*** Source: Thompson, Robert A., Historical and descriptive sketch of Sonoma County, California. Philadelphia: L.H. Everts & Co., 1877, 122 pgs. Notice: This data is donated to the Public Domain by TAG, 2004, and may be copied freely by anyone to anywhere. *** ---page 89--- others whose names we cannot at this moment recall. There was an English- man of some notoriety who settled above March's mill, in 1851, named Frank Maryatt. He afterward published in book-form some very intresting remi- niscences of his life on Russian river, under the title of "Mountain and Mole-hill, or Recollections of a Burnt Journal." FOUNDERS OF THE TOWN. The people in that section did not crystalize around a centre until 1856, when the town of Healdsburg was laid off by Harmon G. Heald, who pur- chased the tract from the estate of H. D. Fitch. Among the first to give it a start, were Heald, Mitchell and Hooper. In 1857 the first post-office, which had been called Russian River, was changed to Healdsburg. H. G. Heald and H. M. Willson started a store, a man by the name of Moore a blacksmith shop, and Heald and Harris a hotel. Thus Healdsburg had its start, and grew rapidly. On the 20th day of November, 1857, the population was reported at five hundred. There were two brick stores erected by Mr. Rathburn, an academy building for one hundred and twenty-five students, a fire company, with en- gines and ladders, a Masonic hall, Sons of Temperance and concert hall, three livery stables, a paint shop, a billiard saloon, and twenty business houses,--in all about one hundred and twenty houses. Healdsburg, from its location and surrounding salubrious climate and many material advantages, would have soon grown to be a town of the first import- ance but for the unsettled condition of land titles, which retarded its progress. The land was owned by absentees who had bought up the original Spanish titles on speculation. A large number of persons came into the valley and settled upon these lands just as they would have done on public land. The efforts made to dispossess them led to the so-called squatter war, of which Healdsburg was the seat. It lasted for about seven years, and at one time more than a thousand men were arrayed upon either side. Captain L. A. Norton was agent for most of the land owners, and by a wise and liberal policy sold the squatters at reasonable rates and on a long time, the land which they had improved, and thus gradually put an end to this great obstacle in the road of progress. We have here space only for a glance at the past history of Healdsburg. In 1867 the town was incorporated under the law of the State, as it then ex- isted. A board of trustees was elected, and L. A. Norton was the first presi- dent of the board. A full list of trustees and other town officers, from the first board down the present, will elsewhere be found in this book. In 1874 a special law was passed, incorporating under a charter the present city of Healdsburg. The population of Healdsburg is about two thousand five hundred. The people are enterprising and public-spirited, always ready when called upon to promote the interests of the city or the surrounding country. Great interest has always been taken in education by the people of Healdsburg. There are two excellent private academies; the Alexander Institute and the Butler Academy. Both are conducted with marked ability, and give great *** end ***