goldfields

John R. Widener was born into slavery in 1856 in Missouri. When he was only a few months old, the man who claimed ownership of Widener’s family sold his father and took his mother and the baby, along with another enslaved man, to California. They went from Sacramento to Nevada City, where John Widener’s mother worked as a cook in a hotel. Most of her earnings were turned over to her owner, but what money she could earn on her own she saved until she was able to buy freedom for herself and her baby.

Many years later, when he was 77 years old, John Widener was interviewed by the Oroville correspondent for the Sacramento Bee. He and his mother had moved to Oroville in 1868, when he was 12. Just two years later the young teenager went to work for John Bidwell, probably doing ordinary field labor. In 1874 he was hired by Bidwell as a personal or house servant. On January 19th Bidwell wrote in his diary:

Employed John Widener (colored) at $20 per month, to begin tomorrow.

This was a typical servant’s wage for the period. Ten years later, in 1884, Bidwell recorded that he had hired a young man named Avery Thomas as a handyman for $15 a month, the same wage as maids were paid. Household servants generally also got room and board, but we don’t know about John Widener’s living arrangements.

Of John Bidwell, Widener said:

Yes, I remember John Bidwell well. He was the kindest and most affectionate man I have ever worked for. He always had a smile for every one of his employees and any time he wanted any of them to do anything it was always with a please and a thank you after it was done.

He left Bidwell’s employ in August 1874. In his diary Bidwell wrote: John Widener again down with hernia – sent for Dr. Dawson. A few days later Widener went to San Francisco to stay with his mother and stepfather.

In 1881 he was living in Honcut when he married Henrietta Colget (or Colgate). They would go on to have four children. He worked at a variety of jobs; in 1887 he ran the boot black stand at the Union Hotel, as well as taking any other odd jobs available.

Life could be hard. In 1893 his cabin, the “old ferry house” on the banks of the Feather River, burned down, the family barely escaping with the lives. He and his family lost everything, including (as the reporter wrote), “many relics he possessed and things given him by Bidwell.”

Tragically, their daughter died of tetanus at the age of 13 in 1894.

John Widener and his wife carried on, despite life’s struggles. He was an active Mason and in 1896 was installed as “Noble Grand” in the “colored lodge” of the I.O.O.F. (International Order of Odd Fellows). He died in 1936 and is buried in the Old Oroville Cemetery, next to his wife, Henrietta, who died in 1921.

My thanks to Josie Reifscheider-Smith, who discovered this news item in the Sacramento Bee archive while researching something else (as you do). The article appeared in the Bee on Friday, January 19, 1934 and was written by Tom Arden.

Happy Birthday to California pioneer and Chico founder John Bidwell!

John Bidwell was born on August 5, 1819 in Chautauqua County, New York, near the shores of Lake Erie. He rarely noted his birthday in his daily diary, but in 1898 he wrote: BIRTHDAY (79th) – Florence had an extra good dinner. He was at Butte Meadows, having spent the week camping and working with a crew on the Humboldt Wagon Road. That day, August 5th, he wrote:

New grade round Beartrap hill – Started to work there at 6.l0 a.m. – returned at 6 l/2 p.m. finished clearing the gradeway + wife with me all day.

Bidwell was no slacker and he loved road-building. To him a twelve-hour day spent “clearing the gradeway” was a fine way to spend his birthday. He surely deserved that “extra good dinner” that Florence the cook produced.

Annie was not as consistent a diarist as her husband, but she noted his birthday in 1893, when he turned 74. She was obviously proud of his good looks.

Scarce a gray hair in his rich brown hair, and not a bald place! Dressed in white today he is the picture of freshness, roses on his cheeks & happiness in his eyes, and fun & wisdom in his conversation. What a pleasant hour we have passed at dinner table. General, Col. Royce, Prof. H. W. Henshaw & self! Funny stories and scientific & social conversation. How the watermelons suffered! Had four large ones, blackberries, peaches, plums, & enormous nectarines, the first of latter of the season.

