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Antioch is one of the oldest towns in the region. The town has been variously named East Antioch, Smith’s Landing, and Marsh’s Landing, prior to its current name.

In 1848, John Marsh, owner of Rancho Los Méganos, one of the largest ranches in California, built a landing on the San Joaquin River in what is now Antioch. It became known as Marsh’s Landing, and was the shipping point for the 17,000-acre (69 km²) rancho. It included a pier extending well out into the river, enabling vessels drawing 15 feet (4.6 m) of water to tie up there in any season of the year. The landing also included a slaughterhouse, a smokehouse for curing hams, rodeo grounds, and a 1+1⁄2-story dwelling, embellished with fretwork, that was brought around the Horn to serve as a home for the mayordomo and his wife.

In 1849, twin brothers Rev. William Wiggins Smith and Rev. Joseph Horton Smith sailed from Boston, purchased land from John Marsh and founded a town slightly west of Marsh’s Landing, and named it Smith’s Landing. During the town picnic on July 4, 1851, William, the town’s new minister, persuaded the residents to change the name of the town to Antioch, for the biblical city of Antioch, “in as much as the first settlers were disciples of Christ, and one of them had died and was buried on the land, that it be given a Bible name in his honor, and suggested ‘Antioch’ (an ancient Syrian town where two important rivers meet and where the followers of Christ were first called Christians), and by united acclamation it was so christened.”