I See by the Papers...

The first anniversary of the 1906 Santa Rosa earthquake passed with little notice, except for a souvenir section in the Press Democrat, offering a facsimile of their two-page letterpress edition that appeared the day after the disaster. The grand speeches would have to wait until 1908, with the laying of the new court house cornerstone.

There was, however, an all-time great prank that day, and a couple of months later the City Council finally commissioned the gravestone for the unknown dead, bringing to a close the business of the earthquake fund committee. Unfortunately, this also closed the door on any hope that the committee might produce a complete account of all those killed in the tragedy.

THE PAST AND THE FUTURE

While remarkable activity has been displayed here during the past year is the work of rebuilding, the year to come promises to show even more satisfactory results. The coming year will see the completion of most of the larger and more pretentious buildings now under way, and also the beginning of many others. Among the former may be mentioned the New Occidental and The Overton hotels, the Masonic Temple, the Santa Rosa and Exchange Banks, the Shea and the Carithers blocks; while the latter list will include the new Government postoffice, the county court house, the Odd Fellows building and the Brush-Keegan and Todd blocks, in addition to several others. When one stops to consider that just a year ago today the entire business portion of Santa Rosa was mass of ruins, the great work that has been accomplished during the past twelve months appears little less than marvelous. But before another year has been around we will have a "New Santa Rosa" in fact as well as in name and will be a far larger and finer city than before.

- Press Democrat editorial, April 18, 1907

The Souvenir Edition

Thursday the Santa Rosa Press Democrat came out with ten pages, two pages being replete with half tones and descriptive matter telling of the progress made by the City of Roses since the fire and earthquake of a year ago. The paper also contained a souvenir in the form of a reproduction of the Press Democrat on the day following the quake, April 19th. That issue was of but two pages, three columns to the page, and contained a list of the dead and injured, as well as other distressing news of the disaster. - Cloverdale Reveille.

- Press Democrat, April 21, 1907

MONUMENT OVER THE GRAVES

At the meeting of the Council last night the special committee were empowered to have a monument erected over the last place of the unknown dead, victims who perished in the disaster of April, 1906, and whose remains repose in a large grave in the local cemetery. A neat monument will be set up and will have a concrete base that will cover the entire top of the grave, with a coping around it. The monument and coping will cost $375. Kinslow Brothers will do the work.

- Press Democrat, June 19, 1907