Healdsburg History Timeline                  © 2003 ourHealdsburg.com

 0000-1880

California was believed to be an island long after "discovery". Father Kino walked there from the "mainland" in 1698 disproving the concept. In spite of this, only after Father Consag sailed completely around the Gulf of California in 1747, did King Ferdinand of Spain issued a Royal decree stating "California is not an Island!"   Map (detail) by P. Mortier, Amsterdam 1693. -- private collection.

Gaspar de Portola Expedition for Spain encounters natives living in San Francisco Bay area. First sighting of San Francisco Bay by Europeans.

The Spanish build twenty-one missions, two pueblos, and four presidios, from Mission San Diego to Mission Sonoma, all established along what was called El Camino Real "The King's Highway". (8)

Fort Ross settlement established for the Russian-American Company by Ivan A. Kuskov  He sets up port facilities in Bodega Bay and begins to establish camp in Russian Gulch area. Explores the Russian River, which he called the Slavianka River.(1) (2)

June 19: U.S. President Madison declares war or Great Britain. War of 1812.

- Cyrus Alexander arrives in what we now call Alexander Valley  (4)

- Boston: Richard Henry Dana publishes Two Years Before the Mast

- The first covered wagon train arrives in California

- The Russians sell Fort Ross to John Sutter in December. Russian scientist Voznesensky and Agronomist Chernyk climb Mt. ST. Helena on their way to Fort Sutter to negotiate the sale. (2)

Fort Ross - Watercolor by Il'ia Voznesenky, 1841

- German Pina takes possession of "four square leagues of land", a Mexican Land Grant. Named Rancho Tzabaco, it occupied most of what we now call Dry Creek Valley (4)

- John Fremont establishes California Trail branch from the Oregon Trail (7)

- London: Charles Dickens publishes A Christmas Carol

- General Vallejo's Petaluma Adobe near completion

- Jan. 13. Texas: U.S. begins war with Mexico

- June 19 Hoboken, N.J.: first official baseball game

- Cyrus Alexander establishes ranch from a share of Rancho Sotoyome

- July 24. Utah: Mormons found Salt Lake City

- U.S. captures Mexico City

- Sutter discovers gold in California

- California is ceded to the United States by Mexico in Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo

- Stephen Foster writes song, "Oh, Susanna!"

- Europe: Marx and Engels publish Communist Manifesto

- The California Gold Rush, Roderick Matheson seeks his fortune.

- Captain Fitch dies

- May 14. Concord, Mass.: Thoreau publishes "On Civil Disobedience"

- Sept. 9. California admitted as 31st state

- Levi Strauss & Co. founded in San Francisco

- The Heald brothers move to Russian River area and help William March build a flour and lumber mill at the Upper Falls of Mill Creek.

- Matheson is Comptroller of the City of San Francisco.

- June 5. U.S.: Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom's Cabin

- Healdsburg population: a few squatter families and about 100 native Americans

- Matheson and his family move to Healdsburg.

- Harmon Heald, squatter, purchases 100 acres west of current downtown Healdsburg. In July and December Heald buys 65 acres from his brothers-in-law, (originally purchased from widow Josefa Fitch's land auctions earlier in the year) (4)

- Heald recorded the Town Plat map on March 5, 1857.

- Slavery protected by U.S. Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision

- Alexander Skaggs illegally settles in the western end of what is now known as Dry Creek Valley

- Healdsburg population 300

- Harmon Heald dies in December

- First transatlantic cable laid

1860

Pony Express begins, St. Louis to California

1861

- Feb. 9..Richmond: Confederate States of America formed.

- April 12..Charleston, S.C.: Civil War begins.

- July 21, 1861. Matheson leads the 1st California Regiment at the First Battle of Bull Run, Manassas, Virginia

- Healdsburg population over 500

1863

- Jan. 1..U.S.: Emancipation Proclamation takes effect

- Nov. 19..Gettysburg, Pa.: Lincoln addresses commemoration

1865

- April 9....Appomattox, Va.: Gen. Robert E. Lee surrenders to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant

- England: Lewis Carroll publishes Alice in Wonderland

1869

Louisa May Alcott publishes Little Women

1870

Paris: Jules Verne publishes Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

1871

- Opening day of the new San Francisco and North Pacific Railway in Healdsburg. (5)

- Healdsburg population 1,750

1876

- Mark Twain publishes Tom Sawyer

- Mar. 10.. Alexander Graham Bell first demonstrates telephone

- June 25...Battle of Little Big Horn (Custer's Last Stand)

- Healdsburg had seven churches, one bank, and two newspapers

- N.Y.: George Eastman invents first transparent photographic film

- Healdsburg population 2,500

Mark Twain publishes Huckleberry Finn

New Healdsburg City Hall opened. SF & NPR renamed Northwestern Pacific Railroad at turn of century. (5)

Life and adventures of Col. L. A. Norton published. Norton played a key role in the Healdsburg Squatter's Wars of the 1850's.

April 18. San Francisco earthquake. Collapse of the three story Odd Fellow's Hall (currently the Brant Building at Matheson and Healdsburg Ave.) and the two story Gobbi building at 310 Center St. in Healdsburg

- World War I begins. NWP completes rail line through Eel River Canyon with service to Eureka.

- Healdsburg population 3,500.

Healdsburg "rated as the fifth in California in per capita wealth" (5)

United States passes the Eighteenth Amendment (Prohibition)

NWP opens new Railroad Station in Healdsburg. Gas-electric passenger rail car service from Healdsburg to Sausalito established

Stock market crash. Four passenger trains per day on NWP Railroad.

