Butte County
Biographies
MRS. ANNIE E. K. BIDWELL
MRS.
ANNIE E. K. BIDWELL.--A prominent place among the women who have left their
impress on the development of Butte County and the State of California must be
accorded Mrs. Annie E. K. Bidwell, wife of the late
Gen. John Bidwell, one of the foremost men of the
state, and one whose services to Butte County were of exceptional importance.
She bore her full share in making this a great commonwealth and her name is
held in loving remembrance in the hearts of the children of the Golden West, and
will continue so to be through generations to come.
Mrs. Annie Ellicott Kennedy Bidwell was born at Meadville, Pa., June 30, 1839, a
daughter of Joseph Calm Griffith Kennedy and Catherine Morrison Kennedy. The
former was appointed by General Taylor to draw up the form for taking the first
United States census, and then was named superintendent of the census by
President Fillmore. He also proposed the International Congress of Statistics
and went to Europe to organize this congress. Mr. Kennedy was presented a medal
by King Christian IX, of Denmark, in recognition of his services in the
statistical field, and this was one of his daughter's most cherished
possessions. He was of Scotch and French extraction, and her mother was
Scotch-Irish and French. There were five children in the Kennedy family, of
whom Mrs. Bidwell was the last to pass on to that
land from whence no one returns.
When Annie E. Kennedy was ten years
old her family removed from Pennsylvania to Washington. There she entered Mme. Breshaw Burr's School. From the time she was a child until
she completed her education she spoke French. She treasured her French books
and refreshed her French with them into her declining years. Her work among the
less fortunate began at the early age of fifteen when she taught in a mission
in an abandoned part of Washington. Her religious tendencies also were early
developed, as she became a member of the Presbyterian Church when she was
fifteen and was active in its ranks until the time of her death.
Miss Kennedy met General Bidwell at her home
when he was a member of the Thirty-ninth Congress, from 1865 to 1867, during
which he served as chairman of the agricultural committee. She became his bride
on April 16, 1868, in Washington. Present at the ceremony were President
Johnson, General Grant and General Sherman. President Lincoln, whose untimely
death had occurred but a few years previous, had been numbered among her close
friends at that period of her life. After the ceremony, the General and Mrs. Bidwell spent some days in New York before sailing for
California via Panama. The trip to San Francisco was made in twenty-one days;
from that port they came via boat and rail to the home that was her residence
the remainder of her days. This mansion had been built by the General to receive
his bride.
Mrs. Bidwell
entered enthusiastically into the life of California. She assisted her husband
in laying out his great orchards, carrying a surveyor's flag for him and going
with him everywhere. Perhaps no Californian woman has been as active in the
affairs of Nation, State, County and local community, as was Mrs. Bidwell during her lifetime. The organizations with which
she was affiliated were many, and the movements for the betterment of mankind
to which she lent a helping hand in their early struggles were numerous. She
never lost her touch with world affairs, and for many years she visited
Washington every two years. In all her activity she never forgot her church in
the Indian village, which she visited every Sunday. It was known as the Second
Presbyterian Church of Chico, and she was its pastor. She taught the Indians by
chart and pictures.
She was a member and vice president
of the National Woman's Indian Association, now the National Indian
Association, since its organization in 1874. She conducted her own Indian
Mission here since 1875, and was appointed pastor in 1879. The honorary
presidency of the Northern California Indian Association was conferred upon
her.
Perhaps closest to her heart of all
her many interests was the cause of the Prohibition party.
She was a member of the National, State and local W. C. T. U.; a member of the
Prohibition State Central Committee of California, and a presidential elector
of the Prohibition party in 1912. She gave liberally of her means to numerous
prohibition campaigns, and she was vice-president of the California Dry
Federation. She was also honorary president of Butte County W. C. T. U. It was
her great pride that her husband was so honored by the Prohibitionists of the
nation that they made him their national standard-bearer, in 1892, by
nominating him for the presidency, and he received the remarkable vote of 270,
847, at that time.
Another cause for which she labored
was equal suffrage for women. She was a life member of the National Woman
Suffrage Association, and held an honorary office in this organization. She was
also a charter member and the first vice-president of the California Equal
Suffrage Association.
Her varied activities extended to:
State Superintendent of Evangelistic work since 1913; honorary member of the
Native Daughters of the Golden West, which organization named its Chico parlor
in her honor; honorary member of the Ladies of the Maccabees;
member of the Geographical Society; member of the Academy for the Advancement
of Society; charter member of the Woman's Auxiliary Society of California
Pioneers; charter member of the Daughters of the American Revolution in
California; and member of the Women's Relief Corps.
Mrs. Bidwell
gave with a liberal hand, so liberal, in fact, that a large part of the Bidwell estate has been deeded away. Many are the residents
of Chico who owe her a debt of gratitude, for the aid which formed the
foundation for their present circumstances of comfort. Parks, driveways,
playgrounds, church and school sites, and gifts of other lands and moneys were
lavished by this noble woman upon her fellows, and the City of Chico was
perhaps the chief beneficiary. Most notable of her gifts to the city was Bidwell Park, hundreds of acres of sylvan beauty,
unsurpassed in their natural grace, extending along Chico Creek from the city
for ten miles, and into the foothills, including about twenty-four hundred
acres. In its confines stands a tree--Sir Joseph Hooker Oak--declared to be the
largest perfect oak tree known to naturalists in the world.
Ranking next in the list of
beneficiaries were the Indians of Rancho Chico. On Sacramento Avenue a tract
was set aside as an Indian village, where the Indians were provided for
handsomely by Mrs. Bidwell, who mothered and in many
ways aided them. Personally she had taught them, built them a church, preached
to them in words they could understand, and sacrificed for them largely of her
time and money, that their lives might be made better and happier.
Thus has passed one of California's
foremost women, who died on March 9, 1918, at her mansion in Chico, mourned by
the people of an entire county, who paused in their labors to do her reverence.
Transcribed by Sande Beach.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 426-428, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2006 Sande Beach.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies