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Biographical Notes
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John Bidwell
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Bidwell was obviously not interested in gold mining per se. He saw his strike as a way of establishing himself in agriculture. Early in 1848 he registered his brand and began raising cattle on the land surrounding his Little Butte Creek cabin. In July 1849 he purchased a one half interest in Rancho Chico from George McKinsey and in 1851 he purchased the other half. Rancho Chico and Rancho New Salem were adjacent properties and his property totaled 33,000 acres and stretched from the Sacramento River to the foothills of the Sierra Mountains. Much of the labor on his land was provided by the Mechoopda Indian tribe (and later by Chinese). In November 1849 Bidwell was elected to the state senate and in 1850 was part of the delegation sent to Washington to lobby for statehood. He did not seek reelection in 1850 but was very active in helping to organize the Democratic Party in the new state.
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In 1852 Bidwell built a two story adobe house on Rancho Chico and took up permanent residence. (In later years he sold or gave away most of the New Salem property but retained the majority of the Rancho Chico land.) He ran for state senator again in 1855, but was defeated by John B. McGee, the Know Nothing Candidate. From 1852 through 1856 Bidwell, like most other land owners in California, spent an enormous amount of time, effort, and resources in securing legal title to his land. Because of his involvement in settling other foreigners on land in California during the Mexican period he was also involved in Land Commission hearings as an expert witness. Bidwell fared better than many others and secured final title to his land on April 4, 1860. Bidwell started with cattle raising, but quickly diversified to other agricultural products including sheep and a wide variety of fruit and grains. Within a short time his principal crop was winter wheat. (By 1857 Bidwell and other farmers in the Sacramento Valley were producing surpluses which were sold as far away as London, England. In 1878 Bidwell's wheat won a gold medal at the Paris International Exhibition and was judged to be the finest in the world.)
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With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 Bidwell left the Democratic Party to join with Republicans to form the Union Party. In 1863 he was named to the Union Party's executive committee and on September 3, 1863, was appointed a brigadier general in the state militia by then Governor Leland Stanford He served as commander of the Fifth Brigade with fifteen companies and 500 men under his command. His duties were to bolster support for the union and suppress political dissent in northern California. During 1863, at Bidwell's invitation, the United States Army established Camp Bidwell on the grounds of Rancho Chico. In June 1864 Bidwell attended the Union Party Convention in Baltimore and in November was elected to the United States House of Representatives as a member of the Union Party. He served as Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture and was instrumental in passing the California Land Act of 1866 and the California and Oregon Railroad bill. In August 1865 Fort Bidwell was established in the far northwestern corner of California to protect transportation routes in the area in which Bidwell had an interest. In August 1867 Bidwell tried unsuccessfully to gain the Union Party's gubernatorial nomination losing to George C. Gorham who had the support of Stanford and his Central Pacific partners.
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On April 16, 1868, Bidwell married Annie Ellicott Kennedy, an ardent Presbyterian. The wedding took place in Washington D.C. and President Andrew Johnson and General Ulysses S. Grant were among the guests Annie was an early advocate of Prohibition and converted Bidwell to her views on the subject. (During his courtship of Annie he uprooted his 15,000 acre vineyard and replanted it to raisins and table grapes.). Bidwell was active in statewide agricultural organizations and in 1875 secured the gubernatorial nomination of the Granger's political party - the Peoples Independent Party ("Dolly Varden Party"). He was once again defeated, this time by the Democratic Party candidate - William Irwin. In 1879 Governor George Perkins (former Bidwell aide during the civil war) appointed him to the University of California Board of Regents. Early on Bidwell took an interest in developing the community that later became Chico City and in 1887 he led a campaign to establish a new college in Chico.
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Bidwell continued his interest in California agricultural issues but in his later years increasingly focused his time and attention to promoting Prohibition. In 1888 he served as a delegate to the Prohibition Party's national convention and ran for governor as that party's nominee in 1890. He was once again defeated, but he continued with the party and ran for President on the ticket in the national elections of 1892. Grover Cleveland was elected and Bidwell finally retired from politics. He was 73 years old. John Bidwell's extensive agricultural enterprises were profitable for most of his life, but toward the end he accumulated a great deal of debt. As long as he was alive he was able to generate enough income to maintain his credit but not enough to reduce his debt. He died on April 4, 1900, in Chico, California. After her husband passed away, Annie sold off most of their property, but was able to maintain ownership of their home. She died in 1918. Today their mansion is a state park and is open for visitation.
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