Amelia V. R. Pixley

Amelia (Van Reynegom) Pixley (1832-1898) was the daughter of a sea captain who, in 1848, sailed with his wife and child around Cape Horn to San Francisco. The family settled in what became Marin County and helped develop the town of Corte Madera. Amelia married San Francisco City Attorney Frank Morrison Pixley (1825-1895) in 1853. Amelia and Frank lived in San Francisco, near the Presidio, in a mansion on the block bounded by Union, Steiner, Green and Pierce Streets. Frank was elected Assemblyman, was a Regent of the University of California and held other Board positions. He founded a literary magazine called the San Francisco Argonaut that published authors such as Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce. When Amelia's father died in 1879, the couple took over the Corte Madera ranch, dubbing it Owl's Wood.