Creator
Annie K. Bidwell
Recipient
John Muir
Transcription
[4]
affection for, and confidence in you would assure the Park. I declined to ask this of you, but Dr Benjamin was so persistent this evening that I consented, especially as he pushed General to the front at the Cal. Association, and is to issue a brochure on that line, soon. General would be opposed to all this, and I am opposed to my part in it, but the enthuseasm of others makes me seem to them disloyal to General if I refuse to help them, so I am between two fires! Fortunately you know me well enough to know
[1]
1711 Q St. Washington D.C.
May 15, 1905.
Dear Mr Muir,
Dr Benjamin and Mr Garver (the latter until recently promoted, an employee of Forestry Department) insist on my writing you something which I am reluctant to write, but they are working for General's memory and think it my duty to help. Dr Benjamin has just called to see me on this topic and
03568
[2]
said that he would write Dr Jordan, and see Mr Pinchot about naming the new Forest Reserve including Lassen Butte, for General. The San Francisco Call of Apr. 12 had a very fine editorial advocating that there be a National Park named for General Bidwell. [Your?] friends sent me clippings from this Call, and when I showed Dr Benjamin the article in insisted that the Park and statue should both be secured. Mr Garver
[3]
is the gentleman who spoke so eloquently for General at the Washington "California Association" and set the thought in motion at the Society, that General's claims were equal if not superior to any other. He claimed "far superior." Mr Garver urged me to ask you to write Pres. Roosevelt just such a letter as you wrote Dr Benjamin, about General, asking him to name a Park for General and that the President's
[5]
that I would not of my own accord push General to the front. I did say that it would be strange if this Lassen District so beloved by him, and which he tried to have preserved years ago, (and the road he made) should bear his name. But I never dreamed of furthering the proposition.
Dr Benjamin made me promise to write you at
03568
[6]
once, as I go to Philadelphia early in the morning, and it was ten o'c. when he left. It is now much later and I am so tired packing, and arm still lame! But the worst of it is that I do not like to write you as I am doing. I did feel once to write you in behalf of the effort Dr Benjamin made at first: Please do not
[7]
pay any attention to this if not agreeable to you to do so. I am already indebted to you beyond power of expressing the same.
Someday I will write you a pretty letter to show that I can write better than this!
With love to each of the precious family.
Yours gratefully
Annie K. Bidwell
Location
Washington, D.C.
Date Original
1905 May 15
Source
Original letter dimensions: 13.5 x 27 cm.
Recommended Citation
Bidwell, Annie K., "Letter from Annie K. Bidwell to John Muir, 1905 May 15." (1905). John Muir Correspondence (PDFs). 3329.
https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/muir-correspondence/3329
Resource Identifier
muir15_0444-let.tif
File Identifier
Reel 15, Image 0444
Collection Identifier
Online finding aid for the microform version of the John Muir Correspondence http://www.oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/kt0w1031nc
Copyright Status
Copyright status unknown
Copyright Statement
Some letters written to John Muir may be protected by the U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.). Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Owning Institution
Holt-Atherton Special Collections, University of the Pacific Library. Please contact this institution directly to obtain copies of the images or permission to publish or use them beyond educational purposes.
Pages
4 pages
Keywords
Environmentalist, naturalist, travel, conservation, national parks, John Muir, Yosemite, California, history, correspondence, letters
