Family History 2.41

Bigelow History

Post-1630

From Bigelow Society Pages 

Amasa BIGELOW, 

 

son of Isaac ( Isaac , Samuel , John ), and Abigail (SKINNER) BIGELOW, was born in Colchester, New London county, CT, 11 February 1755.

 

With his parents and family, he emigrated to Nova Scotia, Canada in the fall of 1761.

 

His parents returned to New England some years later, but Amasa remained in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia.

 

He was married there 09 November 1773 to Rosina Cone, of whom we have no birthdate, but she was a daughter of Reuben and Nem Cone. Her name is variously given as Roxana and Rozina.

 

Amasa is said to have died accidentally by going through the ice on his own mill-pond about 1805.

 

Rosina married (2) 04 October 1806 James Lyons.

 

All their children were born in Cornwallis:

 

Ebenezer, b 03 Feb 1774; d at Cornwallis, N.S.; 01 June 1858; m 28 Apr 1803 Ann Rand; res Cornwallis. 6 children.

 

John, b 24 Sept 1775; d 10 May 1845 Pugwash, N.S.; m ca 1798 Tiazan Newcomb; res Pugwash. 8 children.

 

Daniel, b 09 Aug 1777; d 24 Aug 1863 Canso, N.S.; m (1) 05 May 1804 Emma Johnston; res OH, IL, and WI, but returned to Nova Scotia in his old age; m (2) _ Aug 1838 Jane Sleighton in Milwaukee, WI. 12 children.

 

Reuben, b 04 Aug 1779; d 26 Sept 1829 Antigonish, Nova Scotia; m 09 Nov 1802 Lavinia Skinner; res Antigonish. 12 children.

 

Gideon, b 22 Sept 1781; was living Shelby, OH 1860, but we fail to find death, cemetery, or probate records; he m (1) unknown first wife; (2) ca 1830 Mrs. Mary McCart, who died 1850 age 65; he may be the same Gideon who married Mrs. Louise Bigelow in Milwaukee 1851. Full family not known.

 

Mary, b 22 June 1783; death date not known; in 20 Apr 1803 William Rand; res Cornwallis.  4 known children.

 

Abigail, b 20 Mar 1785; d ___ 1855; m 13 Mar 1803 Alfred Skinner (b 20 june 1778, son of Charles and Sarah Skinner); dau Ann Skinner m Ebenezer Foster Woodworth; other children not known.

 

Isaac, b 21 Mar 1787; d 12 Sept 1844 Milwaukee, WI; m 15 Sept 1817 Lavinia Loomer; res Milwaukee. 10 children.

 

Sarah, b 17 Jan 1789; d 21 Mar 1865 Millard, Walworth county, WI; m 22 Mar 1810 Benjamin Rand, farmer; res Nova Scotia and WI. 8 children.

 

Rachel, b 01 Jan 1790; d 15 Oct 1845 Cornwallis, Nova Scotia; m 27 Dec 1808 David Loomer; res Cornwallis, Nova Scotia.  13 children.

 

Ruby, b 1793; d 1876; m ca 1810 David Faulkner; res Sussex Vale, New Brunswick. Family not traced.

No Front Line

This is the title of a book by Claire Hall about the Vietnam War.

 

It is made from interviews with veterans of that war taken in the last few years by a group of researchers as part of the settlement between the veterans and the Crown, to compensate for the neglect of the veterans' welfare by government since the war ended.

 

You may have heard an interview last Saturday morning between Claire and Kim Hill on National Radio. http://www.radionz.co.nz/audio/player/20144069

 

Monday of this week, when celebrations were being held all over the country to remember the start of World War I, Vietnam veterans in North Taranaki shared a local launch of the book at their monthly get-together.

 

For a couple of years, Margaret has helped Claire look after her three children, and in that process we have become friends with Claire and her husband and the children. So we attended the launch on Monday.

 

1000 copies have already been sold, and the official launch (in Wellington) does not take place till later this month.

 

If you heard the Kim Hill interview you will have gathered that this book is not just about wartime experiences. It has a wash-up chapter at the end which recounts what happened to these service-people when they returned to new Zealand after the war. It also touches on the protests against the war. In that section Claire interviewed me about my part in the protests during the late sixties in Auckland.

 

So we have all sorts of reasons for our interest in this book. It is too soon to have read it all; perhaps we will revisit it when we have finished. But from what we know of it, we can certainly recommend it.

 

The book raises issues of history, of attitudes to war, of treatment of returned servicemen, of the difference between political decisions and the service-people who carry those decisions out. Above all, it raises again the issue of whether the New Zealand Government was on the right track in sending forces to help the US.

