goldfields

While searching old newspapers online looking for something else (isn’t that always the way), I came across this entertaining story in the Butte Record of December 23, 1854.

Bear Story

The little town of Hamilton, a few evenings since, was visited by a Bruin of the grizzly species. The first intimation the peaceful inhabitants had of his presence, was given by their lowing and frightened herds, coming tearing into town as fast as their trembling limbs could carry them.  The inhabitants were soon aroused, and discovered his bearship in the rear of the flying cattle. Judge W., from the upper country, happened to be in Hamilton, and the inhabitants arming themselves, and letting loose their dogs, followed the warlike Judge to the bushy field. They soon succeeded in corraling his bearship in the top of a fallen tree, which was soon surrounded by dogs, and armed and silent but excited citizens.

A hideous noise issuing from the tree top, warned all to be on their guard, and convinced the Judge, to whom the sound was perfectly familiar, that they had a regular grizzly to deal with. The utmost caution was now used. One person who was perched upon a high log, soon discovered a pair of fierce burning eyes, in the wreck of the tree top, at which he levelled his death-dealing rifle as well as the shades of evening would permit. His aim was sure, and the huge monster’s eyes were closed forever. The dogs then rushed in and grappling with their ferocious foe, drew forth a – Billy Goat!

“Kee-ris-topher Columbus, Judge,” exclaimed a voice in the nasal accent of New England; “ can’t you tell the snort of a grizzly from the bleat of a mounting goat?”

“For God’s sake, boys,” exclaimed the agonized Judge, “let’s bury him and swear it was a grizzly! It will never do to let this yarn reach Neal’s Ranch! What’ll you drink?”

I don’t know whether this is a true story, or just a tall tale to fill a page. There were certainly still grizzly bears in Butte County in 1854, so it could have happened.

Why not?

My picture book biographies, Nancy Kelsey Comes over the Mountain and John and Annie Bidwell: The Long and the Short of It, are both available on Amazon. But I need to some reviews! If you have bought or read the books (available at a library near you, I hope) then you could post a review.

I have started sending out postcards to schools, museums, and libraries advertising my latest book. If they go to Amazon to look at the book, I think it would encourage them to buy it if it had some good reviews. I hope you think so too, and can help me out.

Gary Kurutz, who is curator emeritus of the  California State Library and executive director, California State Library Foundation (and a very nice person) said of the Nancy Kelsey book:

“Nancy Leek is a master story-teller and has brought to life the heroic 1841 overland trek of Nancy Kelsey. Her book proves that women could handle just about any obstacle thrown their way.”

You can order the book here at Goldfields Books or you can order from Amazon or you can buy it locally, but whichever you do, I hope you will post a review.

Today, January 9th, is the date of the final battle of the California Campaign of the Mexican-American War. The Battle of La Mesa occurred one day after the Battle of Rio San Gabriel and brought an end to hostilities between American forces and the Californios.

The site of the battle was on a plain between the Los Angeles River and the San Gabriel River. The city of Vernon, just south of downtown Los Angeles, now occupies the site.

The two sides looked to be evenly matched: 300 Mexican Californians under Jose Maria Flores faced 300 American troops under Commodore Robert Stockton and General Stephen Watts Kearny. But the Americans were armed with rifles, while the Californios were armed only with lances.

Battle of La Mesa

Marching toward Los Angeles, the American troops encountered the Californios on horseback, who extended their line to surround the Americans. The cavalry charged the American troops, but were cut down by relentless rifle fire and forced to retreat. Losses during this and the precious day’s battle consisted of three dead on each side and several wounded.

The conquest of California was settled with the signing of the Treaty of Cahuenga by Lieutenant-Colonel John C. Frémont and Californio General Andrés Pico four days later, on January 13, 1847.

Plaque marking the battle in Vernon California — California Historical Landmark #167

What would a canny ship owner do as soon as he heard about gold in California in 1848? He would load up a ship with goods and passengers, and set sail for the Pacific.

Among the many fascinating items to be found among the Bidwell Papers at the California State Library are a series of receipts from a shopping trip John Bidwell took to Sacramento in 1849 where he purchased goods to supply a trading post at Bidwell Bar. Over a two day period he visited at least ten merchants, buying whatever they had.

One of the stores he visited was not in a building or a tent, but on a ship. According to Mark A. Eifler in Gold Rush Capitalists (University of New Mexico Press, 2002), Roland Gelston, captain of the bark Whiton, was the first to bring a shipload of merchandise from the East Coast directly to Sacramento. He left New York in November of 1848 and sailed around Cape Horn with cargo and passengers. Arriving in May 1849, he “immediately threw open his ship’s hold to sell merchandise to expectant miners.”

