(Rev) John Flavel 7 BIGELOW


15327.71      John Flavel (Rev) 7 BIGELOW, son of  Silas 6 ( Ithamar 5 , Samuel 4, Samuel 3, Samuel 2, John 1) and Sophia (LAMB) BIGELOW, was born at Paxton, Worcester, MA on 25 April 1818. After an early education, he taught in the common schools and earned his college money. He attended Worcester Academy, Brown University and completed his courses at University of NY. He then studied in Germany and after returning to this country, entered the ministry and settled in Bristol, RI. Then to Middleborough, MA, Keeseville, NY and St. Albans, VT. About 1868, he became associated with his brother in a young ladies seminary at Brooklyn, NY where he continued for 12 years. He married Sophronia Nye Lovell, daughter of Ellis J. and Lydia (Gifford) Lovell, born at Osterville, MA 09 March 1819. He died at Brooklyn 20 June 1884. His widow resided in Brooklyn after his death and died after 1888.

Children of John F. and Sophronia (Lovell) Bigelow:

15327.711     Mary Eliza, b 14 Dec 1856 Middleborough; d 07 Sept 1859 Worcester.

15327.712     Derwent, b 29 March, 1864 Keeseville; res. Brooklyn.

Sources:
Bigelow Family Genealogy Vol II , p 76;
Howe, Bigelow Family of America, p 320; (see below)
records of Bigelow Society historian/genealogist.
Don Papson of the North Country Underground Railroad Historical Association,
has found speeches by John Flavel Bigelow.
(posted below)..............................ROD 12/02/05.
Notes:
From: Don Papson  < NCUGRHA@aol.com >
Date: 11/07/05

I have received a copy one of Rev. John Flavel Bigelow's addresses.  It is 32 pages long.  
This speech was given on June 14, 1865-- two months after Lee surrendered (April 9, 1865).
The title of the address is:
The Progress of the American Republic.
An ORATION Delivered at the
CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION of the Town of Paxton,June 14th, 1865,
by Rev. John Flavel Bigelow, D.D.Worcester:
Printed By Edward R. Fiske & Son,1865.

The University of Vermont has a copy of his other address, the one given at
the Baptist Church in Keeseville. I have ordered a copy, and it should come in
about a week.
I will make copies for you.
In the meantime, here are a couple of quotes from the Paxton address:
"True, we have had evils in the national system, portending disaster, and one
monster wrong, menacing certain destruction. This well-known danger was not
one of mere weakness, threatening the dissolution of the political fabric,
through the simple lack of cohesion in the materials; but the peril was that of
explosion, through the antagonism of discordant elements. De Tocqueville could
not have had an adequate conception of this form of peril, when he said that
'the prosperity of the United States is the source of the most serious dangers,
that threaten them.’ Doubtless there was and is much of peril threatening us
from that quarter; but there was another more ominous portent. The darkening
cloud of Slavery, however, so long casting its gloomy shadow over the land, is
lifted, and its blighting effects are passing away. “ Pages 30-31

“Is the world any longer in doubt, with respect to the result of the great
conflict? Not at all. Though contending with powerful and remorseless foes, the
course of the country has been onward. The people of other lands, having
looked, with a painful mixture of hope and apprehension, for the result of the
struggle, are now rejoicing over the prospect lying before the friends of freedom.
’The duel between Aristocracy and Democracy, in which there are no seconds,
is determined in favor of the latter, the watchword being, as has been well
said, on the one side, ‘Privileges for the few,’ and on the other, ‘Rights for
all.’ Let us, then, cherish a serene faith in the future of the country and the
progress of humanity; for despairing of these, we lose faith in God. “ Page 32
Don Papson

Howe, pg 320;
768-1764. Rev. JOHN F. BIGELOW, son of Silas and Sophia (Lamb) Bigelow, was born in Paxton, Mass., April 25, 1818. He early fitted himself for school, teaching in the common schools, and using the money thus gained, he fitted himself for college at the Worcester Academy, then entered Brown University, com­pleting his course at the University of New York, afterwards he studied in Germany; on returning to this country he entered the ministry and settled first in Bristol, R. I., then Middleborough, Mass., Keeseville, N. Y. and St. Albans, Vt. About 1868, he became associated with his brother in teaching in a young ladies' seminary at Brooklyn, N. Y., an educational institution of high order, and continued with his brother some twelve years, when he retired to give his attention to an important literary work entitled " Methodology," which was designed for the use of the ministers but owing to failing health he was prevented from completing his work. " He was an exceedingly amiable, social and genial christian gentleman, kind, charitable and always putting the best construction upon the actions of his friends and acquaintances." He married, Aug. 17, 1847, Sophronia Nye Lovell, daughter of Ellis J. and Lydia (Gifford) Lovell; born in Osterville, Mass., March 9, 1819. He died in Brooklyn, June 20, 1884. His widow resides in Brooklyn. Their children were:
 
3270. MARY ELIZA, b. in Middleborough, Dec. 14, 1856; d. in Worces­ter, Mass., Sept. 7. 1859.
3271. DERWENT, b. in Keeseville, N. Y., March 29,1864; res. Brooklyn.

