But this is Chico, too

Here’s an impertinent question for you.

Did John and Annie Bidwell have sex?

Why would we assume they didn’t? Well, for one thing, they didn’t have chidren. And then there’s the fact that they were Victorians, who have a reputation for being uptight. Furthermore, Annie was very religious, and made sure John was as well. But does this mean they weren’t physically intimate?

This is one of the delicate topics the late Lois McDonald raised in her biography of Annie Bidwell. McDonald is convinced that John Bidwell fathered children with Indian women before he married Annie. And she doesn’t doubt for a minute that the Bidwells had sex after they were married. She even has a snippet of erotic writing to prove it.

We’ll get to that soon. But first let’s think about the Victorian era. People may have been prudish about sex, but that just means they didn’t talk about it. Back then, one of the main purposes for marriage was to have children. And in those days, you still had to have sex in order to procreate.

Britain’s Queen Victoria, for whom the era was named, had nine children in the first 18 years of marriage to Prince Albert. Then he died.

Although the Bidwells had no children, it wasn’t by choice. So you can be sure they tried.

McDonald speculates in her book that the reason Annie became violently ill early in their marriage was because she suffered a miscarriage. Then she spent a couple of weeks confined to her bed, presumably to recover.

Her bed, by the way, was their bed. Unlike a lot of wealthy Victorians, the Bidwells shared a bedroom — except whenever one of them was out of town, which happened a lot. Early in their marriage, Annie spent months at a time visiting her family in Washington, D.C. And John was often away on business trips.

Their letters — which they wrote to each other every day whenever they were parted — often express an intense longing.

In one exchange McDonald included in her book, John wrote, “While I was in Dr. Harkness’ waiting room, a man said that the juice of the pomegranate afforded great wonders in the night.”

Annie later replied, “Oh, how I long for some of your pomegranate juice — more than any other fruit.”

That’s pretty racy stuff for a couple of Victorians.