Masseth Moves  Courthouse Hill Cemetery

A search of the term “Bidwell Bar” in the California Digital Newspaper Collection resulted in 2,548 hits. Many hours were spent sorting through the information. Like a miner looking for a golden nugget; my discovery on May 15, 2020, at record number 2524, was a golden information nugget!  A Sacramento Daily Union article of March 12, 1859, referenced a State Act that authorized Michael Masseth to relocate the remains from the old burial site to a new location south of the town of Bidwell’s Bar. The State Legislature authorized the following action.

 An Act. 78.  PASSED AT THE TENTH SESSION OF THE LEGISLATURE.

 To authorize Michael Masseth to remove the remains of Deceased Persons.

The People of the State of California, represented in Senate and Assembly, do enact as follows :

Section 1. It is hereby made lawful for Michael Masseth to disinter and remove the remains of all deceased persons, together with all monuments, etc. from the old burial place in the town of Bidwell’s Bar, on the Court House Hill, in the County of Butte, and inter the same in the new burial place near, or within a quarter of a mile on the south side of said town, on the high ridge now occupied for that purpose in said county. Approved March 2, 1859. 

A Sacramento Daily Union article of February 2, 1859, indicated the bill was introduced by  Mr. Cannon, the Assemblyman representing Butte County and referred to the Committee on Public Morals. W. H. Parks was Chairman of the Public Morals Committee and was the Senator of the 15th District representing Yuba & Sutter Counties.

A search of the State Legislative proceedings did not locate any additional committee reports or discussion revealing the number or names of individuals located in the original cemetery. The confirmation of the existence of an early burial location, on Courthouse Hill, justifies overlooking the fact there was never a town of Bidwell’s Bar, as stated in the Act. The town of Bidwell located at Bidwell’s Bar, was officially designated by the State Legislature in 1853, when the county seat was relocated to that area.

In the following references the Courthouse Hill burial location at Bidwell’s Bar will be referenced as the original site. This is done to avoid confusion with the area designated as the Pioneer Cemetery, an extension of the Thompson Flat Cemetery, located north of Oroville. In 1964 the Pioneer Cemetery was the primary location where remains were relocated from the second Bidwell’s Bar Cemetery. 

The number of individuals buried in the original cemetery or the date of the establishment of the second cemetery located south of town is unknown. The phrasing in the 1859 Act referencing a new burial place does not aid this researcher in determining when the second cemetery was established or burials started being made at that location. In 1853 when Hobart laid out and plotted the map for the town of Bidwell was the original burial site identified?  The original recorded  townsite  map has not been located. It would seem that would have been a logical time to consider relocating the original burial site to make room for the courthouse and the growing settlement. If the decision was made to establish a new cemetery  at that time the original burial location would have been in use from 1848 to 1853. The names of several individuals who died between 1848 -1853 in the Bidwell area are identified in the table on the Tragic Ending to Golden Dreams page. Some of these individuals could have been buried at the Courthouse hill site. However, no information has been located to confirm that assumption. 

 In 1964  the Department of Water Resources (DWR) inventoried and relocated the graves at the second Bidwell’s Bar Cemetery. This was done because the cemetery would be flooded by the filling of Lake Oroville. No individual’s names were associated with sixty-nine (69) of the one-hundred -seventy-nine (179) graves. The re-interment from the original to the second cemetery might explain some missing record of burials in the second cemetery. The unofficial  record keeping in both cemeteries was most likely minimal and memories or records of earlier residents simply were lost over time. No information is currently available to determine how many of the missing names in the 1964 inventory might be associated with the original site that were moved to the second cemetery. The 1964 DWR inventory only lists dates associated with four individuals before 1859 when Masseth obtained approval to relocate the original cemetery.  They are:

 1850 H. A. Blanchard 1850 Martha G. McCabe 

1851 Harry Johnson   1854 C.H. Person

 It seems strange that no reference has been found in the Butte Record Newspaper, published at Bidwell from 1853 -1856, that mentions anything about a burial site within the town area. It is evident that despite extensive mining into and under the town during that time, the gravesites were protected and still present in 1859 when Massett made his request to the State to relocate the remains.

