Category Archives: Uncategorized

A Quest for a Grotto

Posted on August 23, 2019 by nancyleek

Our trip today to Grass Valley was not only a fun day trip to an historic California town, it was also a quest to find where this picture was taken. This postcard-size photo shows a class of girls at a … Continue reading →

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Historic Quilts at Bidwell Mansion

Posted on August 21, 2019 by nancyleek

A beautiful quilt show is coming to Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park on September 7th, 8th, and 9th. Annie’s Star Quilt Guild will be sharing historic quilts and reproduction quilts from the 19th and 20th centuries. Quilts will be displayed … Continue reading →

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“His First Dollar”

Posted on August 19, 2019 by nancyleek

See what your teenager thinks of this– John Bidwell received a letter from S.S. Boynton, editor and publisher of the Oroville Register in 1884, asking him “how he earned his first dollar by work when a boy.” Boynton was writing … Continue reading →

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Bidwell Meets Grant

Posted on August 12, 2019 by nancyleek

Even more than President Lincoln, John Bidwell wanted to meet General Ulysses S. Grant. It took some wrangling to get a pass from Edwin Stanton, the Secretary of War, but Bidwell got it, and then he hurried off to meet … Continue reading →

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Lincoln through Bidwell’s Eyes

Posted on August 10, 2019 by nancyleek

John Bidwell believed fervently in the Union cause. In 1864 he was one of the California delegates to the Republican National Convention in Baltimore on June 7-8, where Lincoln was renominated for president. Upon his return home, he spoke to … Continue reading →

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Happy Birthday, John Bidwell!

Posted on August 5, 2019 by nancyleek

August 5th marks 200 years since the birth of John Bidwell, California pioneer and founder of Chico.  So wish him a “Happy Birthday!” (wherever he is), and maybe pay a visit to his home, Bidwell Mansion State Historic Park sometime … Continue reading →

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How Louise Clappe Became Shirley

Posted on July 29, 2019 by nancyleek

Shirley is a common enough feminine name — we all know at least one Shirley. But before 1849 the name was rare as a masculine name, and unknown as a feminine one. It was originally a rather uncommon English surname, … Continue reading →

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Happy Birthday, Dame Shirley

Posted on July 28, 2019 by nancyleek

July 28th marks another bicentennial, the 200th birthday of Louise Amelia Knapp Smith Clappe, better know as “Dame Shirley,” author of The Shirley Letters. She was born in 1819 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and was educated in Massachusetts. She attended … Continue reading →

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Black Bart in Butte County

Posted on July 25, 2019 by nancyleek

On July 25, 1878, the notorious outlaw “Black Bart” held up a stagecoach on the Oroville-Quincy Road. Twenty-eight stagecoach robberies are credited to Charles E. Boles (aka “Black Bart”) and this was his fifth. Boles had not had a great … Continue reading →

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Annie Bidwell at the Women’s Congress

Posted on July 23, 2019 by nancyleek

This photo, brought to my attention by Richard Elsom, shows an 1896 meeting of Suffragist leaders: standing (l to r) Ida Husted Harper, Selena Solomons, Carrie Chapman Catt, Annie Bidwell, (seated) Lucy Anthony, Dr. Anna H. Shaw, Susan B. Anthony, … Continue reading →

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