125th Year Observance - part 6: John Bidwell and the Chico Lodge

From a detailed reading of the minutes of Chico Lodge No. 111 it is clear that John Bidwell was an extremely important figure in the founding and early history of this Lodge.  There is evidence that he furnished the money necessary for procuring the charter from the Gran Lodge, and there is no evidence that he was ever reimbursed. He provided the first meeting places for the Lodge.  He was a member of most important committees. On numerous occasions he installed the officers for Chico Lodge.  Although his early Masonic history is sketchy and his last years as a Mason are of no consequence, for a period of approximately ten years he was indeed an active and prominent member of Chico Lodge No. 111.

Chico Lodge has occupied four meeting halls, or temples, in its first hundred years of existence.  The first meeting place was in the upstairs floor of John Bidwell's frame store building on his Rancho Chico.  This building was erected in 1852, or earlier, and was located between Bidwell's famous "Old Adobe" and Chico Creek.  This spot was a few yards west of the present Esplanade Bridge over Big Chico Creek and must have been quite close to the bank of the creek.  There are several pictures in existence which show this building, known to have been "Bidwell's Store" as early as 1852, and it is generally believed that this building served as Bidwell's store building until 1861 when John Bidwell  constructed the Bidwell brick store building on the southwest corner of First and Broadway.  No buildings were south of Big Chico Creek until after the town of Chico was laid out by Bidwell in 1860.

For many years it has been suspected that this old frame store building was the site of the first meeting place of Chico Lodge, but the following quoted report, secured from the California State Library in July, 1953, definitely confirms the meeting place: From "California Agricultural Society, official report, 4th annual fair, Stockton, September 29th, 30th, October 1st and 2nd, 1857. (Report of the visiting committee on farms, orchards, vineyards, etc.) (Left Stockton June 8, 1857)"

          "... Fifty miles from Marysville, on Chico Creek, is the extensive farm of Major Bidwell.... His dwelling is a large two-story adobe building.... He has, also, a large wooden building, two stories high, the lower part used as a store, and the upper as a Masonic Hall."  

The proposal for building our present building was first made officially at a meeting of the Masonic Hall Association on February 20, 1908.  The Association had been organized March 15, 1898, and had full jurisdiction over the building properties of the Lodge.  A contract to construct the new Masonic Hall was awarded June 22, 1908.  Oddly, there is apparently no written record to show the date of the first meeting in the present building.  However, several who were present at the Installation of Officers on December 27, 1908, recall that this installation was conducted in the new building.

From the Minute Books of Chico Lodge much of the material was gathered for the preparation of this brief historical summary.  Recognition should be given to the secretaries who have so faithfully and thoroughly recorded the minutes of the Lodge.  Unquestionably the dean of this excellent group was Augustus Leonard Neubarth, better known as "Gus" who served as Secretary of Chico Lodge from 1906 until his death in 1935.  The historical researcher is indebted to such brethren as "Gus" Neubarth, and from the entries of the secretaries one can readily discern the prosperous times as well as the lean times in the history of Chico Lodge has been on of steady, solid growth.