In 1834 Livermore and his business partner José Noriega were keeping livestock at Rancho Las Positas, where they also built an adobe. They purchased half of the land grant from William Gulnac in 1837, and officially received the grant in 1839 (technically, the land was granted to Salvio Pacheco and then sold to Livermore, as he was not a Mexican citizen). The only other inhabitant of the area at the time, besides the Ohlone, was José Amador (his rancho was near the present city of Dublin), who received his land grant a short time earlier. Livermore and Amador both helped each other build their adobes.