Prior to locating this original gravesite information only two other references were located related to the existence of an earlier cemetery in the  Bidwell area. The two related newspaper articles were printed in the Chico Record of 7/17/1915 and the Oroville Daily Register on 9/27/1917. These articles, by Charles E. Bancroft, reported information from his mother, Mrs. Curtis A. Bancroft's memories. Mrs. Bancroft had lived in Rich Bar in 1851, and moved with her husband to Bidwell’s Bar in 1852. Mr. Bancroft purchased the National Hotel and operated that business in Bidwell. In her memory she made the following reference to the early cemetery in that location:

“Much mining was done near Bidwell's Bar at that time, and in later years extended even into the town. At that time the first graveyard of the town was mined out and the skeletons were removed to the new cemetery, now used as such. “

Mrs. Bancroft lived at Bidwell’s Bar from 1852 to 1861. Mining in the area that became the town of Bidwell began in 1848 and continued all during the time the county seat was at that location. Tunnels threatened to cave in existing buildings and a mining claim created a large frog pond in the city Plaza. There are also references to mining activity on Courthouse Hill. However, the miners protected the unknown number of original graves until 1859 when Masseth obtained approval to remove them to a new location.

 This researcher owes the memory of Mrs. Bancroft an apology and it is hereby sincerely given. After locating the referenced memory by Mrs. Bancroft, it was discounted in earlier publications based on my misinformed logic that:

1. The memory was written many years after the fact.

  2. The assumption that she was confusing the relocation of the Rich Bar Cemetery, where she lived from 1851-1852, with the cemetery at Bidwell’s Bar. The relocation of the Rich Bar Cemetery is well documented.

 3. No other records had been located in the Butte Record newspaper, published in Bidwell Bar from 1853-1856, making any reference to graves or a cemetery in the Courthouse Hill area of the community.

 Information confirming the location of an original cemetery at Bidwell’s Bar generates an entire new set of unanswered questions. In addition to many details about the original cemetery is curiosity about Michael Masseth and why he wanted to move the earlier burial site. Very little public information is available about Michael Masseth. He was appointed as a Constable in the Bidwell Township on October 2, 1858. The Sheriff of Butte County at that time was N. D. Plum who was elected on September 2, 1857, and at the next election in 1861 was replaced by a different Sheriff. Masseth is not listed as a Constable other than in the 1858 term. Based on this appointment Masseth must have been considered a responsible individual in the township and had the confidence of the Sheriff.

The Masseth clan does not appear to have been related to other families in the Bidwell area. His name was not referenced in any newspaper articles during the time he served as Constable. The references related to Masseth in Butte County are limited to two sources. On February 11, 1859, Masseth was a customer at the Bendle Store in Bidwell. He purchased a gallon of whiskey for  $1.00.

The Masseth name is not listed in the 1850 or 1870 Butte County Federal Census. The 1860 Federal Census lists the following family information for a Michael Masseth:

  M. Masseth Bidwell Township, Butte County United States

Male, age 30, White, Birth Year estimate 1830, Birth Place: France

Household:

M. (Michael) Masseth     Male        30 France

Caroline       Masseth      Female   24 NY

J.                       Masseth    Male      27 France

B.                  Masseth     Male      20 France

 The California Great Register for 1866-1910, Voter registration of July 20, 1866, lists Michael Masseth, age 36, born in France in 1830 and residing in San Francisco, Ca. He is again listed in September 7, 1880, at the same city.

 Another perplexing question is why did Michael Masseth go to all the legal and physical trouble to relocate the remains from the original cemetery?  As indicated earlier Masseth did not appear to have any family interests that would have been a motivation for relocation of relatives or friends buried at the original location. The not very imaginative working theory is that he wanted to mine the area occupied by the graves. That theory is consistent with the statement made by Mrs. Bancroft in her memories article. She was  living in the Bidwell area in 1859, when Masseth obtained the State approval to relocate the remains at the original cemetery. One of the arguments advanced by interests trying to get the county seat moved to Oroville in 1856 was so the miners could freely mine the Bidwell town site. Perhaps by 1859, the only remaining area of the town that had not been mined was the original burial site on Courthouse Hill. Massetthwas therefore willing to take the legal steps necessary so he could mine the original cemetery area. That assumption leads to another research dead end…

 What did he find?