The city continued to grow when other early population centers declined or stagnated, but by 1900 it was being overtaken by many other newer population centers in the San Francisco Bay Area and Southern California.