Prohibition ended. Hops industry destroyed, Wine industry severely damaged, many Healdsburg area wineries close (6)

- Japan bombs Pearl Harbor; America declares war.

- Healdsburg population 4,000

WW II - An estimated 700 people from Healdsburg saw military service during WW II

Korean War begins

The last regularly scheduled passenger train stopped at Healdsburg station (5)

November, Highway 101 Healdsburg Freeway bypass dedicated

- Urban Growth Boundary established for Healdsburg (4)

- Healdsburg population 10,000

- Healdsburg population 11,000

- Growth Management Ordinance enacted regulating number of new houses per year

- Healdsburg population 11,500

Healdsburg Museum and Historical Society

Sonoma County Historical Society

The California State Park Service - Fort Ross State Historic Park

Present Day Fort Ross  (360 degree Panorama)

The California State Military Museum

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Disclaimer

Chronology Sources:

History Timeline  developed by Richard Janosko

(1) The Pacific Historian Winter Issue 1967 pgs 10-28 "Agriculture of Upper California" E.L. Chernykh in a 1841 report to the Imperial Society for Rural Economy, Moscow.

(2) The California State Park Service - Fort Ross State Historic Park  website: www.mcn.org/1/rrparks/fortross/

(3) Santa Rosa - A Nineteenth Century Town - ©1985  Gaye LeBaron, Dee Blackman, Joann Mitchell, Harvey Hansen, published by Historia, Ltd. Santa Rosa, California

(4) History of Healdsburg - 2003 Hannah Clayborn

(5) Welcome Iron Steed, Healdsburg's Railroad Days ©1998 John van der Zee, published by Healdsburg Arts Council

(6) Healdsburg and Northern Sonoma County, A Pictorial History. © 1996 The Healdsburg Tribune,  --  Limited Edition of 56.

The California Trail and Trails West

(7) The California Trail is one of many trails to the West including: the Lewis and Clark Trail, the Oregon Trail, the Mormon Trail, the Santa Fe Trail, the Bozeman Trail, the Southern Route (or Applegate Trail), the Free Emigrant Road, the Cherokee Trail, , the Nez Perce Trail and the Pony Express Trail(s).

The California Trail followed the Oregon Trail across the Great Plains and over the Continental Divide, and then cut off from the Oregon Trail near Fort Hall, Idaho to follow two or three major routes to the gold fields. Tens of thousands of prospectors, miners, and carpetbaggers followed the California Trail west after gold was found at Sutter's Mill in 1848.

Actually, the Oregon Trail and the California Trail follow the same route much of the way and were opened at the same time. "A party of about a hundred families was headed for California in 1841, but they split at Fort Hall when half of them decided to settle in Oregon, instead. Before gold was discovered in California, most settlers were Oregon bound, so the entire length of the trail is generally called the Oregon Trail, not just the leg that led to Oregon. On the other hand, the route across the plains, which followed the Platte River for most of its length, was used by thousands of Mormons headed for Utah as well as overlanders headed for Oregon and California, so it's sometimes called "the Great Platte River Road" to avoid any confusion about who was following it." ( Quoted from the endoftheoregontrail.org website.) Also visit the National Park Service California National Historic Trail website.

-- map courtesy of Frederick Smoot

El Camino Real

(8) The California El Camino Real (“The King’s Highway”)
 In 1769 a combination fortress and Franciscan mission was established in San Diego. This was the first of twenty-one religious settlements built by the Spanish missionaries. The settlements were located about a  day’s travel from each other along a trail that became known as El Camino Real.  By 1823, the  El Camino Real connected twenty-one missions, two pueblos, and four presidios from Mission San Diego in the south, to Mission Sonoma in the north. The missions were not build sequentially starting from the south, but expanded from the major seaports of San Diego (1769), Monterey (1770), and San Francisco (1776).  Although Mission Delores in San Francisco was established only seven years after Mission San Diego, it took another 48 years before Mission Sonoma (San Francisco de Solano) was established.

The California Missions:
1769   San Diego de Alcalá - San Diego County.
1770   San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, (Carmel Mission) - Monterey County
1771   San Antonio de Padua - Monterey County.
1771   San Gabriel Archangel - Los Angeles County.
1772   San Luis Obispo de Tolosa - San Luis Obispo County.
1776   San Francisco de Asís, (Mission Delores) - San Francisco Co.
1776   San Juan Capistrano - Orange County.
1777   Santa Clara de Asís - Santa Clara County.

1797   San José -Alameda County.
1798   San Luis Rey de Francia - San Diego County.
1791   Santa Cruz - Santa Cruz County.
1782   San Buenaventura -Ventura County.
1786   Santa Bárbara - Santa Barbara County.
1787   La Purísima Concepción -Santa Barbara County.
1791   Nuestra Señora de la Soledad -Monterey County.
1797   San Juan Bautista -San Benito County.
1797   San Fernando Rey de España - Los Angeles County.
1797   San Miguel Arcangel  -San Luis Obispo County.
1804   Santa Inés -Santa Barbara County.
1817   San Rafael Arcángel -Marin County.
1823   San Francisco de Solano, (Mission Sonoma) -Sonoma County.

Exterior view of mission before 1835, Painting -- image from De Young Museum, San Francisco, California, Oriana Day, artist, c. 1861-1885