William Erwin Willmore (either 1844 or 1845 – January 16, 1901) was an English-born American
headmaster
A head master, head instructor, bureaucrat, headmistress, head, chancellor, principal or school director (sometimes another title is used) is the teacher, staff member of a school with the greatest responsibility for the management of the school ...
and the founder of a small colony named after him,Willmore City in 1876. This piece of land, roughly 4000 acres, partitioned from the former Los Cerritos ranchero, was bought by Jotham Bixby, who helped found what would initially become the city of
Long Beach, California
Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California.
Incorporate ...
. Willmore City was initially incorporated as a neighbourhood of the city of Long Beach in 1886.
Mr. Willmore was born in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
, supposedly in Sheffield, and moved to
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
in 1855 after the local magistrate seized his family's estate as a result of a government dispute with estate taxes that were due to the British crown. After several years of diligent planning of his colony, Mr. Willmore became a senior manager of the
California Immigrant Union The California Immigrant Union was an organization founded in 1869 to promote the settlement of California by people from the Eastern United States and from Europe. an organisation founded in 1869 to promote the Willmore City settlement on the partitioned lands of the Los Cerritos ranchero, that was later purchased by Jotham Bixby in Southern California. Mr. Willmore intended to create a thriving farm community on the prime oceanside real estate in Southern California, but his aspirations for expansion to build a city were not realised until after his death. Mr. Willmore died a
pauper
Pauperism (Lat. ''pauper'', poor) is poverty or generally the state of being poor, or particularly the condition of being a "pauper", i.e. receiving relief administered under the English Poor Laws. From this, pauperism can also be more generally ...
. William Erwin Willmore is buried at
Long Beach Municipal Cemetery
Long Beach Municipal Cemetery, is a cemetery established as early as 1901 and located at the northwest corner of Willow Street and Orange Avenue in Signal Hill, California. It is located next door, and east of Sunnyside Cemetery. It was formerly k ...
, at the northwestern corner of Orange Avenue and Willow Street in the city of Long Beach.