JAMES BITCHELL

Sacramento County

Biographies

JAMES BITCHELL

James Bitchell, 1117 L street,--A few more years and the men who came as pioneers to Sacramento, men who endured the hardships and privations of early days, trials by floods and fires and all the troublous times incident to frontier life, will be gathered to their fathers! Who shall tell their story so full of stirring incident, and lessons which it were well indeed for future generations to heed, if not told by the biographer of to-day? Our only regret is that the scope of the volume does not permit us to give that detail which the subject would warrant, but a brief page even of the man whose name heads this sketch will be found both interesting and instructive. Born in the city of New York, in 1827, his preliminary education was had at the public schools of that city. He early entered the publishing house of Mark H. Newham, and there acquired the thorough knowledge of the business which as his life-work he has made so marked a success. The stirring events of California in 1849,--the discovery of gold, the influx of population from all over the world, the building up of populous cities, as if by magic,--offered inducements to ambitious young men to seek their fortune in the “land of golden promise.” They came, drawn from widely divergent conditions of life. The farmer left his plow, the merchant his counting-house, the artisan his work-shop, to stand side by side and shoulder to shoulder beside the softly flowing waters of the Sacramento, whose auriferous sands brought to many a golden harvest, and to many more “a burden of barren regrets.” It is not to be supposed, however, that all came with the idea of going into the mines. Many were attracted by opportunities to go into commercial enterprise, men with “long heads,” endowed with foresight into the dim and misty future, to whose prescient minds “coming events cast their shadows before.” To this class belongs the subject of this sketch. When a friend in whose business integrity he had the utmost faith, offered to launch out into the “swirl of the seething tide,” he readily lent his aid and encouragement to the enterprise, assured that if properly managed it could but succeed; but it was not properly managed, and the consignment of goods into which he had put his confidence and his money, brought him no returns. Hoping to save at least a remnant, he hurried to the coast, but too late to avert the disaster. Having in mind the old-time adage, “That the place to look for your money is where you lost it,” he courageously ordered a second consignment of goods from the East, and while awaiting the arrival engaged in the grocery business in a small way. Upon the arrival of the merchandise in June, 1851, he at once opened a book store on J street, adjacent to the lot on which he afterward erected a fire-proof building, and which is now occupied by “Sam” Morris, the bookseller. His business flourished here until the fire which occurred on the night after the Presidential election in November, 1852, when, with others, he was burned out. After this fire he went to San Francisco and bought one of those ready-made Yankee frames for a building which was warranted to “fit,” and would indeed have fitted some other lot much larger that the one of which he was possessed. Finding that either the frame was too large or the lot too small, and further more being a “person of fashion” he followed the prevailing fashion and erected a canvas building, which corresponded in every essential detail with those of his neighbors, and his frame was carefully laid away to rest until his lot should “grow.” Two years later he had purchased the lot adjoining, and proceeded to erect thereon a fire-proof brick building, having iron shutters and doors, fore-seeing that at no distant day the inflammable character of the structures in the neighborhood would result in fire. This building was nearly completed, when, one hot day in July, 1854, his fears were realized. A fire started further down the street, and, summoning what assistance he could command, he began moving his stock into the new building, which although not completed, was sufficiently so to be deemed fire-proof. In the excitement and turmoil, he soon saw that his neighbors were taking advantage of his foresight, and stocks of every description were being flung pell-mell into his building for safety from the advancing flames, crowding out his own goods, and even filling up the gang-ways, which were with difficulty closed against the encroachments of the devouring element. When the morning dawned and the fire had burned out, his fire-proof building alone stood, black and bleak, amid the ruins of so many cherished hopes; a monument to the qualities of foresight which was then, and still is, with him so marked a characteristic. For twenty years he continued to occupy the same building, conducting successfully a business which grew with the growth of the Capital City, and under his fostering care brought a harvest of golden shekels. He has been twice married; his first wife, to whom he was united in 1846 when he was but nineteen, survived but a few years, leaving a son “Zach,” who is now a farmer in Solano County. His second marriage was made in New York, in 1855, to Mrs. Mary E. Gray. Mr. Bitchell has never been in any sense a politician, while steadily and earnestly interesting himself in all the affairs appertaining to the advancement of the city, and could doubtless, had he desired to do so, have held many offices of trust. He laughingly refers to the one campaign of his life, when as he says, “Abraham Lincoln was at the head of the ticket and he (Bitchell) at the foot, being a nominee for school director;” he says he got more votes in his district than Lincoln, and that the board to which he was elected, consisting of Henry Miller, John Millikin, Dr. Simmons, John Crawford, A. C. Sweetzer, and others, was a very respectable crowd.

Transcribed by Karen Pratt.

Davis, Hon. Win. J., An Illustrated History of Sacramento County, California. Pages 538-539. Lewis Publishing Company. 1890.

Sacramento County Biographies