John Bidwell

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An American pioneer and agriculturist, John Bidwell (1819-1900) was instrumental in the settlement of California and remained active in its politics for half a century.

John Bidwell was born in Chautauqua County, N.Y., on Aug. 5, 1819. When he was 10 years old, the family moved to Pennsylvania; 2 years later they settled in Drake County, Ohio. At 17 Bidwell wanted an education so badly that he walked 300 miles to enter Kingsville Academy; after receiving his education he taught school until 1839.

Bidwell decided to seek his fortune in the West and spent time in Missouri and Kansas before joining a wagon train bound for Oregon in 1841. At Fort Hall, in Idaho, half the group, Bidwell among them, decided to go instead to California - making the first major overland trek to California.

In the Mexican province of California, Bidwell worked for John A. Sutter for 3 years before being naturalized and receiving a land grant, Rancho Chico (north of Sacramento), of 22,000 acres. Bidwell was early active in politics, and during the Bear Flag Revolt he served on the committee that drafted a declaration of independence from Mexico. In the Mexican War he advanced to the rank of brevet major.

In 1848 he prospected briefly, discovering gold on the Feather River, but the following year his title to Rancho Chico was confirmed, and thereafter he devoted himself to ranching and farming, gaining a reputation as his state's foremost agriculturist.

Although Bidwell was elected in 1849 to the California constitutional convention, he was notified too late to serve. He was also elected to the state senate that year as a Democrat, and in 1854 and 1860 he was vice president of the state Democratic convention.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Bidwell took a strong unionist stance, for which in 1863 he was made a brigadier general in the state militia. He also switched his political alliance to the Union party and on that ticket was elected to Congress in 1864. After the war he became a Republican and was that party's unsuccessful candidate for governor in 1867.

Gradually Bidwell was converted to fringe parties, running unsuccessfully for governor in 1875 on the AntiMonopoly ticket and in 1890 on the Prohibition ticket. In 1892 he was the Prohibition party candidate for president, receiving a scant 264,133 votes nationally.

His last years were spent at Rancho Chico, where he employed Native Americans and attempted to direct them in the ways of the white man's civilization. Bidwell served on the state board of regents for the University of California, and he donated the land for Chico Normal School, a teacher-training institution.

Bidwell died at Rancho Chico on April 4, 1900. His widow later donated 1,900 acres of the estate as a natural park for the state.

Further Reading

Bidwell wrote extensively about his early experiences in California in A Journey to California (1842; repr. 1937) and Echoes of the Past (1914; abr. repr. 1962, entitled In California before the Gold Rush). Biographies of Bidwell include C. C. Royce, John Bidwell, Pioneer, Statesman, Philanthropist (1906); Rockwell D. Hunt, John Bidwell (1942); and Frank L. Beals, The Rush for Gold (1946).

Additional Sources

The Bidwell-Bartleson party: 1841 California emigrant adventure: the documents and memoirs of the Overland pioneers, Santa Cruz, Calif.: Western Tanager Press, 1991.

Ripples along Chico Creek: perspectives on people and time, Chico, Calif.: Butte County Branch, National League of American Pen Women, 1992.

John Bidwell

John Bidwell (August 5, 1819 – April 4, 1900) was known throughout California and across the nation as an important pioneer, farmer, soldier, statesman, politician, prohibitionist and philanthropist. He is famous for leading one of the first emigrant parties, known as the Bartleson-Bidwell Party, along the California Trail, and for founding Chico, California.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Fraternal allegiance 3 See also 4 References 5 External links

Biography

Bidwell was born in Chautauqua County, New York. The Bidwell family moved to Erie, Pennsylvania in 1829, and then to Ashtabula County, Ohio in 1831.^[1]. At age 17, he attended and shortly thereafter became Principal of Kingsville Academy.^[2]

In 1841 Bidwell became one of the first emigrants on the California Trail. John Sutter employed Bidwell as his business manager shortly after Bidwell's arrival in California. Shortly after the James W. Marshall's discovery at Sutter's Mill, Bidwell also discovered gold on the Feather River establishing a productive claim at Bidwell Bar in advance of the California Gold Rush. Bidwell obtained the Rancho Colus Mexican land grant on the Sacramento River in 1845; later selling that grant to establish a ranch and farm on Chico Creek.

Bidwell obtained the rank of major while fighting in the Mexican-American War. He served in the California Senate in 1849, supervised the census of California in 1850 and again in 1860. He was a delegate to the 1860 national convention of the Democratic Party. He was appointed brigadier general of the California Militia in 1863.^[1] He was a delegate to the national convention of the Republican Party in 1864 and was a Republican member of Congress from 1865-1867.

Annie and John Bidwell

His wife, Annie Kennedy Bidwell, was the daughter of Joseph C. G. Kennedy, a socially prominent, high ranking Washington official in the United States Bureau of the Census who was active in the Whig party. She was deeply religious, and committed to a number of moral and social causes. Annie was very active in the suffrage and prohibition movements.^[1]

The Bidwells were married April 16, 1868 in Washington, D.C. with then President Andrew Johnson and future President Ulysses S. Grant among the guests. Upon arrival in Chico, the Bidwells used their mansion extensively for entertainment of friends. Some of the guests who visited Bidwell Mansion were President Rutherford B. Hayes, General William T. Sherman, Susan B. Anthony, Frances Willard, Governor Leland Stanford, John Muir, Joseph Dalton Hooker and Asa Gray.

In 1875 Bidwell ran for Governor of California on the Anti-Monopoly Party ticket.^[1] As a strong advocate of the temperance movement, he presided over the Prohibition Party state convention in 1888 and was the Prohibition candidate for governor in 1880.^[1]

In 1892, Bidwell was the Prohibition Party candidate for President of the United States.^[1] The Bidwell/Cranfill ticket received 271,058 votes, or 2.3% nationwide. It was the largest total vote and highest percentage of the vote received by any Prohibition Party national ticket.

John Bidwell's autobiography, Echoes of the Past, was published in 1900.

Fraternal allegiance

• Bidwell was a Freemason for a time but left the group. He stated that allegiance to the fraternity "was pointless" in a letter to Annie Bidwell on October 17, 1867.^[3]

See also

• Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park
• Temperance organizations
• California Trail
• Michael Gillis
• Bartleson-Bidwell Party

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f} "John Bidwell-Biography". Spartacus Education. 2006. http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/WWbidwell.htm. Retrieved 2006-12-11. 
2. ^ Guide to the Bidwell Papers
3. ^ Michael J. Gillis and Michael F. Magliari. "John Bidwell and California: The Life and Writings of a Pioneer, 1841-1900." ISBN 0-87062-332-X p. 223-4.

External links

• "The First Emigrant Train to California" by John Bidwell
• Autobiography and Reminiscence of John Bidwell, San Francisco, 1904 [Transcription]. The Society of California Pioneers, via Calisphere.

United States House of Representatives
Preceded by Thomas Bowles Shannon	Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 3rd congressional district 1865-1867	Succeeded by James A. Johnson

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