He was still selling when John Bidwell bought from him on July 6, 1849.

Among the items he bought were two kegs of molasses, shelled almonds, dried apples, two tin kettles, and a shot pouch (also useful for gold dust). The handwriting is not very clear, and I can’t read some of the other things he bought. But he spent $229.45 with R. Gelston & Co.

Best wishes for a happy and prosperous New Year from Goldfields Books. I hope 2018 is filled with wonderful discoveries and joyful events for you and yours.

This past year I worked on two publishing projects: my own book on Nancy Kelsey and ANCHR’s compilation of Northern California oral histories.

If you have not yet seen ANCHR’s new book you need to check it out — Conversations with the Past: Vibrant Voices from Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta & Tehama Counties. This book truly has something for every history buff’s interest.

In the 1970s, members of the Association of Northern California Records and Research (ANCHR’s predecessor) spent several years collecting and transcribing oral histories. These histories have languished in storage files for decades. We rediscovered them this year and decided these voices and their stories needed to be heard.

These personal accounts provide a priceless window to a past long gone. But they also show that people did back then what we do now — live their lives.

These memories range from personal accounts about the Bidwells, family cattle drives, early days in Paradise and Chico, hitching canoe rides on riverboat barges, Chico’s first teenage aviator, the discovery of Ishi in Oroville, western Colusa County Indian life and John Bidwell’s explorations, herding geese (it’s not what you might think it is), pioneer life in Orland and Newville including feuding Civil War veterans, memories of Modoc County, the town of Prattville and Big Meadows before Lake Almanor flooded the areas, railroad torpedoes, and President Kennedy’s visit to Lassen Volcanic National Park in 1963.

 The book costs $16.95 and is available at The Bookstore on Main St. in Chico, ABC Books, Discount Books in Oroville, My Girlfriend’s Closet in Paradise, and various museums and historical societies in Northern California. You can also order online at anchr.org.

Nancy Kelsey Comes over the Mountain is also available from the ANCHR website, and from me right here, and from Amazon.com. The book was a joy to research and to write. If you would like to hear Steve Ferchaud and me talk about our work on this book, you can hear us on a Nancy’s Bookshelf podcast.

And . . . if you would like to hear either the ANCHR team of editors, or me, talk about our books, please contact me at goldfieldsbooksca@gmail.com. We are available to speak to groups throughout the North State.

Steve and I peddling our books at ABC Books on Mangrove in Chico.

I spent the day at the History Room of the California State Library in Sacramento, looking at papers in the Sutter’s Fort Pioneer Collection. Among other things, this collection contains two boxes of papers pulled from the Bidwell Papers, consisting primarily of business letters, contracts and receipts. It’s full of interesting items that I had never seen before.

Here is one little tidbit, a letter from John Sutter to Bidwell, concerning a screw for his winepress.

            My Dear Sir,

The screw for your winepress will be ready at the Marysville foundry at the same time when mine, the price of them they could not tell me when I ordered them, but will know it on Wednesday when I will be there and will write you a few lines.

The carpenter will be ready with my work in a few days and then he will go up to your establishment, he understand likewise to make the wine.

I remain with the highest Esteem

Your Friend and Obedt. Servant  J. A. Sutter

The date is missing from the top of the letter, so I don’t know when it was written. According to the History Of Yuba And Sutter Counties, the first foundry in Marysville was established in 1852, so it can’t be any earlier than that. It was probably written sometime in the mid-1850s.

Just a glimpse of John Bidwell before he met Annie!

Not long ago a friend of mine asked me why John Bidwell did not name the town he founded after himself. He could name it anything he wanted. Why Chico? Why not Bidwellville, or Bidwellton, or Bidwell City?

It used to be pretty common to name a town after its founder, or someone the founder wanted to honor. Gridley is named for founder George W. Gridley. Redding is named for railroad man Benjamin Redding (or maybe pioneer Pierson B. Reading, who owned the rancho Redding was built on). Weed is named for founder Abner Weed, and not for  tumbleweeds or any other plant. Susanville is named after Susan Roop, the daughter of founder Isaac Roop (before that it was Rooptown) and Marysville is named after Mary Murphy Covillaud, a survivor of the Donner Party and wife of Charles Covillaud, who bought Theodor Cordua’s ranch. Cordua called the community he founded New Mecklenburg.

