GENERAL BIDWELL
                                                                                       PIONEER AND BUILDER
John Bidwell was born in Chautauqua County, New York,in 1819. When he was but a lad, his parents moved to Darke County, Ohio, then almost a wilderness. As a child he was a pioneer and it was as a pioneer that he spent the greater part of his life.

As a boy John Bidwell began to manifest the marvellous determination which became possibly his leading character. For instance, he walked three hundred miles to the Ashtabula iVcademy, where he took a scientic course, which included civil engineering. Returning to his home, he felt the ambition to enter a wider field. He started on foot to Cincinnati, ninety miles distant. His outfit consisted of $75 in money, the clothes he wore and a few others, strapped to a knapsack strapped on his shoulders. From Cincinnati he went down the Ohio River by steamboat to the Mississippi, up the Mississippi to St. Louis, and from St. Louis to Burlington, Iowa. Here he met Governor Robert Lucas of Ohio, who advised him to go into the interior and take up a tract of land.

So young Bidwell next found himself in Platte County, Missouri. On his arrival there his money was spent and he secured employment teaching school. In the fall he located and obtained partly by purchase a tract of 160 acres. The following summer, 1840, the weather was too hot to do much work on the place during the vacation. Accordingly he went to St. Louis to obtain needed supplies of books, clothing and so forth. The trip was nearly 600 miles by water and took nearly a month, going and returning. This is what General Bidwell says of the trip:

"The trip proved to be a turning point in my life, for while I was gone a man jumped my land. Generally in such cases public sentiment was against the jumper, and it was decidedly so in my case. But the scoundrel held on. He was a bully, had killed a man in another county, and everybody seemed to be afraid of him. Influential friends of mine tried to persuade him to let me have eighty acres, half of the claim, but he was stubborn, and said that all that he wanted was just what the law allowed him. Unfortunately for me he had the legal advantage." The General forfeited all of the work that he had done, the money that he had spent upon the place, pulled up his stakes, and resolved to go elsewhere when the spring opened.

FIRST NEWS OF CALIFORNIA
In the meantime Bidwell had become acquainted with a French trader, Roubideaux, who had traded from Mexico up the Pacific Coast into what is now California. Roubideaux gave such glowing accounts of the country, its boundless fertility, its glorious climate, that the ardor of young Bidwell was set aflame, and he at once determined to visit the wonderful land and see it for himself. A meeting was called and Roubideaux delivered a lecture. He laid stress upon the soil, the climate, the countless thousands of wild horses and cattle roaming the plains, and the numberless other wonders of the land. Great enthusiasm was aroused among his auditors. An organization was formed, called the Western Emigration Society. In a month about five hundred names were signed, each signer pledging himself to purchase a suitable outfit and to assemble at Sapling Grove, Kansas, on the next following ninth of May. Later, however, a letter published in a New York newspaper by a man who had a disastrous experience at Monterey, cast a damper upon the enthusiasm of many of the persons who had signed to make the trip to California.

The party, however, was organized, and left for California. Later this party was joined by a number of missionaries en route to the Flathead Indian nation. This was the first overland emigration party that ever crossed the Rocky and Sierra Nevada Mountains. The date of departure upon the long trek was May, 1841.

Their experiences in the sun-parched deserts and among the snow-clad mountains, the hardships that they endured, constitute a glorious chapter in the great story of the winning of America's West. After six weary, heart-breaking months of trouble, on November 4, 1841, the party reached the "promised land." At the ranch of Dr. March, located 100 miles south of what is now Sacramento, they learned that at last they were in California. Having arrived in California, the first thing that young Bidwell did was to seek employment. He learned that a man named Sutter had established a settlement about 100 miles farther north. He at once proceeded there. This was General Sutter, whose fame will continue to shine more brightly as long as the early history of California is written. The settlement that he had founded is now the city of Sacramento. Early in 1841 he had purchased from the Russian-American Fur Company at Bodega and Fort Ross all of the property they were unable to move when they abandoned the country. On Bidwell's arrival General Sutter engaged him to go to Bodega to take charge of the transfer of property from that place. Bidwell was engaged in this work until March, 1843. The houses were demolished and the lumber shipped to Sacramento, as were also the livestock, plows, household furniture, utensils, muskets and cannon.

On his return to Sutter's Fort, Bidwell picketed his horses and crossed the river in a canoe. During his absence his horses were stolen by a party bound for Oregon. Procuring other horses, Bidwell, accompanied by the noted pioneer, Peter Lassen, who was anxious to locate a good ranch, pursued the party up the Sacramento Valley to the present site of Red Bluff, where the stolen horses were recovered. On this trip he named all of the streams that flow into the Sacramento from the east between Butte Creek and Red Bluff. He also made a map of the valley from his observations, which served as the actual map of the country until the actual surveys were made in later years. Thus two years before Fremont's first explorations, Bidwell explored the primeval wilderness of Northern California at a time when there was not a white man north of Sacramento.

In order to obtain a land grant in those days one had to become a citizen of Mexico, to which country California then belonged. In 1844 Bidwell and General Sutter went to Monterey, and while there Bidwell was granted Mexican citizenship. Also he was given a ranch, known as Ulpinos, now in Solano County. On this site he attempted to found a town, but the venture was unsuccessful. While on the trip to Monterey Bidwell and Sutter learned of a contemplated revolution, and informed Governor Micheltorena of the fact. The insurrection developed. General Sutter and Bidwell, with a party of Americans and Indians, joined the Governor's cause and pursued the insurrectionists to a point near the present city of Los Angeles, where a battle was fought. In this battle the insurrectionists were victorious. Governor Micheltorena, Sutter and Bidwell were taken prisoners, but the two latter were soon released, and returned to Sutter's Fort. In March, 1845, General Bidwell received a grant of land in what is now Colusa County, but he sold his grant.