The citizens of Chico celebrated the 100th birthday of American independence, and every Independence Day, in grand style. Our celebrations of Independence Day are skimpy compared to the way they enjoyed the Fourth in Chico in the 19th century. On July 4th, 1876, John Bidwell recorded the following in his diary:

Tues. July 4
Warm, very – no wind. = Bells rang & cannon & anvils roared all last night – Celebration went off well – good oration by Rev. Mr Dickerman – Fireworks & ball in evening. = Lost our greyhound, Roamer = Haynes had watermelons ripe in town. =

The celebration was announced in the newspaper a few days before the event. Citizens were urged to decorate their buildings with “evergreens, flags, and appropriate emblems.” Folks who lived out of town came to Chico for the day-long festivities.

The Butte Record published a report of the proceedings the following Saturday. Everybody turned out for the parade and the “patriotic exercises”. The parade encompassed most of the town, proceeding up 2nd Street to Main, down Main to the Junction (where Broadway, Main, Park, and 8th and 9th meet), then up Broadway to 6th Street to Chestnut, then to Front Street (now 1st), back to Main, and “counter march to Broadway” to the Pavilion, which stood between 4th and 5th.

Viewers of the parade would have enjoyed music by a brass band, and seen the Chico Guard marching, the fire hose companies, dignitaries in carriages, various clubs and fraternal orders, patriotic floats, and children waving flags. One special young lady on a float represented Lady Liberty.

The exercises at the Pavilion included band music, an invocation by a clergyman, songs by a choir (“Star Spangled Banner” and “Hail, Columbia”), the reading of the Declaration of Independence, a patriotic poem written for the occasion, and more music. The remarks by the president of the event, General John Bidwell, were considered “appropriate to the occasion.” He “hoped that the people of Chico would never again contemplate the idea of allowing the National Anniversary to pass without due observance.” Perhaps they had neglected it in a previous year.

The concluding song was “America”, better known today as “My Country, ‘Tis of Thee.”  “America the Beautiful” hadn’t been written yet.

An oration by a public figure was a must, and it was lengthy. That was followed by the reading of the Declaration of Independence and a seventeen-stanza “Centennial Ode”, which the Record printed in full. A sample stanza:

The British Lion curled,
And round the world,
The Stars and Stripes were wide unfurled;
And now our second “seventy-six” we hail,
The grand old century goes out. The tale
Of all its deeds lives on and shall not fail.
Its heroes live enthroned,
Their fame intoned
By priests and bards of Freedom owned.

It was a day-long event, and as Bidwell notes, it started the night before, and went on well into the evening of the 4th. At sunset a “national salute” was fired, at 7:30 there was a concert by the Chico Brass Band on the plaza, followed by fireworks and at 9:30 a “Grand Military and Civic Ball at the Pavilion,” where “a happy and joyous crowd tripped the light fantastic, to the inspiring music of Cressy’s Band.”

Watermelons were a feature, then as now. Roamer the greyhound was frightened by all the noise and went missing. Bidwell advertised for him in the newspaper.

IS LESS THAN A YEAR OLD — OF dun color, has “Bidwell Rancho Chico,” engraved on collar, and one toenail off left hind foot. Was last seen in town July 4th. His return to John Bidwell, or information leading thereto will be suitably rewarded.

Roamer was found a few days later seven miles away at Hog Springs, on the Humboldt Road.

Does this photograph of John Bidwell look familiar? If you ever visited Bidwell Mansion, it might stir a memory in the back of your mind. The stance, the long black coat, the forthright gaze — isn’t that a lot like the painting that hung in the main hall?

