Epaphroditus 6 BIGELOW
This picture is from The History of Livingston County by James
H. Smith, as is the article attached to the bottom of this long page.
16315.B Epaphroditus 6 son
of Daniel 5 (David
4, Lt. John 3, Joshua
2, John 1) BIGELOW
and Sarah (CHAPMAN) BIGELOW, was born 4 Feb 1786 at Marlborough,
Hartford co, CT. He served in the War of 1812, and taught school in Connecticut
several years. He married on 7 Nov 1816, Sarah PHELPS, daughter of Oliver
and Mary (HILLS) PHELPS. She was born in Marlborough 23 Oct 1795. In 1818,
they with their infant child moved to Geneseo, NY with a yoke of oxen and
a covered lumber wagon, covering 330 miles in 18 days. They settled on
a farm in the eastern part of the town, where he became a prominent citizen,
serving on the School Committee and board of Assessors several years, and
holding the position of Justice of the Peace. His wife died 21 Mar 1878,
and he on 7 Apr 1874. They are buried in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery,
just east of Geneseo at the I-390 exit for same. His house is still standing
on the other side of I-390. That information and more is listed after children....
ROD 1997.
Surviving adult sons of Epaphroditus Bigelow, undated and unidentified.
Thanks to descendants Marion Bigelow and Mrs. Dorothy Baer, authors of
the article below; I believe the son in the back left is Edward, the youngest.
This is confirmed through another photo I've seen recently. The son seated
in the middle is probably Orimel and I would take another guess that the
picture was taken 1874 or 1878 for a funeral.
Note:
Name: Barbara Kay Warren
E-Mail: warrenwhites
Location: Calhan, CO
Comments:
RE: Edward Bigelow in the photo from Marion Bigelow & Mrs. Dorothy
Baer with
5 brothers. Edward was my mother's Grandfather. Her father was Charles
Albert, married to Cora Alma Nate. Her brothers, Raymond Wilbur & Edward
Clayton are still alive & well! We have had the same photo for decades.
I
believe Edward is in upper RIGHT - I have two excellent photos of Edward
and
Lucy Hart Brown. The single of Edward is striking resemblence to only the
figure in upper right. Mom is 87, very sharp, & yrs ago gave me the
following:
U/L-Revilo; U/R-Edward; Center-Harvey; L/L-Daniel; L/R-Orimel. At this
time
she is not sure where her info came from. When I acquire a way of getting
my
photos on my computer I will be sure to send them to you. I also have a
gold
enameled locket Edward gave Lucy during Civil War time, perfect shape with
their photos in color inside, inscribed outside. LOVE your site - Am sure
Don
was a male ANGEL and you are truly following in his footsteps. Am just
now
getting my family trees built - the best addiction out there!!
Children of Epaphroditus and Sarah (PHELPS) BIGELOW, the oldest born
CT, the rest Geneseo, Livingston co, NY:
16315.B1 Orimel,
born 3 June 1818; died ; married 27 Mar 1847 Jane Williams; res Groveland,
NY. 2 children.
16315.B2 Revilo,
born 9 Oct 1820; died 3 Aug 1896 Geneseo; married (1)21 June 1855 Sarah
A. Wilbur, and (2)3 Jan 1860 Mrs. Nancy Sinclair. 4 daughters.
16315.B3 Daniel,
born 4 Dec 1822; died ; married 8 Oct 1856 Helen A. Whitney; lived on his
father's homestead. 2 children.
16315.B4 Harvey,
born 1 May 1825; died 29 May 1899 Rush, NY; married 28 Dec 1848 Maria Van
Buskirk; a carriagemaker at East Avon, NY. 5 children.
16315.B5 Cyrus Phelps, born 30 May
1827; died 19 Nov 1830 Geneseo.
16315.B6 Alonzo, born 22 May 1829;
died 8 July 1837 Geneseo.
16315.B7 Martin Luther, born 19
Sept 1831; died 6 June 1838 Geneseo.
16315.B8 Merit Harmon, born 14 Feb
1834; died 10 Dec 1858; unmarried.
16315.B9t Edward,
born 14 May 1837; died ; married 29 Aug 1865 Lucy Hart Brown; lived Austin,
MN and Troy, IL. 5 daughters.
These are the stones of Epaphroditus and wife Sarah Phelps BIGELOW.
Their son Merit Harmon's stone is below. All were found in Mt. Pleasant
cemetery, near Geneseo.. ROD Aug 1997.
Sources:
Bigelow Society, The Bigelow Family Genealogy Vol I, pg 328.
Howe, Bigelow Family of America;
cemetery inscriptions Geneseo and East Avon, NY
The History of Livingston County by James H. Smith pp 407-408
(below);
Livingston County Review; Nov 1914; pg 10; story of Genesee
Valley by Charles Wiseman
Oct
1987 Forge article published on the Internet by Don Bigelow.
Picture taken 1893 by Meritt Harmon 8
Bigelow, showing home built by his ancestor Epaphroditus 6
about 1820-30.
