goldfields

It used to be common for teacher’s colleges to be called “normal schools.” The term has an odd ring to it, since the first meaning of “normal” that comes to mind is “typical, usual, average, ordinary.” We speak of “normal behavior,” or “a normal childhood,” or “normal size,” for instance.

But “normal school” did not mean a typical or ordinary college, it meant a specific kind of college, one intended to train its students to be teachers. The term was taken from the French “ecole normale,” meaning a school that trains teachers to specific standards, or norms.  So a normal school is one that sets classroom and curriculum standards for education and educates teachers to adhere to those standards.

The term “normal school” was prevalent in the 19th century but had gone out of use pretty much by the mid-20th century.  The California system of State Normal Schools changed its name to the State Teachers College system in 1921, and in 1935, as other subjects and professions were added, it was again renamed and became the California State College system.

Just for fun, here’s a little quiz about John and Annie Bidwell:

John and Annie Bidwell in 1897

1.  John Bidwell came to California in:

A) 1841    B) 1845    C)  1848

2.  John Bidwell called this man “the meanest man in California.”  He was referring to:

A)  Mariano Vallejo   B)  John Sutter   C)  John Marsh

3.  John Bidwell’s first job for Sutter in California was

A)  Dismantling Fort Ross   B)  Supervising Sutter’s Hock Farm   C)  Laying out Sutterville

4.  John Bidwell first saw Chico Creek and the region he would someday call home when he was:

A)  Mapping northern California   B)  Chasing horse thieves   C)  Searching for gold

5.  John Bidwell discovered gold along:

A)  Chico Creek   B)  the American River   C)  the Feather River

6.  John Bidwell served how many terms in Congress?

A)  One   B)  Two   C)  Four

7.  How many years older than Annie was John Bidwell?

A) 10 years   B)  17 years   C)  20 years

8.  Annie’s father Joseph Kennedy was:

A)  Head of the Department of Agriculture   B)  Director of the U. S. Census Bureau           C)  Senator from Pennsylvania

9.  Which U.S. president (in office at the time) attended John and Annie’s wedding?

A)  Abraham Lincoln   B)  Andrew Johnson   C)  Ulysses S. Grant

10.  John and Annie Bidwell called the area along Chico Creek that is now Bidwell Park:

A)  Bidwell Park   B)  Woodland   C) Vallombrosa

Answers:

1.  A   2. C   3. A   4. B   5. C   6. A   7. C   8. B   9. B   10. C

How did you do?

1-3 correct:  You need to revisit Bidwell Mansion!

4-7 correct:  Good, but could be better.

8-10 correct:  Outstanding! You really know your Bidwell history!

When Lt. William T. Sherman met John Bidwell in 1847, Bidwell was searching for a runaway horse that had $600 in its saddlebags. This was money Bidwell had earned during a summer of surveying land for various people in 1847. The question is: Just how much money was $6oo in today’s terms?

That’s not an easy question to answer.  According to the website Measuring Worth, measuring the worth of historic dollar amounts in today’s money is a complicated business. It depends on what you want to know about that money: how much it would buy, where it would put the owner on the socio-economic scale, how much unskilled labor could be bought with the amount for a project, and so forth.

But the simple answer is: $600 in the United States in 1847 would buy $16,400 in goods today, based on the percentage increase in the Consumer Price Index from 1847 to 2010. Not that there was very much to buy in California in 1847, but it had that potential. Moreover, according to Measuring Worth, $600 was the equal of $247,000 in economic status. Not bad pay for a summer’s work as a surveyor, and well-worth chasing that horse down for.