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Murder at the Mansion — The Confession

Posted on March 3, 2024 by nancyleek

Who could commit such a terrible crime? That was the question on everyone’s lips. But only two days after the murder, the police had a confession. Johnny Richards told his version of the murder to Butte County District Attorney Joseph D. Sproul, Sheriff Wilson, and a stenographer.

My name is John Richards; I am eighteen years old. Steve Thompson had often been after me during the past two or three weeks to kill and rob Billy Simpson, but I have kept putting him off.

Tuesday night he met me on the corner, where the Salvation Army was singing, and asked me again, and I agreed to help do the job. We went back of McFeely’s shop and got a heavy piece of gas pipe about four feet long, and walked across First street to a place near the nursery house, and waited for Billy Simpson.

We saw him coming under the electric light, and when he came along, we walked with him across the creek.

Before Billy came along, Steve had said that the dark place back of the mansion would be a good place to do the job, but there was no agreement as to how the killing was to be done.

When we got back of the mansion I walked ahead, Billy was in the center, and Steve was behind. Steve knocked Billy down with the piece of gas pipe, and after he fell Steve hit him twice more. Billy never spoke after he was hit the first time.

We then carried him under the tree and took his money and keys out of his pockets.

After robbing him we went out by the mansion and cross the road by the Sperry Mill. We went up the creek a little ways and threw the gas pipe down the bank.

After we threw the gas pipe away, we came into town and stayed a while and then went out to Bidwell’s and divided the money. Steve said we had better take the keys back, and we went back and threw the keys in the direction where we had left the body. We then went home.

Steve Thompson had his own version of the event. Most of the details coincided with Richards statement, except that Thompson said that the robbery was Richards’ idea. He admitted striking the first blow, but said that Richards hit Simpson after he fell. Since Thompson was not as cooperative, and changed his story between confessions, the authorities were inclined to believe Richards.

It took both men to drag the body out of the driveway and under a tree. They hid by a corner of the woodshed until J.A. McFeely had passed, and then rifled the dead man’s pockets. They found eighteen dollars and fifty cents in a purse and missed a dime that was down in the bottom of a pocket. They split the money. Johnny Richards told the D.A.:

We divided the money over by Bidwell’s, out in the grove. Steve hid his money by the chestnut tree down by the creek. I stayed out in the road. I took my money with me. He told me he would give me ten dollars. I got nine dollars and a quarter.
Chico Record 2 March 1900

As far as I know (I haven’t looked recently) there is still an old chestnut tree on the north bank of Chico Creek, near the bridge that goes to the new Social Sciences building.

View of Bidwell Mansion about 1900, with footbridge on the right. CSUChico Special Collections
sc14491

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Murder at the Mansion — Whodunit?

Posted on March 2, 2024 by nancyleek

On the night of his murder, Billy Simpson had been seen going into The Chico Branch, a clothing store on Second Street, with two other Indians, The proprietor, C.N. Howard, said that one of the men, it might have been Simpson, he wasn’t sure, had bought a hat.

A few minutes after the visit to The Branch, Simpson was seen outside the Bank of Chico. He then stopped in briefly at a coffee-house on Broadway, near the Bidwell office, and then started for home. The time was about 8:45 p.m.

The walk would have taken him through Bidwell’s nursery and over the footbridge toward Bidwell Mansion. A few minutes later, J. A. McFeely left his store and started for home on the same route across the footbridge. As he was crossing the bridge he heard Charles Cunningham’s dogs making a ruckus behind the mansion.

Sheriff Sylvester H. Wilson and Marshal James Chubbuck fixed their suspicions on the Indians at the rancheria. They went through the names of the men, and the name Steve Thompson stood out to them, although exactly why is not clear. Possibly he was unemployed, perhaps he had been in trouble before. He had not been in Chico for long.

Sheriff Wilson and Marshal Chubbuck last evening arrested Steve Thompson, an Indian boy at the Rancheria, on suspicion. He was closely questioned regarding his whereabouts Tuesday evening and proved himself capable of lying in nearly every statement he made. He was locked up in the City Jail but no charge will be placed against him until further evidence is gained.
Chico Record 1 March 1900

They also found Johnny Richards, who had been seen with Thompson on the night of the murder. Both men were young; Richards was only eighteen. As Marshal Chubbuck questioned Richards at his place of work, “he rested his head on the wheel of the buggy and began to cry.” (Chico Record, 2 March 1900) The marshal was sure that, given a little time, Richards would confess.

