Addresses, reminiscences, etc. of General John Bidwell. Compiled by C.C. Royce John Bidwell Under the Palm—Gen. and Mrs. Bidwell JOHN BIDWELL Pioneer, Statesman, Philanthropist A Biographical Sketch BY C. C. ROYCE CHICO, CALIFORNIA 1906 7 THE discovery and the appropriation of the American continent were characterized by a series of movements or migrations more or less distinctive in character. Following the Columbian discovery came an era in which the world's imagination, stirred to its profoundest depths by the romantic adventures of the Spanish corsairs in the Caribbean seas, the bloody trail of Cortez through the halls of the Montezumas and the dazzling romances of the gold and silver mountains of Peru, stimulated men of daring everywhere into action. The minds of men were filled with and reveled in marvelous stories. It was an age of romanticism and hallucination which filled the first century of American discovery and exploration. Following this came an era of settlement and slowly expanding occupation of the territory bordering the Atlantic Coast. The Cavalier of Virginia, the Puritan of New England, the Dutchman of Manhattan and the Quaker of Pennsylvania, in quick succession established, maintained and expanded their Addresses, reminiscences, etc. of General John Bidwell. Compiled by C.C. Royce http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.046 respective settlements during more than a century without getting beyond the towering summits of the Appalachians. Then came the American Revolution, and with the resultant birth of a new and expectant nation, its officers and soldiers of seven years campaigning found themselves without an occupation and full of the restless zeal of adventure and exploration. Like an army of industrious ants they climbed the ridges of the Alleghanies, poured down their western slopes, fought back the hordes of angered savages, and within sixty years had accomplished the conquest and assumed possession of the territory to the banks of the Missouri River. Here the movement was temporarily halted by the deterrent influences of numberless savage tribes and the wind and drouth-swept desolation of what, in the imagination of historians and geographers, comprised the Great American Desert. So thoroughly was that vast territory given over in the public mind to the perpetual occupancy of wild beasts and wild men, that in 1825, shortly after the establishment of the frontier military post at Fort Leavenworth, in what is now the State of Kansas, the commanding officer, in his official report to the War Department, asserted that the extreme western limit at which even garden vegetables could be raised was forty miles west of that post. But adventurous spirits with restless feet and eager curiosity, stimulated still further by the prospects and possibilities of profitable trade with the Spanish-Mexican population of the Southwest, pioneered a road across the desert to the ancient town of Santa Fe, which became known to commerce as “The Santa Fe Trail.” Percolating through the experiences of this Santa Fe traffic, as well as through 8 the gilded narratives of returned trappers and adventurers, gradually the settlers of the American border became apprised of the alleged charms of soil, climate and out-door life of the far distant Mexican province of Alta California. In the fall of 1840 these alluring tales took on a phase of deeper reality to the pioneers of the Missouri border, through the appearance among them of a French trader of the Santa Fe route, whose description of the distant paradise was so charged with enthusiasm and fervor as to cause widespread interest and longing among the ever-restless spirits of that frontier community. Among the then recent arrivals in that vicinity was a young man named John Bidwell. He became one of the most enthusiastic promoters of the organization of an Addresses, reminiscences, etc. of General John Bidwell. Compiled by C.C. Royce http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.046 emigrant party to cross the plains and mountains to California, and his efforts were crowned with success. Thus, in the spring of 1841, sixty-five years ago, the first emigrant train started on its long and weary journey. With that band was John Bidwell, then a youth of twenty-one and destined to become one of the most distinguished and historic characters of the State. The motives that prompted the journey, the courage that marked its execution and the philosophic persistence with which its perils, sufferings and uncertainties were endured, were characteristics that have made his name a leading one in the development of the great State of California. The incidents and experiences of this historic and most remarkable migration have been depicted with great simplicity and interest by him in the following