FAIRFIELD – Solano County turns 167 years old in 2017, while one of its seven cities could actually celebrate two “birth dates” each year.
Benicia, founded in 1847, was first incorporated in 1850, the same year the county was formed and California became a state, according to county reports. However, Benicia was incorporated a second time the next year.
Jim Lessenger, a retired physician and historian at the Benicia Historical Museum, believes he knows why there are two incorporation dates.
He explains how it is rooted in California statehood, and influentially, the debate about slavery and whether or not California would enter the union as a free state or a slave state.
In 1849, a Constitutional Convention was held in San Jose, out of which John Fremont, a free-state advocate, and William Gwin, a slave owner, were selected as California’s first U.S. senators.
Gen. Bennet Riley, the military governor at the time, proclaimed California a state, but by doing so, violated the federal law establishing the protocol. In March 1850, Benicia was incorporated.
Congress took up the issue of California’s statehood – and with the slave issue still very much at hand – granted California statehood in September 1850. It entered the union as a free state, although Lessenger cites historical research that shows there were as many as 1,000 slaves in California at the start of the Civil War – Solano included.
Benicia, to set right its own record, reincorporated in 1851.
Benicia also served as the state’s capital from Feb. 11, 1853, to Feb. 25, 1854. It is the county’s fourth largest city with 27,689 people as of January 2015, the county reported.
The county has a variety of personalities, often split between the coastal cities to the south and the more valley-like persona to the north. It is both a Delta and riparian county, yet boasts a healthy expanse of agricultural lands.
Solano covers 909.4 square miles, including 84.2 square miles of water area and 675.4 square miles of rural land area. It is also home to Travis Air Force Base.
Solano County had a total population of 429,552 as of the start of 2015, of which 19,348 residents lived outside the seven cities. The population is divided almost evenly by gender, with 50.3 percent female and 49.7 percent male.
The largest city continues to be Vallejo with 119,683. It was incorporated in 1868. Following Vallejo are Fairfield (1903) with 111,891 residents; Vacaville (1892) with 94,702; Suisun City (1868) with 28,888; Dixon (1878) with 19,158; and Rio Vista (1893) with 8,193 residents.
The median age is 36.9, according to 2010 census information.
The county’s population, however, is getting older, with 11.9 percent of residents over the age of 64, according to 2010 census information. That compares to 9.5 percent in that age group in 2000, 8.2 percent in 1990, 7.5 percent in 1980, 6.7 percent in 1970, 5.9 percent in 1960 and 4.9 percent in 1950.
Fairfield is the county seat despite being the youngest of all the cities. Benicia was the county seat until 1858.
The county has a general law form of government. Its five-member Board of Supervisors is elected by district for four-year terms of office.
It passed its first billion-dollar budget in June.
Solano ranks 21st among the 58 counties in the state for population, with a birth rate of 66.1 per 1,000 female residents ages 15 to 44, according to the most recent information. The death rate is 725 per every 100,000 residents.
There are about 1,900 miles of roads and highways, the county reports, of which the county maintains 585.5 miles. The number of vehicles registered in the county is 371,534.
Oh, and the county owns 92 bridges.
