+
+ + + John Bidwell + + +
++ Life Story +
++ John Bidwell was known throughout California and across the +nation as an important pioneer, farmer, soldier, statesman, politician, +prohibitionist and philanthropist. He is famous for leading one of the first +emigrant parties, known as the Bartleson–Bidwell Party, along the California +Trail, and for founding Chico, California. +
++ Bidwell was born in Chautauqua County, New York. The Bidwell +family was originally from England and came to America in the colonial era. The Bidwell family moved to Erie, Pennsylvania +in 1829, and then to Ashtabula County, Ohio in 1831. At age 17, he attended and +shortly thereafter became Principal of Kingsville Academy. +
++ In 1841 Bidwell became one of the first emigrants on the +California Trail. John Sutter employed Bidwell as his business manager shortly +after Bidwell's arrival in California. Shortly after the James W. Marshall's +discovery at Sutter's Mill, Bidwell also discovered gold on the Feather River +establishing a productive claim at Bidwell Bar in advance of the California +Gold Rush. Bidwell obtained the four square league Rancho Los Ulpinos land +grant after being naturalized as a Mexican citizen in 1844, and the two square +league Rancho Colus grant on the Sacramento River in 1845; later selling that +grant and buying Rancho Arroyo Chico on Chico Creek to establish a ranch and +farm. +
++ Bidwell obtained the rank of major while fighting in the +Mexican–American War. He served in the California Senate in 1849, supervised +the census of California in 1850 and again in 1860. He was a delegate to the +1860 national convention of the Democratic Party. He was appointed brigadier +general of the California Militia in 1863. He was a delegate to the national +convention of the Republican Party in 1864 and was a Republican member of +Congress from 1865 to 1867. +
++ In 1865, General Bidwell backed a petition from settlers at +Red Bluff, California to protect Red Bluff's trail to the Owhyhee Mines of +Idaho. The United States Army commissioned 7 forts for this purpose, and +selected a site near Fandango Pass at the base of the Warner Mountains in the +north end of Surprise Valley, and on June 10, 1865 ordered Fort Bidwell to be +built there. The fort was built amid escalating fighting with the Snake Indians +of eastern Oregon and southern Idaho.[6] It was a base for operations in the +Snake War that lasted until 1868 and the later Modoc War. Although traffic +dwindled on the Red Bluff route once the Central Pacific Railroad extended into +Nevada in 1868, the Army staffed Fort Bidwell to quell various uprisings and +disturbances until 1890. A Paiute reservation and small community maintain the +name Fort Bidwell. +
++ + Annie and John Bidwell + +
++ His wife, Annie Kennedy Bidwell, was the daughter of Joseph +C. G. Kennedy, a socially prominent, high ranking Washington official in the +United States Census Bureau who was active in the Whig party. She was deeply +religious, and committed to a number of moral and social causes. Annie was very +active in the suffrage and prohibition movements. +
++ The Bidwells were married April 16, 1868 in Washington, D.C. +with then President Andrew Johnson and future President Ulysses S. Grant among +the guests. Upon arrival in Chico, the Bidwells used their mansion extensively +for entertainment of friends. Some of the guests who visited Bidwell Mansion included +President Rutherford B. Hayes, General William T. Sherman, Susan B. Anthony, +Frances Willard, Governor Leland Stanford, John Muir, Joseph Dalton Hooker and +Asa Gray. +
++ + Politics + +
++ In 1875 Bidwell ran for Governor of California on the +Anti-Monopoly Party ticket. As a strong advocate of the temperance movement, he +presided over the Prohibition Party state convention in 1888 and was the +Prohibition candidate for governor in 1880.[2] +
++ In 1892, Bidwell was the Prohibition Party candidate for President +of the United States. The Bidwell/Cranfill ticket came in fourth place and +received 271,058 votes, or 2.3% nationwide. It was the largest total vote and +highest percentage of the vote received by any Prohibition Party national +ticket. +
++ John Bidwell's autobiography, Echoes of the Past, was +published in 1900. +
++