William Erwin Willmore was an English-born American headmaster 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. Willmore City was initially incorporated as a neighbourhood of the city of Long Beach in 1886.