Editing Sonoma, California (section)

===General Vallejo era===
{{further|Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo}}

[[File:"General Vallejo Reviewing His Troops in Sonoma, 1846".jpg|thumb|right|General [[Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo|Mariano G. Vallejo]] reviewing his Mexican Army troops in [[Sonoma Plaza]], 1846. The building with a tower is General Vallejo's residence, the ''Casa Grande'', and to the right are the [[Sonoma Barracks]].]]

Governor Figueroa had received instructions from the Mexican Congress further south in the [[capital city]] of [[Mexico City]] to establish a strong presence in the region north of the [[San Francisco Bay]] to protect the area from encroachments of foreigners.<ref>Bancroft 3:246</ref> An immediate concern was the further south and  eastward movement to the interior of the [[Russian America Company]] from their settlements at [[Fort Ross, California|Fort Ross]] and [[Bodega Bay]] on the [[Northern California]] coastline.<ref name="Smilie p.54">Smilie p.54</ref>

Figueroa's next step in implementing his instructions was to name Lieutenant Vallejo as Military Commander of the Northern Frontier and to order the Army units of officers / soldiers, arms and materiel supplies at the [[Presidio of San Francisco]] moved to the site of the recently secularized [[Mission San Francisco Solano]]. The [[Sonoma Barracks]] were then built to house the troops. Until the building was habitable, the soldiers were housed in the buildings of the old Mission.<ref>Stammerjohan p.25</ref> In 1834, [[George C. Yount]], the first [[European American]] permanent settler in the [[Napa Valley]], north of [[San Francisco Bay]], was employed as a carpenter by Mexican Army General Vallejo.

The Governor granted Lieutenant Vallejo the initial lands (approximately {{convert|44000|acre|km2|0}}) of [[Rancho Petaluma]] immediately west of Sonoma. Vallejo was also named Director of Colonization which meant that he could initiate land grants for other colonists (subject to the approval of the governor) and the ''diputación'' (Alta California's nominal assembly / [[legislature]]).<ref>Smilie p. 50</ref>

Vallejo had also been instructed by Governor Figueroa to establish a pueblo at the site of the old Mission. In 1835, with the assistance of [[William A. Richardson]], he laid out a grid, in accordance with the Spanish [[Laws of the Indies]], of the streets, building lots, central plaza and broad main avenue of the newly planned ''Pueblo de Sonoma''.<ref>Bancroft III:721</ref>

Although Sonoma had been founded as a [[pueblo]] in 1835, it still remained under military control, lacking the political structures of civilian municipal [[self-government]] of other [[Alta California]] pueblos. In 1843, now Lieutenant Colonel Vallejo wrote to the Governor recommending that a civil government be organized for Sonoma. A town council (''ayuntamiento'') was established in 1844 and [[Jacob P. Leese|Jacobo Leese]] was named first ''[[alcalde]]'', and [[Cayetano Juárez]] second ''[[alcalde]]''.<ref>Bancroft IV: 678 note 16</ref>