In 1891 Annie prevailed upon John to have a full-length photograph taken at I.W. Taber’s photography studio in San Francisco. Five months after his death in 1900 she ordered “a life-size copy from the negative of Beloved,” from Taber. Later that year, while in Washington, she took the print to the studio of Alice Reading in Baltimore to discuss having Bidwell’s portrait painted. Alice M. Reading was the daughter of Pierson B. Reading, a Sacramento Valley pioneer and friend of John Bidwell from the Sutter’s Fort days.

Annie would prove difficult to satisfy. In 1903 she brought Alice Reading and the unfinished portrait home to Chico with her. Frustrated that Alice couldn’t re-produce the ideal portrait she saw in her mind, she took Alice to Sacramento to show her a portrait of Gov. Manuel Micheltorena for inspiration.

The work on the portrait suffered a setback in August when Alice was thrown from a horse and broke her collarbone. Franklin Lusk, Bidwell’s attorney and a close friend, examined her work to date and “thought the life size portrait wonderfully good likeness, even in unfinished state.”

By December both Annie Bidwell and Alice Reading were sick in bed at the Mansion.  Annie sent for Dr. Ella Gatchell to see Alice, and was told “Alice should go home as she was homesick, doctor said – and tired of painting.” Alice had tried, but no amount of reworking could please Annie. Alice was given her final payment, and the artist was free to return to her studio in Baltimore.

The painting shows General John Bidwell in the same pose and same costume as the Taber photograph, but rather than a photographer’s prop chair, his hand rests on his Daniel Webster chair, and rather than the studio’s painted backdrop, the background is that of a leafy forest.

The painting hung in the Mansion until Annie’s death. In her will she deeded it to the State of California. It was taken to Sacramento, where it was displayed in the State Capitol for many years. In 1966 it was returned, and hung in its former place in the Bidwell Mansion main hall (Chico Enterprise Record, June 25, 1966).

As visitors were told, and many schoolchildren remember, the General’s eyes seem to follow the viewer no matter where in the hall they stood. Known as “ubiquitous gaze” or “pursuing eyes,” this is an effect of perspective and a technique of the trompe-l‘oeil (trick of the eye) school of painting. Certain portraits, such as the Mona Lisa and the portrait of John Bidwell, give the impression that the subject’s eyes are following the viewer.  

This painting became one of the defining objects in the Mansion. Its place in the main hall, its imposing scale, and the famous effect of the General’s “following eyes” ensured that it remained in the memory of visitors long after they left the house. In this way, perhaps its legacy fulfilled Annie’s purpose even more fully than she imagined.

Pres Longley came down from Helltown and stayed at the Chico Hotel, perhaps paying his bar tab with the following poem:

If you travel to Chico by stage or by rail,
By buggy or horseback, you never should fail
To stop at the Chico Hotel, where you’ll find
A welcome that’s warm among friends that are kind.
A table well-filled with choicest of things 
That would please epicures among princes and kings.
Cigars and fine drinks, at the bar you’ll obtain,
Though you smoke and you sip, you will never complain;
And the beds, if you try them you’ll like them I know,
For the sheets are as white as the beautiful snow,
And then, in the reading-room, pleasant and bland,
You’ll find all the news that’s afloat in the land.

     (published in the Chico Enterprise, April 11, 1879)

The first Chico Hotel was built in 1869, but the hotel burned down more than once. It was located at The Junction (where Broadway, Main, Park Ave., Humboldt Road, and 8th and 9th streets come together), and here it is in 1890.

This ad for the Chico Hotel appeared in the same newspaper issue that published Pres’s poem. French cooks! Pretty classy.

However, the Chico Hotel was one of the hotels in Chico which, according to Philip A. Bell, “refuse to admit a colored person within their doors.” He and his friends stayed at the Central Hotel, located on Broadway between 3rd and 4th streets. I don’t have a picture of it but here is their ad..

Philip A. Bell, born in New York City in 1808, came to California during the Civil War and in 1865 founded The Elevator, a San Francisco newspaper that covered events in the Black Community and advocated for Black suffrage and other causes important to African Americans.