 

At the time, most NZers agreed with the Holyoake decision; like him, reluctantly. But there was a big shift here later on. My position arose from my living in India and being open to the informed opinions of people from that part of the world.

 

From there it looked like a colonialist attempt to reimpose foreign control. Just as the Indians had managed to persuade the British to leave them to rule themselves, so the Vietnamese had convinced the French there was no future there as a colony, but the Americans seemed to be trying to recolonize the region under the guise of a campaign against Communism.

 

All these questions are worth another look.

 

 

Family History 1.147

Gaze History: NSG Memoir continued

The Last Years 

Noel and Mary at this stage eagerly awaited the weekly letters from Audrey and Franklin in Agartala, and just as regularly replied to them.  There was great excitement when a cable from Franklin announced the birth of their first grandchild, Judith Lynne, on 27 November. When the detailed letters arrived, they learned that the baby had been born in the operating theatre of the small mission hospital, nearly at midnight, by the light of petromax kerosene lanterns, and with the assistance of Dr Lawrence Sanson, the mission doctor, and two nurses, one from New Zealand and one Indian. 

At the beginning of 1960, Olwyn entered the Bible Training College (now Laidlaw College) with a view to working as a missionary nurse.  Stuart started his University studies at that stage too. Franklin, having completed his language studies in Bengali, was now appointed Principal of St Paul’s Mission School. Noel was away from home at meetings almost every night of the week at this stage.  His contribution to the Baptist Union was recognised by a decision to nominate him as President of the Union for the 1962 year. This meant that he would be President-elect in 1961 and automatically a member of all the Boards and committees, so making him even more busy out of work hours, if that was possible. 

So in 1960 Noel resigned from the Secretaryship of Epsom Church, and his place was taken by a long-time friend, Jack Smith.  The Church had entered enthusiastically into the Billy Graham Crusade of 1959 (Stuart was an usher), and had welcomed with open arms their new minister, Rev David Edwards, a former missionary in China and Pakistan, who had made many friends at Epsom while a student. 

In 1961 Stuart started work at the firm of Thorne, Thorne, White and Clark-Walker, where he continued for three years during his student days. 

Olwyn was studying hard at the BTI, and working Saturday afternoons at Lavington Hospital (now Southern Cross) in Epsom. Late in 1961 she was accepted by the Baptist Missionary Society for work in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) as a missionary nurse.  So again they said farewell to another of the family for a longish period.  Olwyn left for Brahmanbaria on 1 February 1961 and arrived on 1 March. 

April brought another cable, this time announcing the birth of Terrence Christopher in the Welsh Mission Hospital in Shillong.  Now that the majority of their family were living in the Indian Sub-continent, Noel and Mary started to plan an overseas trip to visit them all in 1962.  The excuse was that there was an international conference of the Leprosy Mission in the UK at the same time. And it was appropriate for the President of the Union and Mission to pay a visit to the missionary staff and their Indian and Pakistani colleagues during his year of office. How could they stay home!

 

In addition to those important visits, the trip included stops in Calcutta, and in Jerusalem with a tour of some of the important sites in the Holy Land, and after the Conference, which was held on the Isle of Wight, they called at Hong Kong and Manila on their way home.

Family History 1.146

Gaze History: NSG Memoir

Noel's tour diary 1956 continued

 

After exploring Doone country (Mary loved Lorna Doone) they went on to Glastonbury.  Noel never knew, so far as we can tell, that his Gaze ancestors came from Gloucestershire[1]. However after returning to London and the Flower Show and a meeting with his old friend Reg Barker who was there on business for the Grocers Federation, they headed north for Kettering and the old Goodwin stamping grounds. 

They were met by Noel’s distant cousin Lesley and his wife Joan, who took them home for a sumptuous tea and later supper, and where they met Lesley’s daughter and her husband.  Lesley took Noel to inspect his legal office, where the firm employed 18 staff, and worked in funny old premises. Noel was envious of Lesley’s Bentley.  They attended Fuller Baptist Church on the Sunday morning: “It was rather moving to sit in the pew and think that one’s mother actually worshipped there and had probably walked down that very aisle.” Distant relatives they were introduced to at the service showed them the church hall built when Julia lived there and where some of the work had been done by Goodwin family members. “They showed me with pride the tombstone of my great great grandmother but as I have never met the lady I was not much moved… I marvel more at the courage of my mother’s people in leaving all that for they knew not what in distant NZ… Lesley took me round in his car to see where mother lived in Duke Street.” 

