Welcome to Bidwell Lore number 196. In honor of the season, we wanted to share a wonderful and timely Bidwell family letter about the first Christmas tree in Monterey.
A Christmas Letter from Marshall Spring Bidwell Jr to Alice Cecelia Bidwell
We were reminded recently of a letter sent by Marshall Spring Bidwell (1835-1877) in which he mentions the first Christmas tree in Monterey and thought it would be fun to share with all of you this holiday season.
Dated December 29, 1856, the letter was sent to Alice Cecilia Bidwell (1834-1912). Alice was Reverend Adonijah Bidwell’s great-granddaughter through his son Adonijah and Marshall Spring was Reverend Bidwell’s great-grandson through his son Barnabas, making Alice and Marshall second cousins. The pair were eventually married in 1866 and went on to have three children. None of the children survived to adulthood and Alice would go on to outlive her entire family.
In the letter below, Marshall Spring relays the experience of spending Christmas in Monterey and laments the lack of knowledge about Christmas in the countryside. Marshall Spring has quite a way with words and he also illustrates the cultural divide between city and country in the tone of the letter.
We hope you enjoy this look at Christmas in 19th century Monterey and we wish you the happiest of holiday seasons!
Letter from Marshall Spring Bidwell Jr. to Alice Cecilia Bidwell, dated December 29, 1856:
The great event in our monotonous life – I might say, the pudding stick which has been stirring our steady mush-like existence has been our Christmas Party. Lamenting the deplorable ignorance of Monterey on this important subject (your father did not even know when Christmas came; and the school was open on that day, just as usual) we have endeavored to introduce that delightful festival into these benighted regions. Moreover, a Christmas Tree – the first one of those beautiful exotics so common and so thoroughly naturalized in New York, that has ever blossomed or borne in this inhospitable clime – has actually graced our humble parlor. The venerable and benevolent Santa Claus has therefore obtained a fair footing in Monterey.
It may interest you to hear that our company numbered 43. It included all of our cousins (Sophia, Dr. John and Johnny Welch among them)…all the invited were present notwithstanding a furious windstorm of driving snow. A small “fruit” from the tree was entrusted to Sophia to be sent to you.
The original letter can be found in the Bidwell Family Archives at Yale University.