In 1874 he visited Chico to take part in the 4th annual celebration of the passage of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In the April 18th edition of his newspaper he described Chico and saw much to admire.

Not having completed our business in Chico we concluded to remain a couple of days longer; and we made our visit both profitable and pleasant. By invitation of Gen. Bidwell we witnessed the working of a newly invented machine for leveling roads, which was highly satisfactory. The machine has a large steel blade, or share of steel, and was drawn by a team of ten mules.

It would have been fun to see that at work on the unpaved streets of Chico.

Bell’s impressions of Chico were favorable. “It is really a beautiful little place, now dignified with city privileges,” having been incorporated in 1872. “It is situated in a fertile valley of rich, alluvial soil, and has the advantages of grain and timber. The crops are always productive. We were informed by General Bidwell that a failure has never been known in Chico valley.”

“The city contains about 2500 inhabitants”, and he goes on to list various flourishing businesses: planing mills, carpenters, wheelwrights and blacksmiths. And hotels– “There are three hotels, the Central House, the Chico Hotel and Union House. At the Central, kept by Messrs. Clark and Trimble, the visitors to the celebration were well accommodated. The other houses refuse to admit a colored person within their doors.” Chico wasn’t perfect.

The Town Hall is a neat unpretentious building, erected on a lot donated by General Bidwell. The churches consist of Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Catholic and three Methodist Churches : the M. E. [Methodist Episcopal]Church North, M. E. Church South, and A. M. E Bethel Church; all built on laud donated by Mr. Bidwell. He also gave a large tract of land in the heart of the town to the Northern California Agricultural Association on which the Pavilion is erected.

He also lists the banks, newspapers, and fraternal lodges in town, and then goes on to focus on prominent African American men and their businesses. As Michele Shover has said, “The late 1860s and the early 1870s constituted the pinnacle of nineteenth century black experience”*and the black citizens of Chico for the most part were doing well.

There are several tonsorial and bathing establishments. Beverley Henderson has a handsome Saloon and is doing well. Peter Jackson is temporarily situated, but is fitting a saloon with all modern improvements. Wm H. Stewart has settled permanently in Chico and is preparing to go to business. He has sold, or is about selling his farm in Tehama, and is fitting up a handsome Hair Dressing, Shaving and Bathing Saloon. Peter Powers has a Fruit and Vegetable Store, and is well patronized. Mrs. Catanche, formerly of Grass Valley, is the principal Ladies’ Hair Dresser in town and is well satisfied with the change. Edward Holmes keeps a saloon to which we were invited, but did not have time to visit. The colored residents of Chico are doing well and living comfortably. We believe nearly all are owners of property, and are highly respected by all classes of citizens. We learn there are several colored farmers in the vicinity of Chico; likewise a number of mechanics.

*Michele Shover, “The Black Experience in Chico, 1860-1899: Climbing the Slippery Slope,” in Exploring Chico’s Past and other Essays, (2005), p. 146. The essay contains more information about the people mentioned here and is highly recommended for anyone interested in African American life in Northern California.

What Juneteenth is to black history today, the celebration of the ratification of the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was to 19th century black Americans. The amendment prohibited the federal government or any state from denying or abridging a citizen’s right to vote on the basis of “race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” The ratification of the amendment was certified on March 30, 1870, and celebrations began to take place on dates in early April for at least the next few years.

In April 1874 the editor of The Elevator, a San Francisco newspaper serving the black community, came to Chico to witness Chico’s celebration.

The celebration was held on Monday, April 6th. Editor Bell and his group came in two railroad excursion cars from Sacramento, along with members of a Sacramento brass band and the Sacramento Zouaves, a black militia unit formed in 1867, designed for both military training and political action. The day’s events began with a demonstration of anvil-firing, “an excellent substitute for cannon.”

