Livermore Heritage Guild

06/09/2026

Full postcard: June 28 from 1pm to 5pm - Open House at Hagemann Ranch - Cowboy Poetry- Livermore Police Mounted Horse Patrol - Ranch Chores in back Yard for Children - Tim Barry Band (Yes, LIVE Music)

06/08/2026

Also, 150 years ago: on Sunday, June 4, 1876, a train named the Transcontinental Express arrived at the Central Pacific Railroad Station in San Francisco, California in the record-breaking time of 83 hours & 39 minutes after leaving the station at New York City – an historic & triumphant 3,000-mile journey from coast to coast that had reduced what had once been a six-month trek to a mere three & one-half days. And, Livermore was there to see it.

A Flash of Train Lightning
Whew, whiz, Look out at “Herald” of June 1st and she’s gone. One old gent who had turned out at 3 o’clock in the morning vituperated wildly because he was taken aback without his goggles on. About 8:26 a.m. Sunday morning the streak of Train Lightning touched Livermore, traveling at no less than 50 miles an hour. There was no lingering to worship, it was simply a flash of Railroad fire and all is over. It is in one respect a pity that the great promoters, and the occupants of those aerial cars winging thro “space” were hurried by at such velocity as to prevent their taking in the magnificence of this “pick-ter-es-kee” valley, but the fates were unyielding and we find by the affidavit of our omnipresent reporter of the Enterprise, who was of course on the Train with the Chronicle and Call men that the company confessed their deepest sorrow at the disappointment.

Livermore Enterprise, June 10, 1876

06/06/2026

06/04/2026

For the 125th Celebration of the Longest Working Lightbulb - Celebration at the Fire Station on East Avenue THIS Saturday 6/6 from 10am to 2pm. Park in the LARPD parking lot behind the Fire Station.

06/04/2026

Full Postcard Image: Duarte Garage Open House 6/21 from 10am to 2pm - Car of the Month: 1953 MGTD

06/03/2026

Election Betting

Today you can easily bet on the outcome of an election on your phone using Polymarket. But, the wager between the sons of William Mendenhall and hotelier Antone Bardellini seems more exciting.

“W. W. Mendenhall last Saturday performed the wheelbarrow act by wheeling Jos. Bardellini from The Washington Hotel down First Street to the flouring mill and back to the music of a snare drum and accompanied by a large delegation of small boys. The performance was the result of a bet on the presidential election; Mendenhall betting on Cleveland (Harrison won). As the wheelbarrow procession was passing along East First Street, a horse driven by Mrs. Mary Martin became frightened and backed against the hitching rails in front of G.W. Lindey’s store, demolished one of the wheels of her carriage. Jos. Bardellini tendered to the lady the use of his own carriage while the damaged vehicle is being repaired, and will pay for the damage done.”

06/01/2026

Robert Livermore Cleans Up

In 1893, General John Bidwell told the Chico Chronicle Record how a house was cleared of fleas at a time when the insects were very numerous in California.

“I had been sent for by Mr. Livermore, after whom Livermore valley is named, to do some surveying, but at the close of the second day I said to Mrs. Livermore who was a Mexican lady, I must go away, the fleas are so bad that I cannot stay here.”
“Come,” said I “and look at my blanket,” which I had spread over a low fence near the house. It was covered with many fleas. “Oh, that is nothing,” said she, “look at the blankets of my little girls,” I did so and they were almost black with the insects, while her baby had been bitten till its whole body was covered with red spots.

I went away, but returned about a month later. There was not a flea in the house. “How did you get rid of them?” I asked Mr. Livermore, “It was very simple,” was the answer. “We moved everything out doors and slept under the trees for a few nights. Then I built a fence around the house and turned into the corral my band of a thousand sheep. Each morning the sheep were driven back over the hills a mile or two and at night they were placed in the corral and in the house. At the end of the week there was not a flea on the place.”

The fleas had literally jumped sheeeeeep.

05/22/2026

A Livermore Lady of Letters:
Ella Ladora Whitmore Brackett Gregory, 1852-1932

In 1875, teacher, Mrs. Ella Brackett, was appointed Principal of the Livermore Public School. Not only that, she was hailed as the first woman Principal of a large school in Alameda County. A graduate of San Francisco Normal School, she began her teaching career at Inman District School, which was located on what today would be the north side of I580, west of the Airway Blvd. interchange.

