goldfields

John writes from Chico on June 18, 1867:

And now another thing, the ring. I send it by this steamer. It may be a little too large for you. If so, have it made smaller. It will cost but little. I will pay the expense. I fear you will not like the style of the ring. It is so plain, but fix it to suit you. Herewith I will enclose $10 for any changes you may see proper to make, and if they cost more please let me know.

One thing I would like to have you do. Have your name engraved on the ring somewhere. Then if you ever return it–I hope you never will–it will be to me a more precious memento. You remember the conditions.

The conditions were that the ring was a pledge of friendship, and if circumstances were to ever alter (that is, if she were to marry someone else) then she would return the ring.

Annie received the ring about a month later, and on August 7th she wrote:

Now I must thank you for the beautiful ring which I saw for the first time yesterday. It is a little too large, so I will comply with your request and have it made a little smaller.

Which she did, at a cost of 50 cents.

The setting is perfect I think, and not too plain as you suggest. We sit a great deal on balconies, and by moonlight the diamond is beautiful and reflects credit on American diamonds! Pardon the pun, both for its poverty and boldness.

John must have been highly gratified to know that she was wearing the diamond ring and watching it sparkle in the moonlight. Now if he could just get her to come to California . . . .

John Bidwell was told by a New York jeweler that his diamond from Butte County, California was worth $125. What would that be in today’s money?

According to the website Measuring Worth,

A simple Purchasing Power Calculator would say the relative value is $2,030.00. This answer is obtained by multiplying $125 by the percentage increase in the CPI from 1867 to 2013.

So it would take around $2000 to buy today what $125 would buy in 1867. That probably is about right if we are talking about groceries, clothing, or rent. But we are talking about a diamond, and that is an entirely different matter. We don’t know the size of John Cherokee diamond, but a good quality 1 karat diamond on today’s market costs more than $2000.

Measuring Worth goes on to explain:

If you want to compare the value of a $125.00 Commodity in 1867 there are three choices. In 2013 the relative:
real price of that commodity is $2,030.00
labor value of that commodity is $15,400.00(using the unskilled wage) or $31,200.00(using production worker compensation)
income value of that commodity is $29,100.00

Maybe the diamond was worth a lot more than a $2000 diamond today. It’s really impossible to tell what Bidwell’s diamond would be worth today, since he doesn’t say how big it was, or how it measured in karats. But I’ll bet it was a very pretty little sparkler.

I only wish I knew what happened to it.

More about the diamond ring next time.

I am thinking seriously of going to Washington Saturday night and coming back Sunday night . . . It is doubtful. I wrote your father that perhaps I might do so. I hardly think I shall be able. A letter put in the post office as late as Sunday evening will reach me.

So wrote John Bidwell to Annie from New York City. He should have made the trip and given her the ring. But he waffled around, didn’t go, and didn’t get her letter in reply before he got on board the ship for California.

Annie promptly replied on Sunday, but the letter didn’t get to John in New York in time.  In it she says:

A young portrait of Annie Ellicott Kennedy.

Mamma thinks if you had brought “the ring” there would have been no impropriety in my acceding to your terms–namely–to be mine until circumstances, on your part or mine, should render the return of it advisable. I hesitated, but if it would be a gratification to you, it would be agreeable to me. It would have given me pleasure to see it, having seen it in its rough state. You need not fear that you have offended me.

A little more boldness on his part, and the ring would have been on her finger before he departed. Of course, she had to consult with Mamma first. She always did. But since Mamma gave her approval, it would not be a breach of etiquette to accept the ring.

Obviously she was charmed by the man from California, and attracted to him. But she hadn’t said so yet. Most of her letters were taken up with urging him to accept Christ as his Savior. Nevertheless, she was intrigued by that diamond, and by the man who offered it to her. He would win her yet. A few more months would pass, however, before she got to wear the diamond ring.

At the end of March 1867 John Bidwell’s term in Congress was over and he was ready to return to California. He was anxious to get back to Rancho Chico to look after his business interests, but his love for Annie Kennedy made him reluctant to leave Washington, D.C. He still hoped to win her heart and her hand in marriage.

John Bidwell in 1867, at the time he was courting Annie.

On March 28, 1867, he wrote Annie from New York, from whence he was about to sail for California. In his lengthy letter to her he writes:

You remember the California diamond which I showed you? Well, I have had it cut and set into a ring. It is beautiful and proves to be a diamond of the first water. It is not off color as I feared it would be, but perfectly clear. It is worth $125, so the jeweler told me today.

Diamonds had been discovered at Cherokee in Butte County in May of 1864, and possibly even earlier. Presumably one of these diamonds was given to Bidwell before he left for Washington, or sent to him while he was there. It was certainly big news that diamonds had been found in California. but not enough have ever been found to make mining diamonds profitable, so I am told.You can read a bit more about diamonds in California here.

In his letter to Annie, Bidwell coyly hovers around the subject of what to do with the ring:

I wish I knew what to do with it. Can you make any suggestion? The diamond was a present to me. I can neither sell nor give it away, can I? What is custom or etiquette about such things? I would give it away, if the one to whom I would be willing to give it, would or could with propriety accept it.

John Bidwell was not so ignorant of etiquette that he didn’t know what kind of gifts were proper for a lady to receive from a gentleman.  A lady did not accept jewelry from a man who was not her father, husband, or fiancé. To do so was an indication that she considered herself in a special relationship with the gentleman. So John’s questions are a test of Annie’s affections. If she accepted the ring, it would be a sign that her heart was softening toward him.

But would you not like to see the ring? Could you not with propriety wear it? (I ask no pledge or promise, nor would it be the token of any pledge or promise.) Could you not wear it, until some other ring [he means from someone else, if he should be so unlucky] shall consummate a pledge, and then return it to me?

For Annie’s reply, look for the next blog entry.