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Elwood was an odd man in many ways. He told "tall tales" but he really believed them.
One which I have been trying to prove is that he was a second cousin to Charles Bickford the actor. I think it is true because another familysource states that Charles visited several times at the home of Eli andMaggie. The search goes on for the connection to these families. Records were not regularly kept during this period and his birth was not registered since they lived up in the mountains a good distance fromthe county seat and his birth was unattended by a Dr.
A pampered and spoiled child he was his mother's, as well as his sister's, favorite child. He grew to manhood believing that everything he wanted was his because he wanted it. He was not a demonstrative person and yet demanded attention for himself.
He became an alcoholic and was at least verbally abusive. It isthought that he was also physically abusive however there is no familylore about this and no way to prove it.
He worked for years with his father at the gold mine above Sterling City. I don't know what his education was but I doubt that he had attained too much due to being lazy about learning. If it had work attached to it he had an aversion for it. He was a disappointment to his father in many ways, but still his only son.
During the few years he held the mine he had inherited from his father he consistently left his family there and traveled into Chico to turn the gold he had mined into cash . Often he returned without much food or other supplies as he had gambled and drank most of the money up. He was constantly being filed on at the county court house for non compliancewith the laws of upkeep on the mine. Even his own mother filed against him once. He finally gambled the mine away to a pharmacist in Chico. This mine is still a working mine and millions have been taken from it over the years.
After he lost the mine he was bitter and believed that he had been cheated. He took no responsibility for losing the mine at all. They moved into Magalia, formerly Dogtown, and there he did odd jobs. They often moved in the middle of the night and under odd circumstances, leaving bills unpaid. He became known as a con-man and gained a reputation in the local area as such. His credibility was gone. His creditors came to his daughter, Marie, and her husband and they always paid his bills, ''just to keep him out of jail'', as Herbert says.
They once moved to Humbolt county about 1933 but didn't stay there long and soon were living at Hat Creek, near Burney, CA. working on a potato farm. They were there for several years and then moved to Merrill,OR to a sheep ranch. They eventually ended up in Linden, CA on a olive ranch as Super intendant for B. & L . Olive Ranch.
Sometime in the late '50s Elwood had a heart attack and he was forced to quit drinking. He became very surly and abusive to everyone. Because of his attitude and behavior he never got to see many of his great-grandchildren. He died in San Andreas and is buried there.
From his Calaveras Prospect, March 29,1962 obituary:
Funeral services were held Saturday, March 24 at 2:pm in Gardella Mortuary Chapel in San Andreas for Elwood Joseph Bickford, 66, who died suddenly in his home in Mountain Ranch March 21. Interment was in theCatholic Cemetery in San Andreas.
Bickford was a native of California and had been in Calaveras Countya bout five years. He was formerly a ranch superintendent for B & L Olive Ranch in Linden.
Survivors are his wife, Violet Bickford, of Mountain Ranch, two daughters, Elizabeth Duncan, Davis, and Marie Summers, Durham; one son,Elwood C. Bickford of Martinez; three sister, Tira DeLaney, San Andreas;Helen Gibson, Sacramento, and Margaret Boone, Hollywood.
Seven grandchildren an four great-grandchildren survive in additionto nieces and nephews.
It is interesting to note that while he was buried as a Catholic he was in reality not of the Catholic faith.
Burial March 1961/62
Catholic cemetery, San Andreas, CA
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Verwandtschafts-Ereignisse
34 Magalia, Butte Co.Ca
