Petaluma’s Past: Local fight for a railroad (part two)

The true story of a once controversial Petaluma railroad, began in a previous column, now continues.

By 1870, San Franciscan Peter Donahue had over 100 men working on his railroad in Sonoma County and, within two years, the line had nearly reached to Cloverdale from Donahue Landing, eight miles south of Petaluma.

As Argus Editor Sam Cassiday observed, “Colonel Donahue easily reads the cards of his rivals, when competing.”

Donahue, who’d been made a Lt. Colonel in the California National Guard, was a shrewd adversary, often disagreeing with civic officials, and there was much bad blood over track and depot locations. His public threat - after a heated argument with Petaluma officials - was that he would see the day, in his words, “when grass grows green over the streets of Petaluma!”

In January of 1870, the editor of The Petaluma Journal complained in frustration, “We are sick of the promises of the Humboldt Bay RR, the North Pacific RR, or whatever! They have brought discredit upon our city. We want a RR and we have been fooled by others long enough.”

On February 5 of 1870, at a meeting with California Pacific Railroad - attended by A.P. Whitney, Harrison Mecham and Banker Wickersham - Petaluma banker William Hill made the following statement, alluding to a proposed plan by Donahue to run a rail line down Main Street.

“We accept the proposal of (Donahue’s) RR for a line from Petaluma to Santa Rosa, if a depot is placed within the city limits.”

But, he insisted, there could be no rails down Main Street.

By October of 1870, The Argus’ editor (diplomatically) observed, “Over six miles of road has been finished, and now Mr. Donahue has purchased the gas works here, and intends supplying this city with a cheaper and better quality of gas. We trust his good offices shall continue. We believe a better day will dawn. We have no question that Mr. Donahue will make good his declaration.”

But the ego-driven Peter Donahue was very used to getting his way. By 1871, Do-nahue Landing boasted a population of 200+ residents, mostly railroad workers, with a 450-foot covered wharf, warehouses, a saloon, a blacksmith, a livery, a Chinese laun-dry and a 40 room hotel. Called The Sonoma House, it featured running water and gas light in every room! That year, Donahue had trains running to Santa Rosa from his little town, and he was to eventually collect $300,000 in County subsidies.

Trains from the north were spun around on a turn-table, for the trip back up north.

Donahue’s first 35 miles of track from Petaluma to Santa Rosa had been laid in just seven months and it was a boon to ranchers, as rural stops were often just than a mile apart. But, in Petaluma, much of the farm crops were still transported by shallow draft river steamers. Crops from here included apples, eggs, beef, hay, hops, potatoes, milk, poultry, cherries and wine.

In 1876, Donahue’s SF&NP Railroad bought out the Sonoma & Marin Railroad for $85,000. In 1877, he completed his line to San Rafael, and five years later, to Tiburon, which was to become his main terminus. And then (ready for this?) Colonel Donahue moved the entire town of Donahue Landing, including the hotel, down to Tiburon.

The town was shipped south, piece by piece, via barge and railroad.

All of the rolling stock, spikes and rails from Cloverdale to Tiburon had been pro-duced in Donahue’s Union Iron Works and the money had flowed in like water. In 1880, Colonel Donahue boasted to the press, “We are for the RR, first, last and all the time. Every man’s property will be benefited by my RR!”

Peter Donahue died in 1885 at the age of 63.

His obituary rightly stated he had led a “remarkably active and useful” life, and his Union Iron Works eventually merged into the giant Bethlehem Steel complex. The Colonel’s legend was a mixed one, though, here in Petaluma. He had indeed been “The Iron Man,” the one who outmaneuvered the Petaluma bankers and industrialists. And though the Donahue Line eventually became Northwestern Pacific Railroad and Petaluma finally did get it’s depot - within city limits with no rails down Main Street - it didn’t happen until 1914, 29 years after the Colonel’s death.

In 1995, the Native Sons of the Golden West designated Donahue Landing as a State Historical Landmark. One wonders how Colonel Donahue would have viewed the revamping of his old railroad line into our new SMART Train, now so successfully (and peacefully) serving good ol’ Petaluma and its environs.

(Historian Skip Sommer is an honorary life member of Heritage Homes and the Petaluma Historical Library. Contact him at skipsommer@hotmail.com)