Speech
From: Don Papson  < NCUGRHA@aol.com >
Date: November 30, 2005
Rod,
I went over to the University of Vermont and picked up a copy of Rev. John F.
Bigelow’s 1861 address at the Keeseville Baptist Church. I am sending you
excerpts. They are incredible. The “What now, I ask, shall we do?” must be a
part of our exhibit at the Estes House.
Don
P.S. Do you have an image of Rev. Bigelow? Are you in touch with any descendants who might have one?
Backgrouind:
On April 10, 1861, Brig. Gen. Beauregard, in command of the provisional
Confederate forces at Charleston, South Carolina, demanded the surrender of the
Union garrison of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor. Garrison commander Anderson
refused. On April 12, Confederate batteries opened fire on the fort, which was
unable to reply effectively. At 2:30 p.m., April 13, Major Anderson
surrendered Fort Sumter, evacuating the garrison on the following day. The bombardment
of Fort Sumter was the opening engagement of the American Civil War.

1860 South Carolina legislature convenes and votes to secede from the
Union. Meanwhile, Congress  convenes in an effort to work out some compromise; the
Crittenden Compromise is proposed,  which would restore the Missouri
Compromise line across the continent.  The compromise is  ineffectual in the face of
the events at hand. 
1861 March 4, Abraham Lincoln inaugurated president.
1861 March 11, The Confederate States of America adopts a Constitution. 
The Confederacy  presently includes only the seven states of the Deep South - 
Alabama, Florida, Georgia,  Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Texas.
1861 April 12, South Carolina troops fire on the Federal arsenal at Fort
Sumter.  The Civil War begins.  The states of Virginia, North Carolina,
Tennessee and Arkansas will secede from the  Union in coming months.  Though they are
slave states, the "border states" of Delaware,  Maryland, Kentucky and
Missouri will remain loyal to the Union.
1861 July 2, President Lincoln issues his suspension of habeas corpus in
certain cases.
1861 July 22, U.S. Congress passes resolution declaring that the war is
being fought to  "preserve the Union," not to destroy slavery.

----

Rev. John Flavel Bigelow gave an address in Keeseville calling for the
defense of the unnion onf July 7, 1961, 15 days before Congress officially declared
that the war was beging forunt to “preserve the union.”

Quotes from The Hand of God in American History. A Discourse Delivered in the
Baptist Church, Keeseville, N.Y., July 7, 1861: Also Before the United
Literary Societies of of New Hampton Institution. Fairfax Vt., July 15, 1861. By
Rev. John F. Bigelow, Burlington: W. H. & C. A. Hoyt & co., Printers. 1861.

Still, however complete her model; however excellent her construction;
however noble her bearing, there was one leak in the hull of the Republic; though
we are happy to believe that it is the only serious one, which the most
thorough overhauling has ever detected. There was one rotten timber in her keel,
and that was Slavery; but yet, as without it there would be a lack of materials,
it was wrought into the structure, though with much perplexity as to the way
of laying it, and with some misgivings as to the result. Jefferson and Madison
uttered words of warning. Still they hoped for the best: they hoped that
instead of increasing, the danger would diminish. Time rolled on: but instead of
its diminution and cessation there has been an augmentation and a strengthening
of the evil. The Slave Power, instead of diminishing and disappearing, as the
founders of the Republic anticipated, has expanded in every dimension of
census, interest, opinion and impudence, till it has precipitated upon the country
the crisis of to-day. And now what is that crisis? that unsound and dangerous
spot, always in the ship’s hull;, has opened in a mighty bilge, and is
letting in upon us the turbid and disastrous waters of rebellion. A dozen, either
more or less, of once loyal States are, to-day, in armed revolt against the
Government of the Union, seeking, by fire and sword, its overthrow, and the
establishment of Slavedom upon its ruins.
Page 30