Sheriff Wilson and Marshal Chubbock searched the cabin where Thompson and Richards lived. They found a pair of blood-stained overalls, further confirming their suspicions of the two men.

Later that same day they arrested Richards, who soon admitted that he was with Steve Thompson on the night of the murder, and that Thompson did the killing, bludgeoning Billy Simpson with an iron pipe. He told the officers where they had hidden the murder weapon.

He directed the officers to a spot between the Sperry Flour Mills and the cemetery bridge for the club, and upon going there the officers found a piece of gas pipe, which bears evidence of having been used in the murderous work.

The piece of gas pipe is covered with blood and is bent by the blows rained upon the head of Simpson. It is about four feet long and two inches in diameter.
Chico Weekly Enterprise 2 March 1900

If you know where Northern Star Mills is, and where the Camellia Street bridge crosses Big Chico Creek, then you have an idea of the location where the culprits threw the murder weapon. That bridge and street once led directly to the cemetery entrance behind Chico Junior High School.

Next: The Confession

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Who Was Billy Simpson?

Posted on March 1, 2024 by nancyleek

Who was Billy Simpson, the man found murdered just outside Bidwell Mansion?

There is no known photograph of Billy. He was a California Indian, but probably not Mechoopda. The opportunity for employment on Rancho Chico had brought members of other local tribes to the rancheria, so that the Mechoopda called their village Bahapki (“unsifted”), indicating its mixed population. Billy reportedly came from Tehama County. He first shows up in John Bidwell’s diary in 1880, so that by 1900 he had worked for Bidwell for twenty years.

He was a trusted employee. By the 1890s he shows up in the diary frequently as driver on Bidwell’s road-building expeditions to the mountains on the Humboldt Wagon Road. Here he is in 1891:

Tues. July l4. Chico to McGann’s. Wife, self & Cora set out at 3.45 a.m. for Big Meadows – Billy Simpson goes as driver –

Thurs., July l6. Big Meadows – Hamlin Place. Events: Billy Simpson and Guy went to Prattville to get new brake block on carry all – also some other repairs on same –

Fri., August l4. Hamlin Place > Big Meadows. Events: Guy & Frankie went with Billy Simpson to Prattville and brought a good supply of fruits, vegetables & melons which came up by stage yesterday – All (except Joey) drove West toward and along the mountain in carryall to the main stream, where wife remained with Billy Simpson & the carryall –

Wed., September 23. Hamlin Place > Big Meadows. Events: Sent Billy Simpson early to intersect Stage on the Chico road.

Here he is again in 1898:

Sat., August 6. Butte Meadows. Places: New Beartrap hill grade with Mr. Berdan. From there Billy Simpson & I brought home a load of wood –

He was a musician and played a horn in the Indian Brass Band. An article in the Chico Weekly Enterprise (30 December 1888) listed the Christmas program at the rancheria chapel. The long list of recitations and musical numbers included “Music by the band” and “Music (horn) Billy Simpson.”

Billy was about 42 years old at the time of his death. He lived by himself in a cabin on the rancheria. He had once been married, but his wife and step-child had died some twenty years previously, and he remained alone.

Although to John Bidwell he was a valued employee, to the other Indians he may have seemed stand-offish and unfriendly. The Chico Record reported that “His holding himself aloof from the others, caused him to be disliked, and those who were inclined to be worldly and enjoyed liquor, believed that he was a spotter who would tell General and Mrs. Bidwell whenever they did anything wrong.” (1 March 1900)

Annie Bidwell replied to this insinuation by writing a letter to the editor. She had a good opinion of Billy, even though he was not a devout church attendee. She wrote:

I hope the Enterprise will not state that Billy Simpson’s death was due to antagonism engendered by his virtue, which is unjustice to the Indians. It is true that Billy did refuse to come to church on the ground that there were those present who “were hypocrites” — a very usual excuse with white people, also. But Billy did not refuse — as some have of other color — to become a Christian because of “hypocrites” in the church. He said he could not stand it to see those sitting there who pretended to me to be good while they were hypocrites.
Chico Enterprise, 2 March 1900

The body of Billy Simpson was buried in the Mechoopda Rancheria cemetery.

