125th Year Observance - part 4: John Bidwell's early Masonic history

John Bidwell

The most prominent of all, however, was General John Bidwell, famous California pioneer and founder of the City of Chico.  His Masonic History is extremely interesting, and his influence in the founding and early years of Chico Lodge was of great importance.

John Bidwell was the first elected Worshipful Master of Chico Lodge.  His early Masonic record is not altogether clear.

In the Grand Lodge returns of November, 1851, San Jose Lodge No. 10 lists the name Bidwell in its listing of Entered Apprentices.  No name or initial is given.  However, the early records of San Jose Lodge No. 10 confirm that this was John Bidwell and that he took the Entered Apprentice degree in that lodge February 13, 1851.  There is no record of where or when John Bidwell received the second and third degrees.  However, there is this much...in 1897, for teh purpose of Masonic History records, Bidwell was asked as to where he was made a Mason.  His letter of reply to this request was as follows:

Near Prattville

Plumas Co., Cal.

Aug. 11, 1897

Hon. Edwin A. Sherman

Oakland, Cal.

My dear Sir: 

          Yours of the 5th inst. has overtaken me on my summer outing in the depths of the Sierra Nevada mts. about 70 miles from Chico.  

          My hand being too unsteady to write with pen and ink, I beg you will excuse use of pencil.

          You ask me to send the name of the lodge where I took the degrees.

          In the winter of 1850-51 a friend persuaded me to take the first degree (Entered A.) at a lodge in San Jose - the name I do not remember.  A few years later at Hamilton, which was then the county seat of Butte, the two following degrees.  There was no lodge there - no lodge room - but the man who acted as Master had authority, as I understood, to confer such degrees - think his name was Morse or Moss - do not know the name - might have been Butte Lodge - the exact years I do not recall.

          Regretting inability to give more fully and accurately the information you require, I have the honor to be

Yours very sincerely

(s) John Bidwell

It is thought that possibly Morse, or Moss, was a "Deputy Grand Master" or similar official from some other Jurisdiction who was empowered to "make Masons and constitute lodges."  This was a common practice in early days, and it is possible that Bidwell was made a Mason at sight or in a loosely constituted lodge under such power.  

In this connection it is interesting to note the following excerpt from Mansfield's "History of Butte County"..."In the fall of 1849, a Mr. Norse called together the Masons who were then at Long's Bar, and under a dispensation of the Grand Lodge of Illinois, of which he was a member, what was said to be the first Masonic meeting held in California assembled.  The convocation was held in a shake shanty so thin that the secrets of the order might have been endangered had it not been for the vigilance of the tyler.  No lodge was chartered there."  The similarity in the names of Morse, Moss and Norse seems more than a coincidence.  Long's Bar was ten or twelve miles from Hamilton.  This seems to tie very closely with Bidwell's letter