Interior pages of Butte California Illustrations by Smith & Elliott. A large version of the photo in the oval and it’s history is documented on the Town Photos page of this site.

Oil Painting of the Bidwell’s Bar Area

Who was the artist of the original oil painting of Bidwell ?

Since 1854, the original oil painting of the town of Bidwell at Bidwell’s Bar has been attribute to an unknown traveling artist.  The painting was purchased in by Warren T. Sexton who was practicing law at the County Seat located at Bidwell’s Bar. When Judge Sexton died in 1878, the painting became the property of his daughter Caroline, an Oroville school-teacher. In 1918, at the request of E. B. Ward, of the Native Sons of the Golden West, she took the painting to the local newspaper office and allowed it to be photographed. An unknown number of copies were distributed to interested individuals. Judge Sexton and others indicated the oil painting was a good representation of the town of Bidwell. In 1934, Caroline Sexton donated the original painting to the California State Library, listing the artist as unknown.

Phil Ravert, a friend and historian, along with this author, have worked together since 1998 to better understand and document events related to Bidwell’s Bar. In 2011, the two researchers started seeing references of the iconic Bidwell Bar painting as being attributed to Henry Rust Mighels. Phil Ravert and I continued to search for information to determine on what basis the painting was now being attributed to Mighels.

The editors of the Smith & Elliott publication Butte California Illustrations sent a copy of the photo shown in the oval,(above) to George H. Crosette, editor of the Weekly Butte Record published in Chico, California. Crosette had previously published the Butte Record newspaper in the town of Bidwell. It is likely they requested information from him about the photo and Bidwell’s Bar history. The 1854 photo image of Bidwell stimulated him to write an editorial of memories about the town where he had started in the newspaper business. The article documented interesting history associated with the painting. In a copy of a badly blurred microfilm of The Weekly Butte Record of October 20, 1877, Phil Ravert found an historical smoking gun. 

… “Mercury Elliot & Co, (Smith & Elliott & Co.), now engaged in getting up a work entitled “Butte County Illustrations,” have presented us with a picture of Bidwell Bar as it appeared at the time the Record was started, and prior to the fire of August 4th, 1854, which destroyed all but two or three buildings on the flat. The Court House, the dwellings of Treasurer Van Norden and Sheriff Freer, and the Recorder office being situated on the surrounding hills, escaped the general conflagration. The picture is a photograph copy from an oil painting by H. R. Mighels, now of the Carson Appeal, but at that time an artist resident of the pioneer town of the county. The original painting is in the possession of Judge Sexton. It shows the town as it was then huddled together on the Bar, containing a population of about 1,000 souls, and casting some 100 votes.”  

This first person reminisce, by Crosette, twenty-three years after the creation of the painting, clearly identifies H. R. Mighels as the artist that painted the 1854 artwork purchased by Judge Sexton. It is rewarding to have such a clearly defined answer to a research quest for information. There is ample documentation that Mighels was an accomplished artist. However, this information conflicts with the lifelong statements by Judge Sexton, the original owner of the painting and when the painting was donated to the California State Library in 1934, Caroline Sexton, specified the artist was unknown.

Perplexing observations related to the 1877, Crosette newspaper article.

The newspaper statement Ravert located seems like the perfect conclusion to the matter. It was a great find considering the nearly unreadable microfilm source of the article. It is located on edge of the page scan that was not properly digitized. The article is not locatable in a search of the California Digital Newspapers. However, even the clear statement by Crosette generates some concerns and unanswered questions. Realizing it is unlikely any answers can be located, perhaps documenting the concerns will bring some level of acceptance by this researcher of the information.

- Only information provided twenty-three years later, by Crosette, has identified Mighels as the unknown artist. Had he simply convinced himself that Mighels was the artist during the intervening time?

- During the 1850’s, when they were both at Bidwell, Crosette wrote several articles telling of Mighels painting abilities. There were many opportunities for Crosette to identify Mighels as the unknown artist. That was not done.

- What year did Crosette first realize that Mighels was the unknown artist?  Did he ever share that information with Judge Sexton?

-  If Mighels was the previously unknown artist, when he returned to Bidwell, why did Sexton not also recognize him?

- When Crosette wrote the 1877 remembrance article, Sexton was still alive. Sexton died in 1878. It is hard to imagine that Sexton would not have been aware of the Crosette article about the painting that he owned. In 1875, Sexton wrote a fourteen-week series of articles, published in the Oroville Mercury, about early Butte County history. He obviously had a continuing active interest in local history.

- If Sexton knew Mighels was the previously unknown artist, either by recognizing him or being informed by Crosette, it would seem that information would have also been known by his daughter who was twenty-three years old when Warren T. Sexton died on April 4, 1878.

- In a December 20, 2011 reply, the California State Library was unable to provide the author any information documenting who, when, or on what basis the original painting donated by Caroline Sexton started being “attributed” to Henry R. Mighels.

Continuing research may recover information that answers these concerns or makes them irrelevant. Realistically, the answers to these rhetorical questions are probably unrecoverable details. The first person statement by Crosette provides a conflicting but compelling viewpoint with other available information. The designation “attributed” is defined as: indicates credited with, ascribed, or credit somebody with something. If the conflicting information is left unresolved, the probable long-term result will be that the “attributed” designation will be dropped by future authors. When that occurs, Mighels will unquestioningly receive full credit as the individual who painted the 1854 oil painting of the town of Bidwell at Bidwell’s Bar. If the migrant unknown artist was Mighels, he certainly became well known and respected in the community as an artist, and assistant editor of the Butte Record at Bidwell.  He later became editor of Marysville and Sacramento newspapers. In 1862 he enlisted in the Union Army and had a distinguished military career. He returned to California for a short time in 1865, before moving to Nevada where he established the Carson City, Nevada, Appeal Newspaper in 1865. During his forty-nine-year lifetime he had a successful career as artist, painter and served in numerous political offices in Nevada State government. He died in 1879. If he was the unknown artist he certainly deserves the credit for the 1854 oil painting of the town of Bidwell at Bidwell’s Bar.

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