Named, probably in 1888, after early landowner Alphonse Amédée “A.A.” Bermudez (1831-1888). Born in New Orleans, Bermudez was working as a miner in Havilah, Kern County by 1866. He was appointed county clerk there in 1871, shortly after marrying Eva Miller (1854-1886), a teenaged Angeleno; he kept the position for at least three more years. The Bermudezes, who had no kids, didn’t move down to this area (then known as Los Nietos) until 1882, but records show that A.A. was already involved in local land deals with L.L. Bequette a full ten years earlier. (The two would eventually partner on a short-lived nursery.) Eva Bermudez died young of unknown causes; a year and a half later, A.A. followed suit after a “vicious horse” threw him from a buggy. Newspapers reported that he had just sold his Rivera holdings – at least 50 acres of walnuts, probably more – before his fatal accident.
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