History

Farming has deep roots in East County

East County has a rich agricultural history that has not been diminished by time or development.

Dr. John Marsh purchased the land between Brushy Peak and the San Joaquin River in 1837, but after his death several years later, mining companies moved in and began to plan a town. As a blacksmith, saloon and other buildings went up, families began farming the land. Mild weather and rich soil allowed the production of vegetables as well as fruit and nut trees to grow into an industry as the 20th century turned into the 21st.

Robert and Barbara Cecchini currently run The Urban Edge Farm, and organic farm store on Walnut Boulevard, but their history goes back much farther. Robert Cecchini’s family began their relationship with Brentwood’s land in the 1920s, when his grandparents were tenant farmers in Bethel Island. His parents bought the land currently owned by the Cechinnis, though the original 3,000 acres has been downsized to 75 acres.

“We are still a family farm, but not a big family farm,” said Barbara Cecchini. “We have specialized in asparagus since the 1920s, and we still have a little 5-acre asparagus plot.”

The family currently has U-pick orchards for various stone fruits like cherries and peaches, as well as plots for vegetables and wine grapes.

Anyone familiar with East County has seen the signs advertising G&S Farms sweet corn. They are also known for their U-pick cherries and pumpkin patch. The organization’s seeds were sown in the 1940s with Emilio Ghiggeri, one of the first farmers to plant sweet corn in Brentwood. When Glenn Stonebarger – a third generation Brentwood farmer – married Ghiggeri’s daughter, Jeannie, a new business was born in G&S Farms.

“We’ve been here on the Stonebarger side since the 1920s and the Ghiggeri side since the 1930s,” Stonebarger said. “It’s a family run organization. We think of ourselves as being very small, family-oriented farmers. I have two sons that work in the business, and a nephew.”

The family is currently working on raising its fifth generation of Brentwood farmers.

The Bloomfields are another local farming family, producing a variety of row and permanent crops since the 1940s. Tom Bloomfield and his wife, Becky, run the business with their sons, who are fifth generation farmers. Bloomfield’s great-grandfather purchased the original piece of property on Bixler and Orwood roads and the family has diversified their business to include vegetables, U-pick cherries and award-winning vineyards.

“We used to have our own packing shed in Oakley, where we packed melons and tomatoes and table grapes and all kinds of things for export,” said Becky Bloomfield, who runs Co.Co. Wine Company, the family’s tasting room in downtown Brentwood. “We grow almonds, wine grapes, cherries, and then we just planted two acres of peaches just for fun and we grow different grasses for livestock.”

McCauley is another well-known name in the local farming scene, though it doesn’t posses the longevity of some of its counterparts. Brothers Sean and Glen McCauley grew up in East County on their father’s farm. The family began with produce, then moved into poultry.

“We had the largest poultry farm in Contra Costa County from 1979 to about 1989,” said Sean McCauley. “When the earthquake happened, it collapsed all the cages and my dad went out of business, it was awful. Then, when me and my brother were old enough to work on our own, we eventually bought back all our property.”

Currently, the McCauleys farm 3,000 acres of wheat, barley and safflower, as well as 250 acres of olives and 25 acres of wine grapes. The family sells their olive oil in their store front, McCauley Olive Groves, in Brentwood. They also have a pest control business.

The Urban Edge Farm organic farm store is located at 2017 Walnut Blvd. For more information, visit https://www.theurbanedgefarm.com/.

G&S Farms is located at 1151 Chestnut Street in Brentwood. For information on their U-pick cherries and other activities, visit https://www. gsfarms.net/.

Co.Co. County Wine Company is located at 633 First St. in Brentwood. For more information on Bloomfield Wines, call 925-6349463. For information on Bloomfield U-pick season, visit https://www. bloomfieldcherries.com/.

McCauley Olive Groves is located at 380 West Country Club Drive, Suite G, in Brentwood. For more information, call 925-754-6457 or visit https:// mccauleyolivegroves.com/. W

Onion Farmers, 1909

East County’s Storied Past

More than 1,000 years ago, Native Americans called the East County area home. The Bay Miwok and Yokut Indians preceded Spanish explorer Pedro Fages, who in 1772, led the first European parties through the area. More than a century passed before European settlers arrived to put down roots.

ANTIOCH

On Sept. 16, 1850, the first settlers arrived at the foot of what is now F Street in Antioch. The town was named after the ancient, biblical city in Syria. The town incorporated in February 1872, with a population of only 600. The year 1876 saw the introduction of a narrow-gauge railway between Antioch and the mining town of Stewartsville six miles to the south, at the site of today’s Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve.

In 1851, Antioch got its first school, provided by a ship owner who donated the galley of his beached vessel to serve as the building. Some of Antioch’s early businesses included brick kilns, coal mining, a copper smelter, several potteries and a distillery.

By the early 1900s, Antioch was only about 700 residents strong, but the population began to skyrocket in the 1920s with the construction of the Antioch Bridge and Fulton Shipyards. During World War II, 27 vessels were built in Antioch for the U.S. Navy.

By 1970, Antioch had grown to 28,500 residents. Built on inexpensive land, residential development further increased the citizenry to an estimated 47,000 by the mid-1980s. Today, the population tops 112,600.

BRENTWOOD

One of the first pioneers to settle in the Brentwood area was a doctor named John Marsh. He built a stately mansion out of stone, which still stands today on Marsh Creek Road. Marsh was murdered in 1856 before he ever moved into the house. The name Brentwood is believed to have come from the Marsh family’s hometown of Brentwood, England.

