Beverly Richford Holliday was born on December 22, 1823 in Warren County, Kentucky. Holliday came to California to look for gold. Not finding enough to live on, he became a logger working in the nearby Redwood Groves of Oakland and Moraga. By January of 1850, he was ready to return to teaching.
According to the History of Contra Costa County, “The first school in Martinez, in the early part of 1850, was taught by Beverly R. Holliday. Holliday had his first experience in school-teaching in Illinois, at the early age of fifteen years. After coming to Martinez, he passed an examination and was declared qualified to teach. His school at first consisted of five or six pupils from two or three families. These students gathered in the Blossom house, later known as the Gift house, near Thomas Hill, at the entrance of Bay View Park. During the two terms that Holliday taught the number of pupils increased from six to twenty-six. In the fall of 1850, he was succeeded by M. Laughlin.”
In 1852, Beverly R. Holliday was Justice of the Peace. In 1854, he and John Livingston purchase the five acres of Alhambra Cemetery at a Sheriff’s auction. On August 4, 1868, he became County Public Administrator until 1869.
B. R. Holliday was married to Jane Ann Holliday from Pennsylvania, and had six children: Mary J., Charles Hiram, William Beverly, Minerva L., Eliza and George.
Beverly Richford Holliday died on August 11, 1908 Along with Beverly and Jane, two of their children, William B. and Eliza (Nellie Holliday Brackman) are also buried in the Alhambra Cemetery.
The original content of this post was taken from the previous website and updated for republishing in 2021.