Frederick R. Bechdolt

Frederick Ritchie Bechdolt (July 27, 1874 – April 12, 1950) (also known as Fred or Bech) was an American journalist, Western fiction writer, and pioneer member of the Carmel art colony. He is best known as a Western writer for the works When the West Was Young, and in collaboration with James Hopper on fictional novel 9009. He wrote for the newspapers The Seattle Star, and the Los Angeles Times.

Early life
Bechdolt was born on July 27, 1874, in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. He went to University of North Dakota (1892–1895), and received his Bachelor of Arts at the University of Washington in 1896, where his father was a German professor. Bechdolt was captain of the first football team at University of North Dakota, in 1894. His father was the team's head coach. His younger brother, Jack (1884–1954), also became a noted journalist and writer.

After college, in 1897, Bechdolt went on a series of adventures that included becoming a placer miner in the Klondike Gold Rush where he drove a dog sled on the Chikoot and White Pass trails.

Career


In 1900, Bechdolt became a journalist and worked as a reporter for The Seattle Star, Los Angeles Times, and The San Francisco Call. He did research at San Quentin State and Alcatraz prisons and took up the cause for prisoners' rights.

In 1906, he was one of the earliest writers to visit Carmel-by-the-Sea, California. This is where he met writer James Hopper and the two became good friends, often entertaining with some of Carmel's bohemians like musician Mabel Gray Lachmund. Bechdolt and his wife moved to Carmel in 1907, and built a home in the Eighty Acres tract of Carmel where he was a neighbor of writer George Sterling. Together, Bechdolt and Hopper wrote the fictional novel 9009 (1908) about the condition of American prisons and the need for reform.

Following the publication of his novel 9009, he went on to write The Hard Rock Man. Initially, it appeared as a short story in the Saturday Evening Post in 1908 and was later serialized as "Tom Morton: A Story of the Hard Rock Men" in the same publication in 1910. The majority of his fictional works, including Tales of the Old-timers (1924), revolved around exhilarating adventures set in the Old West, particularly in Texas, with a focus on the aftermath of the Alamo incident. His short stories, often centered around similar themes, consistently found their place in magazines like the Saturday Evening Post. Bechdolt wrote the western novel, Danger On The Border in 1940, that dealt with the early days in American history in the valley of the Rio Grande river.



Bechdolt played a role as one of the founding members of the Forest Theater Guild. In July 1915, Bechdolt played Father Serra in Perry Newberry's play Junípero Serra at the Forest Theater, a historical pageant focusing on the life of Junípero Serra. The play was a big success and was performed again at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition. He was an actor in other plays, including The Brink Of Silence, (1925) and The Thrice Promised Bride (1923).

Bechdolt was an early member of Carmel's Abalone League, along Edward Kuster, Charley Van Riper, James Hopper, John Hillaiard, Ernest Schweninger, Talbert Josselyn, R. C. Smith, and Winsor Josselyn.

Bechdolt actively backed Perry Newberry's endeavors to safeguard Carmel from unchecked development. He also contributed his service as a member of the city council on two separate occasions. In the midst of the Great Depression, Bechdolt took charge of the local office of the WPA Federal Writers' Project, leading the group in crafting the renowned Monterey Peninsula Guide. He took on the role of acting postmaster initially and later assumed the position of police commissioner.

After World War II, Bechdolt collaborated with fellow writers such as Robinson Jeffers and John Steinbeck to oppose discriminatory attempts aimed at obstructing the repatriation of Japanese American citizens who had been interned, ensuring their rightful return to Monterey County. Bechdolt's book Riot at Red Water (1944) was a book listed in the List of Armed Services Editions, which were small paperback books of fiction and nonfiction that were distributed in the American military during World War II.

Death
Bechdolt died at the Carmel Cumminity hospital on April 12, 1950, at the age of 75. Funeral services were held at the T. A. Dorney Funeral Chapel in Monterey and Requiem mass at the Carmel Mission.