In October 1860 John Bidwell acquired title to “Potter’s Half-League,” a portion of Rancho de Farwell situated on the south bank of Chico Creek. That same year he had finally had his title to Rancho Chico on the north side of the creek confirmed, and now he owned land on the south side too. It was just what he needed to carry out his plans to create a town. He didn’t hesitate. On December 5th, 1860, he filed the plan for the town of Chico at the courthouse in Oroville.

As his ranch operations had grown, more and more employees were living on the ranch, clustered around ranch headquarters and his residence (pre-mansion). Bidwell’s plan was to create a town — a place for shops and businesses and churches, and most of all, houses — and move everybody off his ranch.

The Barham family lived just behind the mill, on the east side of the Shasta-Marysville Road (now The Esplanade). In 1918, Mrs. Arabella Barham recalled those days:

You see it was this way. General Bidwell away back in ’61 and ’62 was very anxious to have a town started here. He had built up quite a little settlement on the north side of Big Chico Creek but there was nothing on this side. There were numerous houses there including the hotel, the barns, blacksmith shops and a lot of other adobe shacks. The mill was there and we lived just back of it. My husband sold the grain and flour for Bidwell and was quite intimate with him. One day Bidwell said to my husband, “John, if you will go across the creek and build a home for yourself and wife I’ll give you a lot free.”

Arabella was not keen on the idea.

John came and told me about it and I felt just then as though I didn’t want to be starting a town for anybody and was perfectly satisfied to stay where I was.

She thought about the expense of building with lumber and the effort of hauling the lumber from Hupp’s sawmill in the mountains. Why go to all that work when they already had a house? But Bidwell was determined.

Bidwell kept after John, however, and finally he consented. The house is the one we live in and still stands on Main Street near Fifth, and all the original lumber is in it. My husband and a one-horse carpenter named Manser did the work. The house was completed in April 1862 and we moved in. It was the only house in the present site of where Chico now stands, at that time.

House building in those days was some task. Such a thing as millwork in lumber was unknown. All of the timbers which went into our house came down from the mills as rough as could be. Such a thing as a planing mill was unknown and in consequence, every piece of lumber and every board that needed a smooth surface was submitted to a hand planing by the carpenters.

The Barham property stretched along Fifth Street from Main to Wall Street. The house address was 529 Main Street. In 1960 the house was moved to the Silver Dollar Fairgrounds — does anyone know what became of it there? — and the site was turned into a parking lot for the Senator Theater.

Sources: Chico Enterprise-Record, January 3, 1918 and July 12, 1960. Photographs: Northeastern California Historical Photograph Collection, Meriam Library. California State University, Chico.

More about the early growth of Chico next time.