narrative, published some fifteen years since in the Century Magazine: THE FIRST EMIGRANT TRAIN TO CALIFORNIA. By JOHN BIDWELL (Pioneer of '41). In the spring of 1839,—living at the time in the western part of Ohio,—being then in my twentieth year, I conceived a desire to see the great prairies of the West, especially those most frequently spoken of, in Illinois, Iowa, and Missouri. Emigration from the East was tending westward, and settlers had already begun to invade those rich fields. Starting on foot to Cincinnati, ninety miles distant, I fortunately got a chance to ride most of the way on a wagon loaded with farm produce. My outfit consisted of about $75, the clothes I wore, and a few others in a knapsack which I carried in the usual way strapped upon my shoulders, for in those days travelers did not have valises or trunks. Though traveling was considered dangerous, I had no weapon more formidable than a pocket knife. From Cincinnati I went down the Ohio River by steamboat to the Mississippi, up the Mississippi to St. Louis, and thence to Burlington, in what was then the Territory of Iowa. Those were bustling days on the western rivers, which were Addresses, reminiscences, etc. of General John Bidwell. Compiled by C.C. Royce http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.046 The Commission as Quartermaster 10 then the chief highways of travel. The scenes at the wood landings I recall as particularly lively and picturesque. Many passengers would save a little by helping to “wood the boat,” i. e., by carrying wood down the bank and throwing it on the boat, a special ticket being issued on that condition. It was very interesting to see the long lines of passengers coming up the gang-plank, each with two or three sticks of wood on his shoulders. An anecdote is told of an Irishman who boarded a western steamer and wanted to know the fare to St. Louis, and, being told, asked, “What do you charge for 150 pounds of freight?” Upon learning the price, a small amount, he announced that he would go as freight. “All right,” said the captain; “put him down in the hold and lay some flour barrels on him to keep him down.” In 1839 Burlington had perhaps not over two hundred inhabitants, though it was the capital of Iowa Territory. After consultation with the governor, Robert Lucas, of Ohio, I concluded to go into the interior and select a tract of land on the Iowa River. In those days one was permitted to take up 160 acres, and where practicable it was usual to take part timber and part prairie. After working awhile in putting up a log house—until all the people in the neighborhood became ill with fever and ague—I concluded to move on and strike out to the south and southwest into Missouri. I traveled across country, sometimes by the sun, without road or trail. There were houses and settlements, but they were scattered; sometimes one would have to go twenty miles to find a place to stay at night. The principal game seen was the prairie hen (Tetraonidae cupido); the prairie wolf (Canis latrans) also abounded. Continuing southwest and passing through Huntsville I struck the Missouri River near Keytesville in Chariton County. Thence I continued up the north side of the river till the westernmost settlement in Missouri was reached; this was in Platte County. The Platte Purchase, as it was called, had been recently bought from the Indians, and was newly but thickly settled, on account of its proximity to navigation, its fine timber, good water, and unsurpassed fertility. On the route I traveled I cannot recall seeing an emigrant wagon in Missouri. The western movement, which subsequently filled Missouri and other Western States and overflowed into the adjoining Territories, had then hardly begun, except as to Platte County. The contest in Congress Addresses, reminiscences, etc. of General John Bidwell. Compiled by C.C. Royce http://www.loc.gov/resource/calbk.046 over the Platte Purchase, which by increasing the area of Missouri gave more territory to slavery, called wide attention to that charming region. The anti-slavery sentiment even at that date ran quite high. This was, I believe, the first addition to slave territory after the Missouri Compromise. But slavery won. The rush that followed in the space of one or two years filled the most desirable part of the purchase to overflowing. The imagination could not conceive a finer country—lovely, rolling, fertile, wonderfully productive, beautifully arranged for settlement, part prairie and part timber. The land was unsurveyed. Every settler had aimed to locate a half mile from his neighbor, and there was as yet no conflict. Peace and contentment reigned. Nearly every place seemed to have a beautiful spring of clear cold water. The hills and prairies and the level places were alike covered with a black and fertile soil.