The first residents of Whitmore were probably squatters who came to eastern Shasta County during the 1849 gold rush. Until Congress passed the Homestead Law in 1862, California did not own the land and could not issue deeds. Many ranchers who lived in the Millville and Palo Cedro areas used the Whitmore area for summer grazing.

Alexander Franklin Miller and Campbell Bates Miller are the first recorded owners of land in Whitmore. Their claims were filed in 1861 and the deeds recorded in 1862. Other early names were: William Miller Bernard (1862); James Riley Bledsoe (1864); John Covey (1871); and Gottlieb Diestelhast (1861). The last homesteaders were Chester A Fisher (1948) and Henry and Edgar Hartman, 1946.

At least forty-five homestead claims had been filed by the time the German Eudora Colony came to buy land in Whitmore in 1885. One old-timer who knew some of the German families said:

They were so disappointed. They were supposed to have things for them -- have a house ready for them. No house at all. It was terrible. It was a salesman type of thing. They lived and just tried to get by without freezing to death that winter by putting the children in a shed. It was just real sad.

According to another old-timer, the ringleader of the land scam was a Mr. Schraer, the original German settler. He was a relative of some of the new German settlers.

What could they do when they got here? Somebody from here [Schraer] went back and sold them the land. There wasn't any farm -- they were told that there were actual farms. They had to clear the land, they had to build a home, it's just mind-boggling. You know where the cemetery is, that's kind of in the center. There are ranches sort of behind there, those are the ranches.

They could not speak English. They must have been about thirty years old. All of these were married and had small children. They cleared and planted hops, they raised almost all of their own vegetables and fruits. They would bring vegetables and fruits into Redding and trade for sugar and salt and clothing. Once a year, Mother said, her dad would load up the wagon with apples and take it over the Tamarack road to the flour mill out at Glenburn --; outside of Fall River. He would bring home barrels of flour for a year. Trade apples for the flour, and I guess all of the families did that.

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