28/01/2015
Its time for - Guess the Name of this Bay Area town...
It was once home to the Seunen Indians, Ohlone/Costanoans who lived adjacent to the valley creeks. After 1797 it was Mission San Jose grazing land; later it included Jose Maria Amador's 16,000 plus acre Rancho.
American settlers first came to this town in 1850 when Leo and Mary Jane Norris purchased 4,450 acres of land from Amador. Other early landowners were William Lynch, James Dougherty, and Major Samuel Russell. In 1852 Joel and Minerva Harlan bought land from Norris and built a house on what became the Alameda-Contra Costa County line in 1853.
Many of the founding families are remembered today because their names grace various canyons, hills and streets. Some of these pioneers were Norris, Lynch, Harlan, McCamley, Crow, Bollinger, Meese, Glass, and Wiedemann. Both the Harlan home (1858) and the Wiedemann home (1865) near Norris Canyon still stand in their original locations.
It was called Brevensville (for blacksmith Eli Breven), Lynchville (for William Lynch) and Limerick (for the many Irish settlers). In 1873 when a permanent post office was finally established, it got its name that we still call it today.
During the 1860s the village became a hub of community activity. In 1864 a stage line established by Brown and Co. ran from here to Oakland. A church was dedicated in 1860, the general store was built in 1863 and students left their home-based classrooms to attend the grammar school beginning in 1867. Saloons, a jail, Chinese wash houses and blacksmith shops lined County Road No. 2..
In 1895 attorney Thomas Bishop acquired 3,000 acres of Norris land The Bishop Ranch raised cattle and sheep and was planted to hay, grain, diversified fruit crops and walnuts. Bishop Shropshire purebred sheep earned numerous awards. The Ranch was partially irrigated from an underground aquifer and at one point possessed the world's largest single orchard of Bartlett pears.
As with the entire Tri-Valley, agriculture was the basis for economy until suburban development began. In 1966 the new Interstate 680 freeway was completed through here.
In 1983 this town's voters decided overwhelmingly to incorporate as a separate city and took control over development, police, parks and other services. A new library, community center, parks and hospital testify to the energy which the new city displayed.