In the 1880s Hubert Howe Bancroft asked John Bidwell if he could supply any information about several early California pioneers, Dr. John Townsend among them. On May 23, 1884 Bidwell wrote back with short recollections of the men he had known. Of Townsend he said:
“A kinder man I have never known.”
Townsend stood out in Bidwell’s mind as a cut above the usual emigrant to California. He was intelligent and well-educated, with a medical degree from Lexington Medical College. He could have been successful anywhere in the States, but he had a restless and adventurous spirit, and was attracted to California before it became the destination of the entire nation in 1849.
He served as the first American alcalde (magistrate) of San Francisco, and as one biographer said: “he held the scales of justice so evenly as to cause him to be ever remembered for his judicial integrity.” After a successful mining venture in 1848-49 he bought 195 acres near San Jose, intending to settle down to farming and raising a family. On November 26, 1848 his wife Elizabeth bore their first child, John Henry Moses Townsend.
On December 8th, 1850 both John and Elizabeth Townsend died of cholera within hours of each other. Their son was raised by Elizabeth’s brother, Moses Schallenberger, and his wife Fannie. It was a sad end to a worthy man and his wife, who had a bright future before them.
As far as I know, there is no portrait of Dr. Townsend.
For Christmas my daughter gave me a book in the Lakeside Classics series. These books are a bibliophile’s and librarian’s dream, and being a librarian and a bit of a bibliophile, I fell in love with the first one I saw, which was Revolutionary Days by Princess Julia Cantacuzene née Grant (but hers is another story).
And which book did my daughter give me? A Bidwell book, of course. In 1928 the Lakeside Press published Echoes of the Past in California, by John Bidwell, together with another California classic, In Camp and Cabin, by Rev. John Steele. In future posts I will tell you something about John Steele and his adventures in California.
The Society was diligent in preserving the memory of those early pioneers. They collected 
I was looking for anything on John Bidwell, John Marsh, or Dr. John Townsend. Although there was not a large amount on any of these men, I found several choice tidbits. In the case of Dr. Townsend, not only was he a member, having arrived in 1844 with the Stephens-Townsend-Murphy Party, but his son John, who was born in San Francisco in 1848, also qualified to be a member. He must have been the youngest one among the senior pioneers.
Hector Lee (1908-1992) was a professor of folklore who began his career at Chico State University and then transferred to Sonoma State. He was a nationally known authority on the folklore of the American West and his collections of tales appeared not only in books, but on radio and television as well. The clips presented on the ANCHR Facebook page come from the files of CSUChico Meriam Library Special Collections, who have given permission to share them.
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