The parade, led by the brass band, moved from the train depot up 5th Street to Broadway, down Broadway to the Junction, up Main to Front Street (now 1st), down Front to Broadway, and along Broadway to the pavilion, which stood between 4th and 5th across Broadway from City Plaza. “Every available vehicle in Chico was in the procession, and made quite an imposing array,” according to editor Bell, including General Bidwell, who had “a double team buggy drawn by a pair of beautiful black horses.”

The Zouaves colorful uniforms and precise maneuvers were a big hit with the parade spectators. I wish I could find a photograph.

The young lady portraying the Goddess of Liberty was the daughter of Peter Powers — probably his oldest daughter, Martha Jane, who was 16 years old.

The parade was followed by a “collation” in the pavilion and “exercises,” consisting of an invocation, speeches, poetry, band music, and an oration by the Rev. William H. Hillery of San Francisco. At 4 o’clock the Zouaves gave an exhibition of “their inimitable Tap Drill” on the Plaza, followed by a grand ball in the evening.

It was a full day of celebrating. The Chico Weekly Enterprise, rather condescendingly, said that “Our colored citizens have covered themselves with credit, and have in suitable manner and perfect decorum given observance to the occasion, which to them has the same significance that the fourth of July, has to the white citizen.” John Bidwell remarked in his diary: “Fifteenth Amendment celebration by the colored people of the State – grand time!”

Philip Bell stayed on for two more days to look over the town of Chico. I’ll write about his impressions next time.

On the morning of April 4, 1900, John Bidwell set out to mark a new road along Big Chico Creek. Driving the wagon was William Conway, one of his oldest Mechoopda employees. Also in the wagon was Florence Blake, a maid at Bidwell Mansion who came along to open gates and hold the horses while Bidwell showed William the work he wanted done. Florence would later write a statement for Annie Bidwell about her husband’s sudden turn of ill health.

Florence reported that when the General got down from the wagon he stamped his foot and exclaimed, “There! I am as spry as a young boy.” He had always led an active life and he enjoyed nothing more than marking out a new road. Although he had grown portly over the years, at six feet tall and 225 pounds (as weighed on the scale at the flour mill) he was by no means obese.

Another workman, Harry, was burning a stump. Bidwell poked at the fire, gave directions, and did some sawing with William Conway. Florence kept her eyes on the General, worried that as he walked around he might trip over a limb or a stone. Instead, she heard him call her, then sit down on a log “with his head held down as if he had the neuralgia.” He had had these attacks of “neuralgia” before, which were probably not nerve irritation, but minor heart attacks. While Harry went to town for help, Florence and Conway tended to Bidwell, laying him down and loosening his clothing. “As he commenced to rally,” wrote Florence, “he wanted to be propped up and complained of too much weight on his chest though there was nothing there.”

When help arrived he was taken back to the Mansion. Three doctors, including Dr. Oscar Stansbury and Bidwell’s cousin, Dr. Ella Gatchell, were called to attend. For a time, he seemed to improve, but he suffered a relapse and died in his bed at 2:30 p.m.

The news of his sudden and unexpected death spread quickly. Businesses in town immediately began decorating their buildings in mourning as flags were lowered to half-staff and the bells of the city tolled.

The funeral was delayed for a week until Annie’s sister and other relatives could arrive from the East Coast. On the day of the funeral the coffin was displayed on the Mansion porch, surrounded by floral tributes. In accordance with Annie’s wishes, and because of the crowds of people wishing to attend, the funeral was conducted from the porch of the Mansion. Businesses closed, children were let out of school, and classes at the Normal School were cancelled.

After prayers, hymns, and eulogies, the funeral procession proceeded to the cemetery. Children scattered flowers along the way. General John Bidwell was laid to rest near the entrance of the cemetery he had set aside 50 years earlier. A large boulder, weighing six or seven tons was brought down from the mountains to serve as a headstone. On it was engraved simply his name: John Bidwell.