Most founders of Southern Californian cities were built by well off tycoons or men who started from the ground up and became somewhat rich. Long Beach, once called Willmore City has a different story. First there were hundreds of years of colonization from the Spanish who directed a genocide on the natives of the LA Basin. Then Mexico was born out of a revolution who controlled “Alta California” until their loss of the Mexican-American War (1846-47). Subsequently, the land was now taken over by The United States whose businessmen, working class, and scoundrels of all sorts migrated west for new opportunity. One man built a foundation for one of the most beloved cities in the area and died broke seeing his dream come true without him. Here is what we know about The Founder of Long Beach City, Ca.
It is said that in 1870 a twenty-six-year-old man was traveling from Wilmington to Anaheim with others when they decided to stop and view the ocean before moving ahead. He and a friend lagged behind to admire the site while the group moved on. This young man was William Erwin Willmore. In this moment William tells his friend that one day the area would be a great port and city. This seems to be a made-up event according to some like the authors of “Port Town by George & Carmela Cunningham”. Regardless it’s a starting point for where the rest of his story is grounded in sited history.
After this supposed moment William left California all together, working up and down the west coast into Oregon and Washington for 6 years. Once he returned to California, he was hired as the manager of the California Immigration Union (CIU). You see, William wasn’t American, he was English and at the time The west coast needed bodies to settle and work the land. This effort was to benefit only European immigrants, however. The Chinese in the US were seen as a threat by union workers and racists. By 1882 the Chinese Exclusion Act had passed excluding any immigrants from China for the next ten years. The CIU was looking toward the eastern part of the US and back to Europe. Willmore’s job was to meet and organize these people moving westward. One particular group he met with were a band of teachers who wanted to grow grape some 3 miles away from where Fresno, Ca is now. Willmore wasn’t just a Long Beach figure. Like most businessmen of the time, especially founders of cities, they were very mobile traveling all of the land accessible making deals and building futures for many.
The exact date isn’t pinned down although it was around 1880 when William proposed his town idea to the CIU and the owner of the land he had his eyes on for this waterfront development, Jotham Bixby. The land had been terraformed for cattle and farmland during Spanish rule. Now in 1880 the acreage was split into very large Ranchos (ranches). This proposed project was the oceanside of what was then Los Cerritos Rancho whose current owners were The Bixby Family through the land company J. Bixby & Co. Jotham Bixby was very active in the union and already started to plot his land into different tracks for residents and smaller farms. From the looks of it, William proposed the idea, the CIU/Bixby agreed, and it was dubbed “The American Colony”.
The Development would be some 4000 acres along the coast with Willmore as its appointed manager. Other notable men are William H. Martin and C.T. Healey. Martin was an agent of the CIU whose job was to promote the development in Northern California. Healey was a Surveyor Captain who was hired to draw up the original starter plan for the project; eight by ten blocks wide extending from the ocean. These two were a part of a growing number of men involved with the development.
The American Colony was announced to the public in late 1880 and ‘excursions’ for buyers were to start the same time the following year. This is where problems became apparent. It took until February of ’82 for tours to begin and they were abysmal according to CIU standards. The land wasn’t any more than just that, land. Buyers didn’t see the potential. By June of that year the organization backed out of the deal. One can surmise the issue was infrastructure, mainly water. Once the CIU left the agreement William formed The American Colony Land, Water and Town Association (ACLWTA). Willmore then turned to another benefactor, Judge Robert M. Widney. Robert was not only the attorney for the original project, but he also founded The University of Southern California and was involved in other developments with his brother Dr. Joseph Widney.
Upon Widney’s first visit to the site he was met with nothing but a shack on the gully corner of what is now 1st and Pine. Willmore met him there and broke bread through the night sleeping on makeshift hay mats at the location. New agreements were made. Widney reorganized the ACLWTA bringing in his own men; Willmore as secretary, J.H. Lester as president, and Widney and T.J. Morrison as managers. William then renegotiated his contract with J. Bixby and Co. He was to pay $25,000 by December 1882, $30,000 in June of ’83, and the rest in June of ’84- a daunting task to say the least. It is at this time when auctions for the land were promoted as Willmore City instead of the “American Colony”. With a new team, name, and revised contracts things seemed positive, until they weren’t.
Widney and Willmore spent their time and money building infrastructure to sway potential buyers. Widney invested in a rail line that was swept away multiple times by rainfall and eventually a water system was built by Willmore. In the end it was not enough. By May of 1884 Willmore’s funds ran dry, and he bought his way out of the contract with the Bixbys for $1. The land from the project was then obtained by Pomeroy & Mills, a new business his partner Robert Widney was now a part of. William was paid $8000 for the water system by said company and ultimately left the area. If Willmore wasn’t a part of the development anymore the town needed a new name. Almost immediately after his departure the colony was renamed “Long Beach” suggested by the wife of the settlement’s postmaster Belle Lowe.
In 1886 a real estate boom occurred in Southern California. The lure of job opportunities, better climate, and a war between railroad companies that dropped the price of tickets from $150 to $1 made this boom possible. Year after year the city grew with almost the exact vision William had. New men with vigor and money were investing in the town with additional funds pouring in from retail resident investors as well. The city was being owned and operated by the locals more or less. Willmore just wasn’t there to see it.
Time passed and not much is known about his whereabouts after 1884 until his reappearance in 1899. He returned to what was now Long Beach from a “poor farm” in Downey, CA. This is the bittersweet part of our local mystery. The men who went forward without Willmore can be seen in a negative light most definitely, but the migrants who settled in the area actually were the type of community he wanted to build. In his last days he was discovered by a woman named Ida Crowe in the First Baptist Church. Ida discovered who he was and his situation. He had been living in a tent with only 5 cents in his possession. Crowe moved Willmore into her home and introduced him to other members of the Long Beach Community.
Locals gathered around William helping him set up a fruit stand on Pine Avenue. It didn’t last long. After the business failed, he was back on the streets, drinking, telling his story to anyone who would listen. He died on January 16th, 1901, in the home of Ida Crowe and was buried at the Long Beach Municipal Cemetery. His grave site went unmarked for 12 years until the Signal Hill Civic League raised money to do something about it.
The Willmore City Historical District is now a neighborhood right next to Downtown Long Beach. It is filled with beautiful homes built from that era that are now protected by the city. It spans from Anaheim down to 4th Street, Pacific Ave to the LA River (I’m currently writing this from an apartment built in 1919 inside the district). Many people see the signs, the houses… but who asks how it all started?
The spirits of Ida Crowe and Mr. Willmore are still with us. We can hear their story when talking to locals who’ve been priced out, go unacknowledged, or used by higher powers within the local structure. The difference between us an Mr. Willmore is that he established this place alone with no “community” to defend him until it was too late. We take for granted the neighbor-hood we have gained because of this one man’s actions. If we organize as a people, we can make great changes for ourselves and future generations. We all just have to do our little part to see that change.