A view of the Mechoopda cemetery and chapel

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Murder at the Mansion — Annie Investigates

Posted on March 1, 2024 by nancyleek

The murdered body of Billy Simpson was discovered early on the morning of February 28th. General and Mrs. Bidwell were already up and were notified immediately. Annie Bidwell quickly walked the few blocks to the Indian village.

Annie knew Billy Simpson well. He frequently drove her in the carriage around town or in the wagon up into the mountains in the summertime. He had worked for the Bidwells for twenty years and was considered a reliable and honest employee. She must have been horrified at his brutal murder.

To Annie, the residents of the Mechoopda rancheria were “her” Indians. She had channeled her maternal instincts into looking after them and saw their welfare as paramount. Besides this concern, she had a natural curiosity to get to the bottom of this dreadful occurrence.

Did they see her as a busybody? Perhaps. But she was generous with her time and her resources, and she could serve as a buffer against the white man’s world.

Billy had not been a regular church-goer at the Indian chapel. No doubt this disappointed Annie. But it did not diminish her good opinion of him or her determination to aid in solving the mystery.

Next: Who was Billy Simpson?

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Murder at the Mansion — The Maid’s Testimony

Posted on February 29, 2024 by nancyleek

Shortly before 9:00 p.m., on the evening of February 27, 1900, John A. McFeely left his hardware store on Second Street and headed for home. As he neared the footbridge over Chico Creek he heard Charles Cunningham’s dogs barking at the rear of Bidwell Mansion.

Inside Bidwell Mansion, a maid, Florence Blake, heard them too.

This incident is important in fixing the time of the crime for the reason that Miss Florence Blake, a domestic at the Bidwell home, tells that she never knew of one of the dogs acting as he did at that time. She called the dogs to quiet them, and one of them growled at her viciously and then darted out in the direction of the place where Simpson was killed.
Chico Record 1 March 1900

Charles Cunningham, who worked for the Bidwells as a gardener, lived on Lincoln Avenue near the Esplanade, but evidently kept his dogs near the mansion.

Imagine Florence sitting in the kitchen, having a cup of tea before retiring for the evening. She is feeling a bit nervous. It has been an unsettling day. General Bidwell is in his office, making notes in his diary. Mrs. Bidwell is up in their bedroom, writing letters. Florence hears the dogs making a commotion outside. She opens the back door in the laundry room and tells the dogs “Quiet!” Rather than obeying, they growl and run off toward the creek. What is going on?

Florence shut the door and locked it. She had already had one disturbing caller that evening and didn’t want any more trouble. Only an hour before she had answered a knock on the door to find a stranger asking to speak to General Bidwell. The man was clearly intoxicated. She told him that the General was busy, but to call again later and he could speak to the General.

Strangers knocking on the door of the mansion, looking for work or a handout, were common enough, but Florence didn’t care for such an interruption by a drunk on a dark night.

The man went away, but did not return. About a half or three-quarters of an hour later, one of the young ladies employed there [this was Florence] heard the dog growl fiercely and jump from the porch. The young lady was quite nervous after the visit of the drunken man, and she called the dog back to the porch.

This morning the tracks of the dog show that he had started straight for the spot where Simpson’s body was found, and it is confidently believed that he was aroused by the scuffling made during the time the deed was committed.
Chico Weekly Enterprise 2 March 1900

The police hunted for the drunken stranger the next day and found him. They decided he was not the murderer, but only a common troublemaker.

The mysterious drunken man who called at the Bidwell mansion on the evening of the murder, turned out to be James Wilson, the drunk who broke jail that day.
Chico Weekly Enterprise 2 March 1900

Tuesday morning one of Constable Potter’s prisoners broke out of the city prison by prying out one of the staples which held the gate to the prison yard. The prisoner was Jim Nelson [sic — the headline has the name Wilson] who was arrested for indecent exposure on the Shasta road [the Esplanade]. . . .

Yesterday he was identified as the man who had escaped from the jail. Further investigation proved that he was the fellow who, while intoxicated, had visited the Bidwell mansion Tuesday evening two or three hours before the murder of Simpson, and had frightened Miss Blake.
Chico Record 1 March 1900

After questioning Jim Wilson, the police decided he was not their man. Their attention turned to the men on the Mechoopda rancheria. Could this have been a case of revenge?

