Then as now, it was a cultural advantage to have a college in Chico. John and Annie Bidwell frequently attended lectures and entertainments on campus, and they also frequently played host to visiting performers and lecturers. Lois McDonald wrote the following in her biography of Annie:

“One year the Bidwells housed the male chorus from the University of California at the mansion, then managed to make a statement in the midst of the concert by rising abruptly from their seats and walking out in the middle of a choral number which happened to be a drinking song. Almost certainly it would have been Annie who initiated that move, and John followed her, for it is doubtful that John Bidwell would have relished making a scene, especially over so trivial a matter. To Annie, students could never be exposed too often to high standards of behavior, and especially among their mentors, which Annie conceived herself and John to be. (Annie Kennedy Bidwell: an intimate history, p. 361)

You have to give Annie credit for consistency. She never feared or failed to make her position clear.