Left to right: Ruth Bigelow in cart, her mother Rebecca, Edward
Everett 8 Bigelow, 3 unidentified Bigelows (may
be Harriet Amelia 8 and her
husband Lovett T. Davis, and ?), Daniel 7 Bigelow, seated,
and wife Helen (Whitney) Bigelow, standing.
This is a story of genealogical adventure, with failures and successes.
In August 1997, I had business in Buffalo, NY and decided to look for Ezra
5 in Geneseo, Livingston co, NY. He was reported to have died there about
1808. On the first day, I had little luck. I found a few gravestones; Epaphroditus
and his son Daniel, but no evidence of Ezra's family.
The next day, on returning from Buffalo, I tried again at the County
Historians office. Still no luck with Ezra, but found a lot on Epaph ,
his sons and other Bigelows in the area. Here is an excerpt of a story
told by Charles Wiseman in the Livingston County Review
I was born near Dansville in the
early thirties but I never enjoyed a permanent home until after the War.
My father was a preacher, -not one of the settled variety who win their
way to a parish and live there in blessed content. Not he ! He seldom spent
more than a month in a place without having a sufficient reason, the same
being a decided lack of religion among the inhabitants thereof. I guess
I would call him an exhorter. He embraced the whole valley from northern
Pennsylvania to the shores of Ontario as a field for his labors. Everybody
knew him and before he had been long among them and passed on his way they
grew to look forward to his return.
We didn't live in town like other
people, -- our home was a log cabin in the woods near Caneadea. I couldn't
exactly call it home for I only lived there in the winter months. The remainder
of the year I spent with my father on the circuit. Somehow, as I go back
over the path that memory has traced, the little log cabin is the only
place I think of when I speak of home.
At one time there was not a prominent
personage in the valley whom I did not know, at least by name. I've never
made it my business to cultivate the acquaintance of lawyers, doctors and
men of the professions. I met them all as a matter of course and took them
all as a matter of fact. Some of them, no doubt, were really great men
in their chosen lines, but I am one who would rather go ten miles to see
a two-headed calf than walk around the corner to view the Washington Monument
or the interior of the Garfield Memorial. I much prefer to listen to a
wandering minstrel discuss his Philosophy of Life than to squirm through
an interview with a learned judge.
I used to know old Epaphroditus
Bigelow of Geneseo. I infer no disrespect by saying "old" for he was old
when I first knew him. We stopped at his home one night, my father and
I. He was one of the most entertaining men I have ever encountered. I was
just in the midst of the "curious" age then, and he responded to my inquiries
in so genial a manner that I was quite won over to him.
He was born in a small Connecticut
village and reared upon the most democratic of places,-- a farm. The limited
training he received in the common schools served as a foundation for the
excellent education he later obtained through his own efforts. He served
through a part of the War of 1812. Five years later he made the 330 mile
trip to the Genesee valley in a canvas covered wagon of the prairie schooner
type, drawn by a yoke of oxen, with one horse leading. Here he settled
down to a life of farming. When you undertook to wrestle a living from
the soil at that time you performed a feat that was a feat. He hauled his
farm products twenty-five miles to the nearest market, Rochester, selling
them for a price you would consider small today.
In spite of this he saved enough
to educate a large family, -- as great an accomplishment as Napoleon's
trip over the Alps. Bigelow was the kind of man who could sway a mob or
stir a nation. He was of the kind who form a nation's back bone,-- steady,
energetic, reliable. They may not have known him across the line but he
filled his place in the valley. (This time period Wiseman was
writing about was just before the Civil War, about 1860)
This is the article by Smith in The History of Livingston County
EPAPHRODITUS BIGELOW
Epaphroditus Bigelow was born 4 Feb 1786 in Marlborough,
Hartford co, CT and died 7 Apr 1874 at his home in Geneseo, NY, aged 88
years and two months. He was a lineal descendant of John Bigelow, who emigrated
from Wrentham, county of Suffolk, England, to new England, and settled
at Watertown, Mass., where he died July 14, 1703. He was the son of Daniel
Bigelow by his second wife Sarah F. Ingham, he having married for his first
wife Mary Brainard of Westchester, CT.
By each of his wives there were born unto him seven children, eight
sons and six daughters, ten of whom lived to mature years.
One only of this large family survives, Mrs.
Betsey Bigelow Hempstead, who has attained to the ripe age of 97 years
(in 1881) and is the oldest person now living in the town of Geneseo. Epaphroditus
Bigelow was the fourth child by the second wife. As his father was a farmer
by occupation, he received his early training at home and upon the farm
in summer, and attended the common schools of his native town in the winter.
His early advantages were limited, but he fully improved upon what he enjoyed,
and when of age became a common school teacher of quite large experience,
having taught eleven winter terms in the schools of Connecticut and in
Geneseo after his removal thereto.