Upon receipt of the news of the Bear Flag episode, Bidwell led a reconnaissance in the direction of Castro's supposed movements, and a few days later proceeded to Sonoma, where he was made a member of a committee to draft a plan of organization. There he prepared a paper for signatures, to the effect that "The undersigned hereby agree to organize and to remain in service as long as necessary for the purpose of gaining and maintaining the independence of California." This was on July 4, 1846, and on the 11th of the same month Bidwell was present at the raising of the American flag over Sutter's Fort. From this time until the close of the war with Mexico he was in active service. He was successively appointed lieutenant, captain, quartermaster with rank of major.

EARLY ACTIVITIES
At the close of the war young Bidwell was engaged in numerous activities. He took the first census of that portion of the Sacramento Valley north of the Buttes, showing the white population to be 82 and the estimated Indian population to be 19,500. He drew up the contract between Sutter and Marshall for the erection of the sawmill where Marshall afterwards made his discovery of gold. He was engaged also in surveying numerous land grants in the valley. He established a home for himself on Little Butte Creek, building a log house and planting vines and trees. In 1848 Bidwell carried the first authentic news of Marshall's gold discovery to San Francisco. During the same year he discovered gold on the Feather River at Bidwell Bar. He was engaged for two years in mining. He purchased the property known as Rancho Chico, originally belonging to William Dickey, and erected a log house there in the summer of 1849.

The years following were full of excitement. He was a member of a constitutional convention, and represented the Sacramento district, which then comprised all the State north of Sacramento, in the first Senate. He was on the committee on county names, and named many of the counties not having Indian names.
He was one of the commissioners appointed by Governor Burnett in 1850 to bear to the national capital the block of gold-bearing quartz, California's tribute to mark her interest in the fame and glory of the "Father of His Country."

It was during this trip to Washington that the question of the admission of California as a state was pending before Congress. To admit California as a state would destroy the equilibrium of free and slave territory, and the measure was violently opposed, especially by the slave States.

One day in an interview with a Mrs. Crosby, Bidwell expressed his discouragement at the outlook, and stated that he believed that if the influence and support of Senator Seward could be secured, California would be admitted to the Union as a state. Mrs. Crosby was intimately acquainted with Senator Seward. She arranged a dinner to which Bidwell and Seward were both invited. So forcibly did Bidwell present to Senator Seward's attention at this dinner California's claim for statehood that Senator Seward not only voted for the admission of California into the Union, but addressed the Senate on behalf of this State.

During the decade that followed Bidwell's return from Washington, he was extremely busy in developing his great landed estate. In 1852 he built a two-story adobe house, which served as a residence and a house of entertainment for travelers along the Oregon Road.

In 1863 Bidwell was appointed Brigadier-General of the California Militia, and his alertness there was generally credited with being one of the factors that resulted in California remaining loyal to the Union. He was later elected to Congress, and in 1890 became the candidate of the Prohibition Party for President of the United States.

FIRST PLANTINGS
From the beginning of his ownership of his ranch, General Bidwell planted trees and vines. These plantings were increased from year to year until, at the time of his death, he had over 1800 acres in fruit. Every species and every variety of fruit or vegetable that had the possibility of coming to perfection in either a temperate or semi-tropic climate was tested and the results carefully noted. An experimental orchard near his home contained at least one specimen tree of over four hundred different varieties of fruit. With his first year's ranching he began the cultivation of wheat and other grains. He tested the adaptability of almost every kind and variety of grain, and freely gave to the public the benefit of his experience. Gold medals were awarded to him at both the Paris and the New Orleans expositions for his incomparable display of grains. He erected and operated the first water power grist mill in this section of the State. The following incident is related in 1877 in one of the local papers:

"At a quarter to 5 o'clock, the usual time for the hands to begin work, the hands were in the field two and a half miles from the grist mill; at five minutes to 5 o'clock the first header wagon brought a load of wheat to the threshing machine and was put through and sacked. The first two sacks were put into a buggy and carried to the mill, where it was put through the cleaning process and ground into flour. At half-past six o'clock we received a portion of the flour, and at a quarter before seven we sat down to our breakfast and were served with hot biscuits made from that flour."

It was from the Bidwell mill that the celebrated bag of "sanitary flour" came which, during the Civil War. was sold and resold at Austin and various other cities in the United States, and which eventually produced, after being taken to the great sanitary fund fair at St. Louis, a fund of about one million dollars for the United States Sanitary Commission, which in the Civil War did the work which the Red Cross now does.

A profound interest in and concern for schools and churches marked General Bidwell's whole career. The memory of the difficulties and hardships that beset his path when he attempted to secure an education made him a sincere friend and patron of the public school system. General Bidwell gave the site for the Chico State Normal School. He also gave to the University of California a tract for a forestry school. To the city of Chico he gave the magnificent park that now bears his name.

General Bidwell died on April 4, 1900. At his death the whole Nation paid tribute to the great service that he had performed.

Butte
The Story of a California County
By George C Mansfield
Copyright: 1919
Pages i > v [end of book] ~ Transcribed by Martha A Crosley Graham