The rest of the trip involved another tour around the north of England, and then through several countries in Europe.  Highlight of this part of their travels was their visit to St Moritz in Switzerland, which they fell in love with and vowed to return, which they did a few years later.  

They sailed on the Queen Mary to New York, trained to Montreal and the Niagara Falls, through Minneapolis and Winnepeg to Banff, and then over the Canadian Rockies to Vancouver.  They flew home by British Canadian Pacific Airways to Auckland, with stopovers in those days at Hawaii and Fiji.

---

[1] The earlier history of the family came to light about 30 years after Noel’s death when a relative had time in retirement to study some old papers he had found in the home of a mutual cousin (Alice Pearce, nee Gaze) after her death.  Alice was a daughter of Fred’s older brother Charles.

Family History 2.40

Bigelow History

Post-1630

from Wikipedia

Chesterfield, new Hampshire, last home of Isaac and Abigail Bigelow

Granted in 1735 by Governor Jonathan Belcher of Massachusetts, this town was the site of Fort Number 1, first in the line of forts bordering the Connecticut River.

 

After the border between Massachusetts and New Hampshire was fixed, the town would be incorporated on 11 February 1752 by Governor Benning Wentworth as Chesterfield, named for Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield.

Main Street, 1909

 

The first settlers were Moses Smith and William Thomas, who, with their families, came up the Connecticut in canoes, in the fall of 1761. Their chief subsistence through the winter and spring of their first year in the wilderness consisted of salmon and shad, of which there was a great abundance in the river, and deer, which were numerous in the forests.

 

The town contains some of the finest farmland in Cheshire County, yet once was home to small manufacturing, notably spinning wheel parts and handtools.

 

Spofford Lake resort

In 1772, Philip Embury conducted the first Methodist religious services in New Hampshire at the James Robertson farm in Chesterfield, and in 1803, Francis Asbury preached here. Asbury Church is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is recognized for its historic puritan design. Asbury Church is considered the "Mother Church of Methodism" in New Hampshire, and is the oldest Methodist church in New Hampshire. The town has had continual Methodist Sunday services for over 225 years.

 

Chesterfield Academy, established in 1794, was for decades one of the most celebrated in the state.

 

 Spofford Lake is one of the region's largest and oldest resorts.

Family History 2.39

Bigelow History: :Post-1630

From Bigelow Society Pages

 

 

Isaac BIGELOW, fourth generation from migration

 

Isaac was the second child and first son of Isaac 3 (Samuel2, Johnl) and Mary (BOND) BIGELOW, and was born 04 May 1713, at Colchester, New London, Conneticut.

 

He was married there 14 March 1734 to Abigail SKINNER, daughter of Ebenezer and Abigail (LORD) SKINNER. She was born at Colchester 09 July 1715.

 

Isaac is found in town records as follows: town indigent, 31 weeks and 3 days;

 

06 February 1736 Isaac Sr. granted son Isaac 40 acres, part of the farm he now occupied [3:430];

 

21 Oct 1740, Ephraim Wells and wife Elizabeth deeded to Isaac jr 7 acres [5:102];

 

17 Jun 1747, William Harris deeded Isaac BIGELOW jr 52 rods of land [4:346];

 

12 May 1752 Elisha BIGELOW to his brother Isaac, an exchange of land [62:65];

 

20 May 1761, Isaac BIGELOW to David DAY, 118 acres [7:492].

    

About 1761, in company with 150 other families, Isaac and his family, excepting daughters Abigail and Mary, and son Timothy, removed to Cornwallis, Nova Scotia. Isaac was an original proprietor there, but returned to New England at the outbreak of the American Revolution.

 

Son Amasa and three married daughters remained in Nova Scotia.

 

Isaac appears on the 1790 census at Chesterfield, Cheshire, New Hampshire.

 

From town records at Keene, NH we learn that in 1792 Isaac and wife Abigail took a life-lease from Samuel Works of Westmoreland, of half a house in Chesterfield, also the yard and half the garden, with Works providing their firewood.

 

We have no further mention of Isaac or wife Abigail after this date. Family tradition says he died suddenly while visiting son Addi in Barre, Vermont, but neither town nor cemetery records provide a clue.