In July 1813 he enlisted in the War
of 1812, as a private in the 1st Regt, Conn State Troops under Capt. Enos
H. Buell, his being the first name upon the company's roll. He served three
months, the period for which he enlisted, at New London, CT, and was honorably
discharged in the month of Sept. Under the act of February 14, 1871, granting
pensions to survivors of the War of 1812, he became entitled to a pension,
which he received up to the time of his decease.
He was married at Marlborough, CT, 7
Nov 1816 by the Rev. David B. Ripley to Sarah Phelps, oldest daughter of
Oliver and Mary (Hills) Phelps. In the spring of 1818, he removed with
his wife and infant son 9 months old, to Geneseo, NY. This son, Orimel,
was living in 1881 in nearby Groveland, NY (but in 1850 was living in Michigan).
The journey was undertaken in a canvas-covered lumber wagon, the style
in those days, drawn by a yoke of oxen and one horse in advance, a distance
of 330 miles in eighteen days.
He settled upon a farm in the eastern
part of the town, land which he had previously bought of David Haynes,
a native of Pennsylvania, who in turn had purchased it from Messrs. Wadsworth
in Sept 1792, when the land was unbroken wilderness. Here Epaphroditus
entered zealously upon the work of his life, continuing to dwell upon this
chosen spot to the end of his days, a period of fifty-six years. In those
days before canal or railroad had penetrated the Genesee valley the profits
of farming were not large and markets were not near. Rochester, distant
twenty-five miles, was the principal market, and here he sold his wheat
at three shillings per bushel, and other farm products in proportion.
By industry and economy he in time secured
a competency and raised and educated a large family of children. During
the active period of his life he took a lively interest in public affairs.
Among the town offices held by him were Justice of the Peace, Commissioner
of Schools, and Assessor. He was a Whig until that party's dissolution,
after which he became a Republican. He cast his first vote for President
in the fall of 1808 for James Madison, and in all cast his vote seventeen
times for the electors of President and Vice President of these United
States.
Epaphroditus Bigelow was of Puritan
ancestry, and was early taught the truth of devine revelations and made
familiar with that gospel, which for so many years he adorned by a godly
life and conversation. On May 22, 1838, under the pastorate of Rev. Horace
Galpin, he united with the First Presbyterian Church of Geneseo, and was
elected and ordained as a ruling elder Sept 2, 1836, in which office he
continued until his death.
He was not a great man as some
count greatness, but rather might be called one of those standard, reliable
men to be found in every town, who seek to be useful in their day and generation,
filling his place creditably and honestly and according to an enlightened
judgment. he was a man of stern integrity and of firm convictions. Opinions
once formed were tenaciously held. He was benevolent and generously contributed
of his means for the good of his fellow men, and those enterprises organized
for the purpose of advancing and improving the world had his support. He
has acted his part upon the stage and has passed away, and the testimony
is that his life's work was well done.
His wife united with the church at the
same time as her husbandwhom she survived nearly four years. She was a
worthy helpmeet, exemplary and faithful in all the duties relating to her
home, to the church, and to her God. She was born 23 Oct 1795 and died
21 Mar 1878, aged 82 years. His children, were nine in number, all sons.
Their names in the order of their ages were: Orimel, Revilo, Daniel, Harvey,
Cyrus Phelps, Alonzo, Martin Luther, Merit Harmon, and Edward. Of these
Cyrus Phelps, Alonzo, and Martin Luther died in childhood. Merit Harmon
a young man of more than ordinary promise, died 10 Dec 1858, aged 24 years.
Each one of those who lived to reach their majority, received an academic
education at Geneseo Academy, Geneseo, NY.
Orimel married Jane Williams, is a farmer
by occupation, and resides at Groveland, NY (1881). They have two children,
a son and a daughter. Revilo lives at the village of Geneseo, and has married
twice. His first wife was Sarah Alice Wilbur by whom he had two daughters.
For his second wife he married Mrs. Nancy S. Haynes, by whom he also has
two daughters. Daniel dwells upon the homestead of his late father, deceased,
and married Helen A. Whitney, of Avon, NY. They have a son and daughter.
Harvey lives at Rush, N.Y., and is a
wagon and carriage maker. He married Maria VanBuskirk, and they have five
children, two sons and three daughters. Edward lives at Austin, Minn.,
and is a merchant in the drug and stationary business. He served his country
for three years in the late Rebellion, and held a captain's commission,
and has been the Principal of several higher institutions of learning in
the West. He married Lucy A. Brown, by whom he has three children, two
sons and a daughter.
Modified - 01/31/2001
(c) Copyright 2001 Bigelow Society, Inc. All rights
reserved.
Rod Bigelow - Director
bigelow@slic.com
Rod Bigelow (Roger Jon12 BIGELOW)
8 Prospect Circle
Massena, N.Y. 13662
bigelow@slic.com
Rod Bigelow at SLIC 
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