John Bidwell had been employed by John Sutter to survey the prospective town of Sutterville, just south of Sacramento. Even though it was laid out on higher ground than Sacramento (which was prone to flooding), it never took off, and Bidwell’s lots in the town were worthless. Maybe that was not a good omen.

Bidwell was never much for naming things after himself. As a state senator, he had a hand in naming the counties. He named Sutter County after John Sutter, whose Hock Farm was located there. Perhaps he could have named Butte County after himself, but he didn’t.

In 1849 Bidwell bought Rancho del Arroyo Chico. I don’t know who named it that, but Chico Creek (Arroyo Chico — Small Creek) seems to have had that name when he got here. He sometimes referred to his place as Rio Chico, or Chico Farm. It must have seemed natural then to name the town Chico.

What we called Bidwell Park was named by the city. He and Annie never called it that — they called the area Vallombrosa. There is Bidwell Junior High School in Chico, and two Bidwell Elementary Schools, one in Red Bluff and one in Sacramento. But no town of Bidwell.

There is a Bidwell Avenue in Chico, which runs along Big Chico Creek west of Nord Ave. Two other streets that were named after John Bidwell have disappeared. I wrote about one of them here. John Gallardo recently informed me that another Bidwell Street shows up on an 1888 bird’s-eye map of Chico. I think it was what is now 12th Street. It is right at the bottom of this map. You can get a closer look at the map at the Chico State Historical Map Collection.

The last field trip for my OLLI Historic Homes group last Thursday was to my favorite Victorian home, Stansbury House in Chico. I love Bidwell Mansion too, but it’s too grand for me to actually imagine living there. But I can imagine living in Stansbury House.

The house stands at the corner of Fifth and Salem Streets near downtown Chico. Built by Dr. Oscar Stansbury in 1883, it now belongs to the city of Chico. It is cared for by the Stansbury Home Preservation Association and is open for public tours Saturdays and Sundays from 1 to 4 p.m. We were given a special tour by John Gallardo, who knows the house inside and out, having lived there as caretaker (oops — resident curator) for twenty years.

Dr. Stansbury was born in Mississippi in 1852 and received his medical degree in 1873. In 1875, at the request of his cousin, he came to Chico, California to take over his cousin’s medical practice. After two years he returned to Maryland to marry his fiancée, Libbie Manlove, and then brought her back to Chico. A few years later he inherited the money that allowed him to build an elegant home for his growing family. The Stansburys had three children, Middleton, Angeline, and Ellen.

Bedroom ceiling decoration

Miss Angeline Stansbury never married. Her mother died in 1923, followed by her father in 1926. An art teacher at Chico High School for forty years, she continued to live in the home until her death on Christmas Day, 1974. She diligently preserved the pristine quality of her home and its furnishings, resulting in a model of Victorian life in Chico.

The house was designed by Sacramento architect, A.A. Cook, and is a classic example of Italianate Victorian—a style patterned after the sturdy square manor houses of the Italian countryside. Dr. Stansbury bought the quarter block on which the home was built for $1,000 and the 10-room house was constructed for just under $8,000.

The exterior of the house is a fine example of the elaborate style of decoration favored in the Victorian era. It incorporates beautifully molded and arched windows accented with carved rosettes at their peak, angled bay windows flanked by colonettes; entrance porches with slender fluted columns; carved balustrades and decorated pediments, all topped by bracketed cornices. Centered on the roof is a low decorative wrought iron fence.

Wainscoting and wallpaper and stained glass window (which does not show up well in this photo)

The walls and ceilings of the home reward careful examination. Every surface is covered in wallpaper, imitation leather wainscoting, or ornamental plaster-work, all of it original. At every house we visited, I asked if the wallpaper was original, and it never was. It had either deteriorated to the point where it had to go, or it had been replaced during an earlier remodeling.  It is highly unusual to see wallpaper that is over 100 years old.

Much of the paper has either darkened or faded though. Luckily, leftover pieces and rolls of wallpaper were found in the basement, so that our docent, John, was able to show us what the paper looked like when new.

Another highlight of the house is Dr. Stansbury’s medical office. He had an office downtown, but he also maintained a small office in his home, with a separate entrance. It contains his books and instruments, his examining chair (leather with silk fringe!), his roll-top desk, and his skeleton, a real one.

In 1976, the historic house was acquired by the City of Chico through donation by the Stansbury family heirs combined with partial purchase. It is presently open to the public under the auspices of The Stansbury Home Preservation Association, Inc., a community-wide non-profit organization.

Some information adapted from Stansbury Home Preservation Association website, http://www.stansburyhome.org/.