Papa John?
Curiosity about whether John Bidwell fathered children with Indian women has persisted into the 21st century.
The subject has come up in two 21st century books about the Bidwells. The late Lois McDonald, in her biography of Annie Bidwell, concludes that Bidwell was the father of Amanda Wilson and George Clements, and that each of them had a different mother.
She bases this on the apparent gravity of Bidwell’s confessions in a letter to his future wife. McDonald writes: “To what length did Bidwell go that winter evening when the dam burst and he released confidences detailing his sins? Did he then tell her of his liaisons with at least two Indian women and the children that had resulted? Could she have accepted that news and still felt the glow of affection toward him. Yes, in this biographer’s opinion, she could do so and did.”
Mike Magliari and the late Mike Gillis, in their biographical anthology of John Bidwell, wrote that if his political opponents had heard anything about alleged liaisons with Indian women they would have used it against him. Magliari and Gillis write that “no documented evidence has ever been found to corroborate claims that Bidwell ever married or cohabited with Nopanny (Bidwell’s housekeeper) or any other Native American woman.”
Then there are the claims of Arlene Ward, a member of the local Mechoopda tribe, who says she is a descendant of John Bidwell. She is the great-granddaughter of George Clements. When I did a profile on her for a story in the style section of the Enterprise-Record a couple of years ago, she told me Bidwell’s relationships with Indian women and the children he fathered with them are “accepted as fact in the Indian community.” She also said that in her family “this is old news.”
Who’s to say what the truth is? There’s no way to find out. As well-bred Victorians, the Bidwells didn’t talk about such things in public. In their book, Magliari and Gillis write that “John and Annie’s extant papers are silent on the subject.”
In her book, McDonald writes about Annie’s reported reply to a “vicious-tongued” lady: “One version told is that she did not deny the facts of her husband’s alliance, but stated, ‘Before I came into his life, he had no choice but to choose from what there was. And he always chose the best.’”
McDonald calls the story “folklore.”
The stigma of having children out of wedlock and pursuing sexual relationships with a person of a different ethnic background has diminished since the 19th century, but even today many public figures would hesitate to disclose such intimate details about their personal life.
Indeed, most of us still have secrets we take pains to guard from public scrutiny. Thank God for that. Our fascination for celebrities and gossip and our penchant for writing tell-it-all memoirs and blogs and appearing on reality TV shows is threatening to turn us into a nation of emotional flashers.
It seems to me that the Victorians showed uncommon good sense in being reticent about their private lives. They championed some values that we would do well to emulate. The Bidwells made sure that the truth about John's relationships with Indian women was a subject they'd take with them to their graves.