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Murder at the Mansion

Posted on February 28, 2024 by nancyleek

Fred Petersen, the head gardener at Bidwell Mansion, got an early start on the morning of February 28, 1900. And it was not long after his arrival that he made a grisly discovery.

At 6:30 a.m., just as it was getting light, he came upon the body of a man lying by the driveway, his head battered and bloody. As reported by the Chico Record, “A glance was sufficient to tell Peterson that an awful crime had been committed, for the upturned face of the body was covered with blood, the features disfigured and the head resting in a pool of blood.”

The victim was Billy Simpson, an Indian* and a long-time employee of John and Annie Bidwell. Fred Petersen would have known and recognized him. He alerted Reuben Messinger, Bidwell’s stableman and coach driver. As they stood over the slain man, John A. McFeely hurried over to join them. He was on his usual morning walk from his home on Arcadian Avenue to his hardware store on Second Street. The horrified men notified John Bidwell and summoned the police. By the time the constables arrived, a large crowd of men and boys had gathered around the body and trampled the ground in every direction.

That evening John Bidwell noted the event in his diary: MURDER: Billy Simpson found dead this morning – murdered – nearby.

“Nearby” was directly behind the mansion. The newspaper reported that the body “was discovered in the driveway about twenty yards northwest of the woodshed near the mansion.” Although I don’t know where the woodshed was located, this site would be on the unpaved driveway near the carriage house, where today a path runs toward the Chico State campus. Other reports said that the body was discovered beneath a large fig tree.

A rear view of Bidwell Mansion with a carriage on the driveway and the architect’s cottage and the carriage house on the left.

Both the Chico Record and the Chico Daily Enterprise reported the crime in gruesome detail. From the Enterprise on March 2nd:

That Simpson had been murdered in cold blood, and by some man or men who were determined on robbery, there seems no possibility of a doubt. Those who were early on the scene could plainly see the marks in the driveway where Simpson had fallen, when the first terrible blow was delivered.

The murderer evidently slipped up behind his victim and dealt him a terrific blow on top of the head with some blunt instrument. Stunned and bleeding with his skull fractured in a dozen places the inoffensive Indian had fallen to the ground, and while the victim was lying prostrate on the ground, the murderer, evidently intent on making sure that his victim was dead, delivered two more blows upon the head and face of the fallen man.

The report goes on to detail the dreadful injuries inflicted upon Billy Simpson. Then:

After making sure that his victim was beyond giving an alarm, the murderer carried the body of the Indian under the dense foliage of a giant fig tree, where he proceeded to rifle the pockets of the dead man. A trail of blood marks the path of the murderer as he bore his human burden off of the driveway into the darkness to conclude his hellish work.

All this happened while John and Annie Bidwell and their servants went on with their evening inside the walls of Bidwell Mansion.

Who murdered Billy Simpson? Why? When did it happen? Did anyone hear the crime?

Stay tuned for more about Billy Simpson, about the arrest and fate of his murderers, and their motives for the killing.

*I will be using the term “Indian” or “American Indian” rather than “Native” or “indigenous person,” simply because “Indian” was the term in use at the time and it is still preferred by some indigenous groups.

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Ladies! Here’s Your Chance!

Posted on February 25, 2024 by nancyleek

Ladies! Make your plans now for February 29th!

2024 is a Leap Year, and that means, according to an old custom, it is a year when women can propose marriage to men. Traditionally, it was the man’s role to propose marriage, but anytime during a leap year, but especially on February 29th, the roles were reversed. A woman could finally take matters into her own hands and pop the question. It was said that if the man refused the offer, he was required to give the woman a gift of a pair of gloves or a silk gown as compensation.

Pres Longley, our own Bard of Butte, shared these lines of verse on the subject in 1892.

You may wrangle and rave of your Marysville girls,
Of the girls of the Capital City,
Of the ‘Frisco girls, with their fads and their curls,
But the Butte Creek girls are most pretty.
Their smiles are far dearer to me than the gold
That the millionaire hides in his coffers,
And I hope, ‘ere the days of this leap year are told,
Some dear one will make me an offer.

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February Celebrations

Posted on February 13, 2024 by nancyleek

The Weekly Butte Record found a number of reasons to celebrate in February. All the following come from the issue for February 13, 1864.

The event that got the most coverage was the completion of the California Northern Railroad, linking Marysville and Oroville. This was a boon to merchants and shipping, and called for a parade and speeches, followed by a collation, a ball, and general jubilation. All the local militia units would be on display.

