Collection context
Summary
- Creators:
- Bidwell, John, 1819-1900
- Language:
- English.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
The John Bidwell Papers came to the Special Collections Department from several different sources. The main bulk of the records are original documents, correspondence kept by Bidwell regarding the day to day operation of the Rancho Arroyo Chico, come from the State Parks and Recreation Department (Sutter's Fort). The diaries and other miscellaneous items are photocopies of originals held at the California State Library and other institutions.
The collection consists of three main divisions. The first (on loan from Sutter's Fort) consists of mostly incoming correspondence to Bidwell dealing mostly with business, agriculture, and horticulture, but also about religion, minorities, labor, politics, the military, medicine, road construction, and California historical events. These include letters from Peter Burnett, Norton Parker Chipman, H. W. Cleaveland, William Dickey, Ulysses S. Grant, Rockwell Hunt, Joseph C. G. Kennedy, Charles F. Lott, John Parrott, P. B. Reading, Leland Stanford, John A. Sutter, William P. Tilden, R. W. Waterman, and Frances Willard (Boxes 1-8). The second subdivision consists of Bidwell's diaries written between 1864 and 1900. These diaries are especially rich in detail about: the layout of the town of Chico; Afro-American, Native American and Chinese labor; road construction; local and national women's sufferage and temperance movements; anti-Chinese furvor; and the weather (flooding).
Visitors included John Muir, Rutherford B. Hays, William Tecumseh Sherman, Frances Willard, Susan B. Anthony, Leland Stanford, and many local and state officials (Boxes 9-14). (Originally Boxes 15 and 16 were Annie Bidwell's diaries and selected papers. They have been transferred to MS 3). The third subdivision of records contains miscellaneous photocopies of documents obtained by local historians from other repositories. This group also includes newspaper clippings and local historical emphemera about Bidwell (Boxes 17-19).
- Biographical / historical:
-
John Bidwell was born in Chautauqua County, New York, on August 5, 1819. His father was Abraham Bidwell from Connecticut and his mother, Clarissa Griggs, was from Massachusetts. He later moved, as a child, to Pennsylvania and Ohio with his parents. At age 17, he attended Kingsville Academy and shortly afterwards became it's Principal. In the spring of 1839 he walked and rode to Cincinnati, went down the Ohio River to the Mississippi, then to St. Louis and into the Territory of Iowa. By June of that year, he had reached Missouri with the idea of becoming a farmer. While there, and after having his land claim "jumped," he talked to a Frenchman named Roubidoux, a trapper who had been in California. Bidwell decided to join with sixty-nine others at Sapling Grove (now in Kansas) in May of 1841, determined to cross to a mythical California. The group was joined by Father De Smet and began its journey, first to the Platte River and Fort Laramie, then north to the Great Salt Lake (September). Some ventured on to Oregon with De Smet. Bidwell and others stayed with the California plan. After reaching the Humboldt River, they followed its shoreline to the Walker River at the base of the eastern Sierras. They crossed here, meeting the headwaters of the Stanislaus River, came down that gorge into the San Joaquin and eventually to the Marsh ranch near Mt. Diablo.
John Sutter hired Bidwell and sent him to Bodega Bay and Fort Ross to supervise the movement of equipment purchased by Sutter from the members of the departing Russian colony. When Bidwell returned to Sacramento he joined with Peter Lassen pursuing horse theives north into Thomes Creek (near what was to become Red Bluff). It was on this first rip he got a first look at the Sacramento Valley. He was allotted two land grants by the Mexican government, one in Solano County, the other in Colusa.
Because of his interest in the political process of the American takeover of Mexican California he became a part of the Bear Flag revolt and served as a major under Charles Fremont in the Mexican War. Bidwell had discovered gold at Bidwell Bar (on the Feather River) in 1848 and became a miner long enough to purchase the Rancho Chico from William Dickey in 1849. Here he built his first home (a large adobe) and here he lived except for a brief session as a congressman from 1865-1867.
He was active in Democratic Party politics until 1861 but was elected to Congress on the Union ticket. He declined nomination for governor of California in 1867, became an unsuccessful candidate for the Independent Party in 1875 and in 1890 (for the Prohibition Party). In 1892, he was nominated for President by the Prohibition Party and received over 270,000 votes. Concurrently, Bidwell ran his nearly 23,000 acre ranch, showing considerable knowledge and interest in agriculture and horticulture, especially in his 1800 acres of commercial fruit orchard, and another 400 varieties of experimental growing. Wheat and other grains were his mainstay and later in the century won honors at state, national, and international fairs. Bidwell married Annie Ellicott Kennedy in April of 1868 and brought her to his newly finished Mansion in Chico. She and Bidwell were politically and religiously active among the white population of Chico. Annie was held in esteem by some of the Native American population. This latter group had been protected by Bidwell both during and after the dreadful "roundups" that occurred in the early years of the 1860's.
John Bidwell died on his ranch of a heart attack on April 4, 1900.
- Physical description:
- 19 boxes 13 linear feet
Access and use
- Location of this collection:
-
California State University, Chico, Special Collections Meriam Library400 West First StreetChico, CA 95929-0295, US
- Contact:
- (530) 898-6603