The artifact of the month for February, 2006, is a sampler made by Healdsburg founder Harmon Heald’s niece, Mary Elizabeth Heald Ridenhour, in 1853. At the time Mary stitched the sampler she was a student at the Santa Clara Seminary, established on the site of Mission Santa Clara de Asís, the eighth of the original 21 California missions (now known as Santa Clara University). During this early period there were not yet any schools in the area that became Healdsburg, so Mary Elizabeth was sent to Santa Clara for her education. The college was founded in 1851 by the Society of Jesus as "Santa Clara College and originally operated as a preparatory school.

Brothers Harmon, Thomas and Samuel Heald headed west from their family homestead in Missouri in 1849 following the news of the discovery of gold in California. Eventually after illness and attempts at mining, in 1850 Samuel Heald was hired to build a combination flour and lumber mill on the Upper Falls of Mill Creek. His brothers followed him to the Russian River vicinity. Eventually Thomas Heald became manager of operations at the mill. Harmon Heald, recovering from illness, built a log cabin along the main wagon road to Mendocino and other northern California counties. 

The Heald brothers were so enthusiastic about the Russian River area that they sent Samuel Heald back to Missouri in 1851 to bring the rest of the family. Samuel brought with him his mother, Elizabeth Tatlow Heald, brothers George and Jacob Heald, Jacob’s wife and child, his sister Sarah Heald, and his ten-year-old niece Mary Elizabeth Heald. Available records do not indicate what happened to Mary Elizabeth’s parents, but it is presumed that they died when she was young. The party arrived in the Russian River vicinity in 1852.  

The following year Mary was attending the new school at the former Mission Santa Clara. She remained at Santa Clara for a relatively short period before moving back to Sonoma County. When Mary Heald was 14 years old in 1856, she married Lewis William Ridenhour, who had come across the plains in 1849 in search of gold, but then went into farming in Sonoma County. The couple settled in a farm southwest of Healdsburg where they owned a vast acreage of farm land. There they raised ten children. The Ridenhour home was located near the current site of Korbel Winery on River Road.

Ridenhour Family

Top row, left to right - Ellen Ridenhour, Louis E. (Abe) Ridenhour, William Ridenhour, Hilton Ridenhour, Emma Ridenhour
 

Bottom row, left to right - Annie Ridenhour, Louis Ridenhour, Mary Elizabeth (Heald) Ridenhour, Ida Ridenhour

The above was researched and written by Whitney Hopkins 

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