The newspaper also took note of the Chinese celebration of the Lunar New Year, referring as they often did, to the Chinese as “celestials.”

Notice that the almond trees were in bloom in mid-February, then as now.

And of course, Valentine’s Day. 1864 was a year to be reckoned with — it was a leap year, when custom said that women could propose to men. “The bachelor fraternity should hold themselves in readiness”!

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Abraham Lincoln and Freedom

Posted on February 11, 2024 by nancyleek

February 12th 2024 marks the 215th birthday of Abraham Lincoln, 16th president of the United States, who led the country through four years of a bloody and bitter war, a war fought to end slavery and to maintain a government “of the people, by the people, and for the people.”

This last week I had the opportunity to speak to two 5th grade classes. Since they had already covered California history in the 4th grade, and were currently studying U.S. history, I figured a good topic would be the issue of slavery in California, as demonstrated in the life of Alvin Coffey.

We tend to think of slavery and the American Civil War as events that took place “back East”, but these issues touched California too. People in California came from every state in the nation and from all over the world, and they brought their customs and prejudices with them. Slavery was a hot issue in California.

Fifth grade students, kids who are 10 years old or so, find it hard to wrap their brains around the idea that some people thought it right to enslave other human beings. They know it is wrong, and they live in a world of such diversity that it doesn’t make sense to them. President Lincoln would approve.

Lincoln thought long and hard about the issue of slavery. He had such clarity of thought and expression that he was able to explain the problem in terms that any adult or 5th grader can understand. In the 1850s he wrote out his thoughts on a fragment of paper, using the reasoning he heard around him from proponents of the slave system.

If A. can prove, however conclusively, that he may, of right, enslave B.—why may not B. snatch the same argument, and prove equally, that he may enslave A?” Lincoln wrote. “You say A. is white, and B. is black. It is color, then; the lighter, having the right to enslave the darker? Take care. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with a fairer skin than your own.

You do not mean color exactly?—You mean the whites are intellectually the superiors of the blacks, and, therefore have the right to enslave them? Take care again. By this rule, you are to be slave to the first man you meet, with an intellect superior to your own. But, say you, it is a question of interest; and, if you can make it your interest, you have the right to enslave another. Very well. And if he can make it his interest, he has the right to enslave you.
As quoted by Heather Cox Richardson, “Letter from an American” https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/february-11-2024

Lincoln saw clearly that if we give up the principle of equality before the law, we have given away our own freedom. We have put ourselves at the mercy of any person who decides that they are smarter, stronger, richer, or more worthy in any way than we are, and are willing to enforce that notion.

So– Happy Birthday to President Abraham Lincoln, and may we never forget the principles he lived and died to defend.

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A Visit to Ide Adobe State Historic Park

Posted on February 10, 2024 by nancyleek

Today is a beautiful day to be out and about, so I went to William B. Ide Adobe State Historic Park in Red Bluff to walk their StoryWalk.

The guides at Ide Adobe do a StoryWalk every month, featuring a seasonal or fun picture book. Today’s book, in honor of Black History Month, was my book on Alvin Coffey, African-American Forty-Niner. The pages were cut apart, laminated, and posted on the fence along the river. Read at your own pace.

If you want to see what pioneer life was like on the California frontier in the 1850s, Ide Adobe SHP is the place to go. It sits on the banks of the Sacramento River, and shows how a family might have lived, with its adobe cabin, water well, smokehouse, garden, blacksmith shop, and garden.

It was once thought that William B. Ide, a leader of the Bear Flag Revolt and the first (and only) president of the short-lived California Republic, lived here in this adobe house. That is now considered incorrect, but the State Park still bears his name and honors his legacy. The site is just north of Rancho Barranca Colorada, the Mexican land grant that Ide owned jointly with Josiah Belden.

The adobe was actually built in 1852 by A. M. Dibble, an early settler in Red Bluff. It changed owners numerous times over the years, until acquired by California State Parks. The site was the location of a ferry across the Sacramento River.

Spring is the perfect time to visit Ide Adobe State Historic Park. Take a walk down by the river. Look for birds and wild critters. The grounds are open sunrise to sunset and the Visitor’s Center is open Friday to Sunday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Check their Facebook page for the next StoryWalk activity.