Fitch Mountain
Picture postcard of "Fitch Mountain and Russian River at Healdsburg, Cal." Published for M. D. Silberstein, Healdsburg, Cal. by M. Rieder, Los Angeles, Cal. No. 4825. Made in Germany. This particular card, with a one-cent green Franklin stamp, was postmarked Healdsburg, Cal., Jul. 5, [no year given]. It was addressed to Mrs. Keith Skinner, 1542 Milvia St., Berkeley, [no state given]. The message reads, "Hope you had a nice day," and it is signed "Agnes."
Fitch Mountain lies in a bend in the Russian River, east of Healdsburg in Sonoma Co., CA. On 28 Sep. 1841, Governor Micheltorena of what was then part of Mexico, granted the Rancho Sotoyome, 48,836.51 acres in the Mendocino and Russian River townships of Sonoma Co. to Capt. Henry Delano Fitch (1799-1849), No. 3074. On 18 Apr. 1853, a U.S. commission confirmed the grant to Henry’s widow, Josefa. Their third son, Guillermo (William) married Clara Pina, whose relatives owned 17,000 acres next to the Fitch ranch. The fifth child, Josefa (Josephine) married John M. Bailhache, and the seventh child, Ysabella (Isabella) married John Doty Grant, both of whose family names are now commemorated by small community names in southeast Healdsburg.