Ella was the daughter of Charles Whitmore, a dry goods merchant who brought his family from Maine to California in 1850. In 1870, they moved to Laddsville. Charles built a commercial building in Livermore on the southwest corner of K & First Streets and opened a store. Like her father, Ella moved around northern California a bit before spending her final days with her second husband on a ranch in the East Avenue district.

In 1872, an Oakland Daily Transcript reporter stopped by the Inman School and wrote this: “About a mile from [Alexander] Esdon’s and also on the road to Dublin is what is called Hinman’s [Inman] School House. This is a handsome new structure, and with the chaste and appropriate furniture, reflects the highest credit upon the people of the District. A few words with reference to the present teacher, Miss Ella Whitmore, and we shall close this desultory letter. This very amiable, beautiful young lady, we believe to have been born in California [Maine], but this is immaterial. Her father, years ago, in company with Mr. McDonald, now a merchant in Graysonville, owned a large store at Walnut Creek, in Contra Costa county, early pioneer friends of ours, with whom we crossed the plains in 1848, resided within two or three miles of this store and when visiting our friends, we frequently had occasion to visit Whitmore & McDonald’s to mail and receive letters, for the postoffice was kept at their store. Our attention was attracted on each occasion to the gambols of two pretty little girls whom we soon found to be daughters of Mr. Whitmore. The gentleman with his partner, Mr. McDonald, we think moved to Healdsburg, on Russian river, and we lost sight of the little beauties. Years flow apace and Mr. Whitmore moved to San Francisco, where he was in business for some time. His daughters attended school from the time they could almost pronounce words distinctly and when at Frisco, Ella distinguished herself by intellectual attainments at the Normal School. By and by, the family moved to the new town of Livermore, where Mr. Whitmore is the owner of the large stores referred to, and the whilom [once] little beauty of Walnut Creek is now the Miss Ella Whitmore, Preceptress of the Hinman [Inman] School. She is a young lady of sweet disposition, fine conversational talent, but unassuming and indeed somewhat retiring manner, but we assure you endowed with rare intellectual faculties and of inestimable worth. Some time ago we had the pleasure of reading an essay written by her and read at the Normal School in Frisco. Her theme was a strange one, entitled “Rocks,” and any one perusing it would have no difficulty in discovering that the fair authoress is well versed in Geology. We fervently home for the gifted young Ella abundance of prosperity and unalloyed happiness in the future.”

-alpd

05/14/2026

William Mendenhall laid out the original tract for the Town of Livermore, but it was the subsequent tracts laid out by other developers that created the City we know today. One of these was Alexander Esdon, who owned considerable acreage on the north side of the railroad tracks. In 1875, he laid out the Northern Addition. Three years before, in 1872, he was visited at his ranch by an Oakland Daily Times reporter who wrote this:

“Livermore valley contains an area of one hundred thousand acres. We are indebted to Mr. Alexander Esdon for this information, a reliable gentleman and of much intelligence, who had assisted in making the survey. Mr. Esdon resides about a mile and a half from Livermore on the road leading to Dublin. His fine residence with its numerous office houses will instantly attract the attention. His grounds are embellished and with great taste with numerous ornamental trees and shrubbery. Among the former and predominating in number the exquisitely beautiful Monterey pine and cypress. He has an orchard and vineyard of course, and a kitchen garden containing a variety of vegetables, growing luxuriantly. We visited Mr. Esdon some five or six years ago when he told us he had planted an acorn some few months before our visit. “Come and see,” said he; and we saw that it had germinated and shot forth a small shrub of a few inches from the surface of the earth. In this visit, two or three weeks ago, he inquired if we remembered the circumstance. Very well, said we; and we were shown to our astonishment a beautiful thriving tree. In the interval of our first and recent visit, or friend had married, and we were happy in being introduced to his handsome and amiable wife and two beautiful and interesting children, of course the cynosures of their parent’s eyes. Mr. Esdon is the owner of a splendid farm of no less than seventeen hundred and fifty acres, which he has cultivated for a series of years with much success. He has now rented it to some persons who were busily engaged in plowing, when we were there, while Mr. E. looks after his stock, horses, cattle and flock of sheep elsewhere.”

-apd