FIRST SETTLERS...
The first settlers of this area, other than the native Miwoks, were the Reeds, who received the Rancho Corte Madera land grant from the Mexican government in 1834. After California became a state in 1850, homesteaders Van Reynegom, Dowd, Collins, Gardiner, Cummins, Dolan, and Tierney claimed the land for dairies on the grassy hillsides above the wetlands. Speculators Valentine, Forbes, and Coleman soon grabbed the land and sold it to McCue, Pixley, Adams, Chapman, and Bradbury in the later 1800s. As the new owners then developed their properties, a community began to emerge. The excerpt below from the 1870 Marin District Map below shows the location of the various homesteaders' lands that later became part of Corte Madera, Larkspur, and Mill Valley.
The first settlers of this area, other than the native Miwoks, were the Reeds, who received the Rancho Corte Madera land grant from the Mexican government in 1834. After California became a state in 1850, homesteaders Van Reynegom, Dowd, Collins, Gardiner, Cummins, Dolan, and Tierney claimed the land for dairies on the grassy hillsides above the wetlands. Speculators Valentine, Forbes, and Coleman soon grabbed the land and sold it to McCue, Pixley, Adams, Chapman, and Bradbury in the later 1800s. As the new owners then developed their properties, a community began to emerge. The excerpt below from the 1870 Marin District Map below shows the location of the various homesteaders' lands that later became part of Corte Madera, Larkspur, and Mill Valley.
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McCue's Remedy
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Click here to read about James McCue.
Click here to read more about James McCue.
Click here to read another story about James McCue.
Click here to read of James McCue's death.
Click here to read about probate of his estate.
AMelia van reynegom and Frank Morrison Pixley
John Van Reynegom, a sea captain whose crew abandoned ship in 1848 to head for the gold fields, was the first homesteader in Corte Madera, filing a claim in 1861 for 160 acres stretching from what is now Chapman Meadows to Baltimore Canyon, where he and his family had built a simple dwelling and established a small farm in 1848. When his daughter Amelia married Frank M. Pixley in 1853,
she set the course for the history of Corte Madera.
Click here to read about the Van Reynegom family and the Pixley family.
Click here to read a biography of Frank Morrison Pixley.
Click here to read the article published when Frank M. Pixley died in 1895.
Click here to read about Amelia Van Reynegom Pixley.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_M._Pixley
she set the course for the history of Corte Madera.
Click here to read about the Van Reynegom family and the Pixley family.
Click here to read a biography of Frank Morrison Pixley.
Click here to read the article published when Frank M. Pixley died in 1895.
Click here to read about Amelia Van Reynegom Pixley.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_M._Pixley
Amelia Van Reynegom Pixley, Frank Morrison Pixley, Frank Morrison Pixley in 1890s
SAN FRANCISCO CALL - 5 January 1913
