1823
Mission San Francisco Solano de Sonoma was established two years after Mexico won its independence from Spain. Father Juan Amoros of Mission San Rafael wrote about a group of Wappo he called the Guiluc tribe or the Guilucos Indians, located in Sonoma Valley near present day Kenwood.

1833
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo arrived in Sonoma to establish a military outpost.

1834
Vallejo received the Petaluma Land Grant.

1837
Rancho Los Guilucos was granted by Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado to John Wilson and his wife Ramona Carrillo, sister-in-law of
General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo.

1839
Vallejo built a sawmill in a redwood forest several miles north of the pueblo of Sonoma, at the confluence of Asbury and Sonoma Creeks. Vallejo also arranged the Agua Caliente Land Grant for his officer Lázaro Peña.

1846
American pioneer settlers began arriving after the Bear Flag Revolt June 14th, in the pueblo of Sonoma. Vallejo conveyed the Agua Caliente Land Grant to Andreas Höppener in exchange for music lessons.

1847
Passenger boat service from San Francisco to the Embarcadero began.

1848
Gold was discovered, and the California Gold Rush began.

1849
Captain John Wilson sold Rancho Los Guillicos to merchants William Hood and William Pettit.

1850
California became a state.

1851
Dr. John Howard Hill and his son William McPherson Hill established the Old Hill Ranch.

1852
Joseph Hooker killed the last grizzly bear and her cub.

1853
Charles Justi operated a steamboat freight and passenger service from San Francisco to the Sonoma embarcadero.

1854
Hooker bought part of Rancho Agua Caliente from Ernest Rufus.

1856
Joshua Chauvet bought 500 acres and the sawmill from Vallejo. His father François brought two millstones from France, and after 18 months the sawmill was converted into a grist mill.

1857
Dunbar School (second oldest school in California) was established on Dunbar Road.

1858
George Watriss bought his ranch from Joseph Hooker.

1859
Charles Stuart named his ranch Glen Ellen after his wife Ellen. Vallejo conveyed 500 acres to Louis Csomortányi.

1869
The Stuart family moved into the Glen Ellen Ranch.

1870
Daily stagecoach trips began between Sonoma and Santa Rosa, stopping at Charles Justi’s ranch.

1871
J.A. Poppe (father of Charles Poppe) brought carp from Rhinefelt, Germany.

1872
June 20th the “Glenelen Post Office” at “Lebanon” was officially recognized, so Stuart renamed his ranch Glen Oaks.

1875
Chauvet’s grist mill was converted to a winery and distillery. This is likely the year the wooden winery was built, as a shift to steam power began. The Sonoma Valley Prismoidal Railway Company was established.

1876
Chauvet’s wife Ellen died of pneumonia, and a Chinese man called Moon was hired to help care for their boys.

1880
Chauvet sold 20,000 of 120,000-gallons of wine to J.R. Groezinger of San Francisco, but before he could sell the remainder the upper floor of mill collapsed and the rest of his wine and brandy was lost in Sonoma Creek.

1881
François Chauvet died. With the Grist Mill closed, Chauvet built a three-story wine cellar, constructed of local stone by Chinese labor. The cellar was considered to be an architectural marvel and an indication of what could be expected of the Sonoma Valley’s young wine industry.

1888
The Santa Rosa & Carquinez Railway (later known as the Southern Pacific) was built through Sonoma and Glen Ellen from Carquinez to Santa Rosa.

1890
Mary Ellen Pleasant bought Beltane Ranch.

1891
Dr. C. C. O’Donnell established brickworks with Chauvet, and an extensive resort along Sonoma Creek. The first residents arrived at the California State Home for the Care and Training of Feeble Minded Children.

1893
Henry Chauvet married Annie Lounibos on November 12, 1893. Joshua Chauvet offered them a choice between a tour of Europe or a new home; they chose to have a mansion built for them across the new road. Henry Chauvet’s house is still there to this day.

1894
The Eldridge post office was established.

1906
Chauvet Hotel was built. An earthquake damaged the upper floor of Poppe’s store, and was replaced by wooden 2nd and 3rd floors. Chauvet began a court battle with Jack London over water rights.

1916
Jack London died. Glen Ellen’s population reached 400. An auditorium for showing films was built on Carquinez Avenue.

1918
The Volstead Act began Prohibition.

1923
A great fire swept through Sonoma Valley, from Trinity Road to El Verano, helping establish the Glen Ellen Volunteer Fire Department.

1924
Highway 12 was paved.

1925
Someone clogged the schoolhouse stovepipe, causing it to burn down. It’s said that local schoolboys stuffed burlap bags down the stovepipe as a prank so that the old wood stove wouldn’t draw. School resumed at “Castle Cozy” on O’Donnell Lane, and then at the Gaige House. It was finally combined with the Dunbar School.

1926
The Riverside Hotel washed away.

1933
Prohibition was repealed, and the Pagani Winery became the Glen Ellen Winery & Distillery.

1936
A wildfire burned in the Mayacamas Range.

1939
The iron bridge in downtown Glen Ellen was replaced by the current one.

1941
The Northwestern Pacific Railroad line from Glen Ellen to Santa Rosa was abandoned. By October 10th, Glen Ellen was once again the end of the railroad line running from Sonoma.

1942
The Northwestern Pacific Railroad was abandoned from Sonoma to Glen Ellen on September 15th.

1943
Charles Pagani built the cinderblock winery to replace much of the old wooden winery.

1947
The Jack London Memorial Library, which had been condemned in 1944, was demolished; Jim Berkland wrote in his diary on Saturday, June 28, 1947, that he “…watched the blasting of the Memorial Library…”

1953
The Sonoma State Home changed its name to the Sonoma State Hospital.

1954
Charles Pagani died. His mother Angela continued running the winery with the help of Charles’ younger brother Louis until her death.

1960
Jack London State Historic Park was established.

1964
The Nunn’s Canyon fire burned to Boyes Springs; many homes were destroyed.

1969
Charles Beardsley and David Robert Fritschi purchased the Glen Ellen Winery, renaming the complex the Glen Ellen Mill and Wine Village.

1971
Russ and Winnie Kingman relocated from Jack London Square in Oakland to Glen Ellen, establishing “The World of Jack London” museum and bookstore in the basement of the Grist Mill. The name of the Glen Ellen and Wine Village was changed to the Jack London Mill and Wine Village, eventually shortened to Jack London Village.

1972
The Spoon River Restaurant opened in the Grist Mill. A fire destroyed Londonside Lodge.

1973
The restaurant in the Grist Mill was now known as the Waterwheel. Jeffrey Norman became sound engineer at Valley of the Moon Recording.

1974
The Grist Mill Inn restaurant opened. Fires destroyed St. Mary’s Catholic Church, the Rustic Inn, and the Weiss barn.

1975
Juanita Musson opened Juanita’s Galley No. 4 in the grist mill at Jack London Village.

1977
A fire destroyed the general store and one-time stage coach stop at Jack London Village.

1986
The Sonoma State Hospital became the Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC).

1990
Fire damaged the Grist Mill Restaurant at Jack London Village.

1996
The Cavedale Fire burned several days in the Mayacamas Range.

2002
A fire gutted Mucca Restaurant in the grist mill at Jack London Village.

2003
Golden Bear Lodge on Adobe Canyon Road burned.

2017
The Nunn’s Canyon Fire devastated much of the Valley of the Moon.