 

Children of Isaac and Abigail (SKINNER) BIGELOW, all born Colchester, New London co, CT:

 

	Abigail	b 01 Jan 1735; d 01 Sep 1803 Colchester; m 24 Mar 1755 Daniel PRATT; res Colchester, CT. 9 children.
	Ann	b 07 Mar 1736; d _ allegedly in Nova Scotia; m 31 Jan 1760 (Colchester) Judah Wells; res Cornwallis, N.S. 3 known children, two of whom died young.
	Isaac	b 17 Nov 1737; d after 1800, probably Franklin county, VT; m 5 Apr 1759 (Colchester) Mary Chamberlain; res Cornwallis, N.S.; Dummerston, VT; Franklin county, VT. 10 children.
	Timothy	b 18 Nov 1739; d 12 Sep 1818 Tyringham, Berkshire, MA at the Shaker colony; m 2 Dec 1762 (Colchester) Rhoda Williams; res Bernardston & WiHiamston, MA, possibly Rl, then at Tyringham. Blacksmith by trade. Served in Revolutionary War. 9 known children.
	Amasa	b 23 Dec 1741; d 18 Jan 1742.
	Mary,	b 02 Feb 1743; d 25 Oct 1773 East Haddam, CT; m 09 Sep 1761 (Colchester) Reuben Beebe, his first wife; res East Haddam. 6 children
	Lydia	b 02 May 1745; d , either Nova Scotia or New Brunswick; m 30 Jan 1772 (Cornwallis) Ezra Pride. 7 children.
	Margaret	b 02 Aug 1747; d 29 Jan 1842 Machias, ME; m 10 Oct 1765 (Cornwallis) Nathan Longfellow; res Cornwallis a number of years, then moved to Maine during the Rev War. I I children.
	Jerusha,	b 08 Mar 1749; died ; m 4 Dec 1766 (Cornwallis) Andrew Newcomb; res Cornwallis, later moved to New Brunswick. 9 children.
	Ruby	("Zubah" on baptismal and burial records), b 14 Dec 1750; d 05 June 1759.
	Samuel	b 01 Nov 1752; d 6 Mar 1830 Nantucket, Nantucket, MA; m 09 June 1799 (Nantucket) Mrs. Naomi Gardner. No issue.
	Amasa	b 11 Feb 1755; d before 1806 Cornwallis, N.S.; m 09 Nov 1773 (Cornwallis) Rosina Cone, her first husband; res Cornwallis. 11 children.
	Addi	b 18 Oct 1757; d before 1817 Franklin county, OH; m ?(1) Mary Nooney 21 Oct 1779 at Enfield, CT; (2) 29 July 1804 (Barre, VT) Zelinda Ingalls, her first husband; res Barre, VT, moving to Franklin county, OH ca 1813.  5 known children, all by second wife.

NOTE: Isaac Bigelow is said to have served thoughout the American Revolution in the colonial cause. If so, it would have been from New Hampshire.

Family History 1.145

Gaze History

NSG Memoir

Noel's world tour diary 1956 continued

Then to Naples:

 

“like Wellington only much larger” and on 25 April “steaming through thick fog, visibility nil” two hours from Southampton. 

In London they had arranged to lodge with a lady near Marble Arch and set out to explore the metropolis. The diary is full of exclamations of wonder at the crowds, the shops and the eating places – and the bombed sites still unrepaired after the war. 

They got a warm reception at New Zealand House and the BNZ, but were not impressed with their visit to Cooks.  KLM, the Dutch airline, were better, though, and then they went to the Houses of Parliament to watch the Commons at work: Question Time. 

During the next few days they called at the Mission to Lepers and arranged to attend the AGM, and were taken to the Annual Meeting of the Baptist Union of Great Britain which was then in session. 

After seeing the sights of London, including the AA and the Tower, they caught a KLM flight to Holland to see tulips. In Amsterdam they were with a friend called Gladys. “We had great difficulty getting Glady past the Chocolate shops.  The sweets are simply scrumptious.  They are most attractively displayed and are a terrific temptation as are the cake shops with cakes and sponges reeling under mountains of cream, icing, nuts, etc.”  (Sweets never lasted long in the box when Noel was around). 

After seeing acres of tulips, and Mary buying a Box Brownie camera so she could compete with Noel at taking photos, they returned to London on a brand-new Viscount aircraft for more sightseeing.  They saw their first TV programmes, met Jennifer Bird, Win’s daughter, and also Geof Coop, son of Rito, widow of his old friend Joe. 

The Horse Guards parade persuaded him “I don’t mind if I don’t see the Trooping of the Colour”. And then they rented a car and drove themselves around southern England. 

Near Stonehenge they visited Shaftesbury, which disappointed them. “I feel that Shaftesbury let me down.” One of the oldest towns in England “and certainly looks it.”  But they liked Truro, and went on eventually to “Padstow and Wadebridge and across its bridge to Egloshayle where we spent some time in the church and in the graveyards seeing if we could find any Tremains but no luck….the town itself is rather doleful and grim. Mary thought her ancestors did the right thing in leaving it for NZ.”