City development was hastened by the discovery of coal in the Mount Diablo foothills. By 1874, the first structures were popping up on Oak Street.

Fertile soils and the coming of the railroad in 1890 helped make the area the largest shipping point for grain between New Orleans and San Francisco. The English land speculation company Balfour Guthrie installed a vast irrigation system that improved land values, allowing farmers to grow row crops and fruit trees and firmly establish the town’s agricultural core.

Brentwood incorporated as a city in 1948. It remained a small agricultural community until the last decade of the century, when its proximity to the financial centers of the Bay Area and its relatively affordable housing triggered rapid growth. The population grew nearly five times from 1990 to today’s 66,000-plus, bringing a suburban lifestyle and the related influx of goods and services to the formerly rural area. Efforts to preserve its agricultural heritage continues today.

OAKLEY

The discovery of Native American artifacts in Big Break clearly establishes Oakley as a site of that earlier culture. The first evidence of European settlers in the city can be traced to Randolph C. Marsh, one of its first landowners (no relation to pioneer Dr. John Marsh).

In 1897, Marsh arrived and foresaw that the area could produce successful crops. He purchased 12 acres of land, plotted the town and named the first five streets Main, Acme, Ruby, Star and Home, spelling MARSH with the initials of each street name. Nicknamed “sandlappers” by critics who said crops would never grow in the sandy soil, the early settlers proved otherwise, turning Oakley into a bountiful source of fresh fruits and vegetables.

In the 1930s, Oakley’s Main Street was dotted with packing sheds, and agriculture was shipped via the railroad throughout the nation. Oakley became a city in 1999.

DISCOVERY BAY

Discovery Bay is a unique community in Contra Costa County. The idea was born in 1970, when the Veronica Development Company envisioned a water-oriented community where you could “live where you play,” which became the town’s motto.

Those who put their faith in the project haven’t been sorry. Lots they purchased for $15,000 have sold in recent years for 10 to 15 times that amount. Developer Ken Hofmann opened sales in 1978, and buyers slept in the streets in order to get the lot of their choice.

In 1984, Discovery Bay unveiled its crown jewel: an 18-hole championship golf course. The final bays of the original Discovery Bay development opened in 1988.

In 1997, Discovery Bay became a community services district, assuming oversight of most of its own activities beyond land-use decisions and emergency services. Land-use regulations and police services are overseen by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors, while fire service is provided by the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District.

The expansion of the community, Discovery Bay West, began in 2000, at which time the official name of the community became The Town of Discovery Bay.

In 2007, Discovery Bay was granted its own ZIP code, 94505, as its population grew past 14,000.

BETHEL ISLAND

In 1860, a Mr. Stone reclaimed the land known as Bethel Island under the Swamp and Over Flowed Act of 1855. It was named Stone Tract. Ten years later, he sold the land to Maj. William K. Bethel, who used it to grow feed for the dairy herd on the island.

Though it was officially named in 1898, Bethel Island actually became an island in the 1890s when surrounding sloughs were dredged.

The Bethel Island Bridge, a onelane wooden plank structure, was built in 1918. During this same time, the island was farmed by William J. Hotchkiss who purchased 1,317 acres to grow potatoes, beans and sugar beets.

During the 1920s and ’30s, Bethel Island became known as a fishing paradise and haven for hunters. Harbors were built along the island’s waterfront, and recreation flourished. Electricity was first brought to the island in 1946.

In 2010, a new Bethel Island bridge replaced the aging wooden structure that provided the only access to the island.

Byron Blacksmith, 1900s

BYRON

The town of Byron was founded in 1878, when the San Pablo and Tulare Railroad Company built a track connecting Contra Costa and San Joaquin counties, though settlers had been in the area for many years.

After finding no luck in the Sierra Nevada gold mines, German immigrant Henry Wilkening built a house on land he purchased near a planned railroad station. He became Byron’s first postmaster and built the town’s first hotel, saloon and livery stable.

In the 1860s, R.O. Risdon discovered the Byron Hot Springs. His nephew, Lewis Risdon Mead, discovered more than 50 springs, ranging in temperature from 52 to 140 degrees.

Mead developed the now-idle Byron Hot Springs, popular with the rich and famous in the 1920s and ’30s. In 1938, the resort was closed and sold to the government, which used it as a prisoner of war interrogation center during World War II. The property currently remains unoccupied.

KNIGHTSEN

Knightsen was founded in 1898, when the Sante Fe Railroad made its preliminary survey through the area.

George W. Knight, a native of Maine, purchased 110 acres of land from Lazarus Barkley, acreage that eventually became the town of Knightsen. The name Knightsen was derived from Knight’s last name and the last three letters of his wife’s maiden name, Christensen.

Dairies were established in the early 1900s. In the 1920s, the Knightsen Irrigation District brought water to the fields, allowing farmers to plant a wide variety of crops. The Knightsen Farm Bureau was established in 1918, and the Farm Bureau Center is still a community gathering place.

Recently, Knightsen received official historical designation for several of its downtown buildings.

Historical information was compiled from “Footprints in the Sand,” by Kathy Leighton, the East Contra Costa Historical Society, the Antioch Chamber of Commerce and the Antioch Historical Society. W

Byron Boys 1900s

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