Livermore Heritage Guild

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.

05/27/2026

May 31 6pm-9pm - Livermore Heritage Guild Fundraising Auction for the Midway School Museum move to Hagemann Park. Dinner Tickets Sold Out! - PHOTOS of 47 LOTS via LHG website. Besides the Auction, we will have three side tables for books, grab bags, and jewelry.

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

05/11/2026

Full Postcard: Duarte Garage Open House 5/17 Sunday 10am-2pm - Car of the Month: 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air Nomad

05/07/2026

Livermore and the Bandits
from: CALIFORNIA, '46 to '88. by Jacob Wright Harlan, 1888

On March 6, 1849, my cousin, George, and myself being in San Jose´, we saw three men hanged, and three others whipped. The cause of their ex*****on was their having robbed and tried to murder a German, who was returning from the mines. He had three thousand five hundred dollars, and some way the robbers knew it. He had camped at a slough three miles west from Slocumb's ferry, which was the lowest ferry on the San Joaquin river. Shortly after he had camped, three men also camped about a mile from him, and before sundown these were joined by three more men. These men had followed the German to rob him. Three of them went to do the job, and the other three stayed in camp. The plan was to rob him, but not kill him. After they got his money and his gun, one of them named Mat. Fred said, "a dead man tells no tales," and shot him. He fell as if dead, but when the thieves were gone he got up, and wounded as he was, walked fifteen miles to Livermore's rancho. Livermore took care of him, and sent to San Jose´ and notified alcalde Dimmick, who took steps to capture the robbers. Livermore's son, who bore his father's message to the alcalde, got to San Jose´ in advance, and they carelessly rode into the town, and were taken. They were tried by the alcalde and a jury, and found guilty of robbery and attempt to murder, and the three who did the robbing and shooting were sentenced to be hanged, and the other three, as accomplices, were sentenced to receive one hundred and thirty lashes.

04/27/2026

6/19 to 7/12 Alameda County Fair - SIGN UP as FAIR VOLUNTEER - SPECIFY Livermore Heritage Guild - Harry Briley, Leader - Help at Exhibits, Entry Gates. Other - Will be on feet 4 hours

Looking to volunteer for the Alameda County Fair? Click here for the application this year's fair and fill out an application.

04/27/2026

Full Postcard. Auction Dinner Fundraiser - SUNDAY 5/31 6pm-8pm - RIGHT AFTER the Hagemann Ranch Open House - Tickets at: https://lhg.org/Event/Auction/Auction2026.html

04/14/2026

Full Postcard: 64 Chevy Pickup Truck at Durate Garage Open House 4/19 Sunday 10am-2pm

02/09/2026

Full Postcard- Duarte Garage Open House 2/15/2026 at 10am-2pm Car of the Month: 1965 Chevy Corvair Corsa