Early Fremont (Centerville) View
Finely colored example of this early view, showing the residence and farm of John Proctor of Centerville (now Fremont), California.
John Proctor (1812-1887) founded the first nursery in Washington Township (Alameda County) in 1853, and by 1861, cherries from these orchards were being sold for thirty cents a pound. Early settlers had brought many of the fruit trees either overland or through the Isthmus of Panama.
The post office opened Centreville post office in 1855 and changed the spelling to Centerville in 1893. It would later merge with the former towns of Mission San José, Centerville, Niles, Irvington, and Warm Springs to form Fremont in 1956.
The images appeared in Thompson & West's Official and Historical Atlas Map of Alameda County, California. Compiled, Drawn and Published from Personal Examinations and Surveys . . . Thompson & West's Alameda County Atlas is the definitive work of its kind for Alameda County from the 19th Century.