----

Wesley pronounced slavery to be “the sum of all villainies.” The
definition is pungent and complete. We have always believed it true, but never so
cordially, so deeply, so entirely as to-day. For slavery alone, its advocates and
propagandists are ready to give up or destroy everything beside. For this one
thing, and that the worst and most infernal of all things, since all sins and
all wrongs, oppression, adultery, rebellion and murder, are potentially
wrapped up with it, and reside within it; they are ready to sacrifice
everything--their country’s Government, its history, its hopes, its destiny, its glory,
with the prospects and interests of freedom and religion for the world. For this
one thing, in a sacrament of blood and death,they pledge “their lives, their
fortunes,” and would their “sacred honor,” if they had any to pledge. They are
demolishing the southern wall of the Temple of Freedom, and with its
fragments, they are attempting to lay the foundations of despotism. Against law,
against duty, against precedent, against the sense of all mankind beside, they have
inaugurated a Slave confederacy on the soil won from tyranny by the toils and
blood of the fathers, and consecrated to liberty. They have told the world
that its Corner-stone is slavery; they need not have specified any particular
part as being that thing, for slavery is the top, bottom and sides of the whole
concern.” Pages 32-33
____
What now, I ask, shall we do? The hour is a solemn one--the most momentous
in the country’s history. Asking God, on whom we depend, in the language of
Dr. Wayland, “to issue this awful exigency in the glory of His Son;”
entreating Him to give to all our citizens virtue and patriotism, and especially to our
rulers and legislators wisdom to know their duty, and courage to do it; and
thanking Him meanwhile for the wonderful degree of these great qualities
already exhibited by them, what, I again ask, shall we do? Shall we give up our
national history, and look upon its last chapter as ending here? Shall we
contemplate the hand of God as working in such a wonderful manner in our historical
career, only to close up, in an abrupt collapse, a violent frustration of all
its apparent plans and purposes? Shall this greatest and best realization of the
Republican Freedom which the world has ever seen, be ruthlessly destroyed?
Shall we disappoint the expectation of myriads who are suffering under
oppression, and who are looking to our shores for the great hope and true home of
down-trodden Liberty in all lands? Patriotism, Freedom and Religion answer No!
Shall we sleep in torpid supineness until we are awakened by the iron heel of the
despot upon our necks? Shall we permit the slave master to call his sable
menials under the shadow of Bunker Hill Monument, as he has said that he will do?
The true sons of sires who served their country on Bemis’ and Bunker’s
heights, on Erie and Champlain, answer No! What! Shall that traitorous Palmetto
flag, the vile emblem of Slavery, ever float over the Granite hills and the Green
Mountains of New England: on the banks of the Hudson, and from the summits of
the Adirondacks? Shall it be raised in the Metropolis of the Empire State,
and surmount the Keystone of the Federal Arch? Shall it be unfurled on the
breezy prairies of the Northwest, and by the leaping waters of Niagara? No! An echo
starting from the headlands of Maine, reverberated across a Continent and
dying away on the waves of the Pacific, answers No! The flag of the Union shall every,
as now, wave over them all, and not only so, but the National Motto shall be “the Stars and
Stripes on every flag-staff from Maine to Texas.”
Pages 38-39

His conclusion reads:

“Then let the country stand firm. Let all her citizens see the question as
standing heaven-high above all mere party issues: let all patriots, the lovers
of Freedom and the lovers of their race surround her standard, and whether they
come from the field or the shop, from the marts of Commerce, the halls of
Science, or the Sanctuaries of Religion; let them maintain her cause. And do
thou, O! God of our Fathers, if it may be, bring these men to a better mind and a
better purpose, that they may restore their allegiance to Thyself, and to this
most beneficent of human Governments; but if it may not be, that they will
lay down their bloody arms, and come into the line of Thy great purposes of
History, regarding Thy glory, and the good of mankind, through this once happy
people, then do Thou, blast with the breath of Thy nostrils, their infernal
designs, scattering them to the winds of Heaven; and let the curse of Meroz,
scathing with the fires of Perdition, fall upon that man, or that class of men,
whoever they may be, whether from the South or the North, from the East or the
West,who shall lift the hand for the overthrow, or the rupture of this
God-founded Republic.”
Page 42

Modified - 12/02/2005
(c) Copyright 2005 Bigelow Society, Inc. All rights reserved.
Rod  Bigelow - Director
rodbigelow@netzero.net

Rod Bigelow (Roger Jon12 BIGELOW)
Box 13  Chazy Lake
Dannemora, N.Y. 12929
rodbigelow@netzero.net 
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