The life of Annie Bidwell

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.

• Bidwell's dedication to education reminds one of Jane Stanford- who put both of her wealth and ideas into forming a university.
• So overall she was a philanthropist and civic leader, especially interested in the local Indians, church affairs, temperance movements, and women's suffrage.

• The church in Indian village, which she visited every Sunday, was known as the Second Presbyterian Church of Chico, and she was its pastor. She taught 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.
• Annie traveled from coast to coast many times that she attended the Women's Christian Temperance Union conventions across the country.

Annie with her husband (John Bidwell.)

• After John Bidwell's death, expressing her own and her late husband's desire, Annie Bidwell donated over 2,000 acres of their ranch along Chico Creek to the City of Chico, on the condition that it be used exclusively for a public park.

Meeting

Annie Bidwell

• Full Name: Annie Ellicott Kennedy
• Born:In Meadville,Pa,June 30,1839 (USA)
• Parents:Joseph Camp Griffith Kennedy of Washington, D.C.- grew up to be a firm teetotaler, an active supporter of women's suffrage & a devout Presbyterian who commissioned the building of today's Bidwell Memorial Presbyterian Church.
• Died: March 9, 1918 Chico,Butte County

California, USA

• Husband:John Bidwell
• Children:None

By: Withney P.

& Maegan R.

~Annie Bidwell~

“Day so lovely

I passed a

couple of hours

in the grounds,

and as the sun lowered, went to the glass room in tower for an hour, to enjoy grand scenery and sun-warmth.”

̶ Annie Bidwell

Sources:

• 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.
• Bidwell would take her to west to Rancho Chico, from the high society Washington D.C (the home of her parents.) Annie's parents however recognized the marriage of their daughter to this man had enormous wealth and a high rank in California politics.
• Their three story, 26 room mansion with gas lightening and water system became social and the cultural Sacramento Valley.
• The Sacramento Valley is a portion of the California central valley that lies to the north of the San Joaquin- Sacramento delta in the U.S state of California.

• http://www.cherylannestapp.com/pioneer-annie-bidwell-chico/
• http://www.heidelberggraphics.com/Stansbury%20Publishing/annie%20bidwell%20oth.htm
• http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/tf8x0nb314/
• http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/people/bidwells.aspx
• http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=23217965
• http://www.hmdb.org/Marker.asp?Marker=29637

Meeting Annie Bidewell

The life of Annie Bidwell