Josiah 7 BIGELOW
page 3
15591.31 Josiah
7 BIGELOW, son of Isaac
6 ( William 5
, Josiah 4,
Thomas 3, Samuel 2,
John 1) and Fanny
(JACKSON)
BIGELOW, was born at Natick, Middlesex, MA on 19 September 1798 and
probably died there at unknown date. He had married Elizabeth Farr
Burtt,
but we have no additional data. Additional data added from Mark
Bigelow
info: Josiah married Elizabeth F. Burtt 10 June 1836.
Elizabeth
was born in Temple, NH on 23 October 1818 and died 25 August 1842; aged
23 years and 10 mos; Her mother Lucy ( __ ) Burtt died 30 December 1820.
(see below)
Sources:
Bigelow Society,The Bigelow Family Genealogy, Vol II, pg
116-117;
Bigelow Society,The Bigelow Family Genealogy, Vol I ;
Howe, Bigelow Family of America;
records of Bigelow Society genealogist.
New Note 2011:
Debbie Bigelow posted another letter on Bigelow World and Ancestry.com.....(see below)
Note:
Name: Mark Bigelow mark.bigelow@upm-kymmne.com
From: Wirral, England
Time: 1999-06-05 00:29:29
I have a great many facinating letters written mid to late 1800s
from my ancestors, William Henry and Josiah Bigelow of South Natick,
U.S.A.,
plus a family history record and an early " Dagurreotype " photograph
of
Rosalie Bigelow.
Copies of Mark's other records can be found on Page
2 for Josiah 7 Bigelow......................ROD
The following are copies of one of Mark's letters,
transcript follows:
side 1
side 2
Transcript:
Waltham, Jan 1st 1843.
My dear little Daughter,
I write to you
now for the purpose of wishing you and your little brother a happy new
year, and to tell you how happy your Father was, one year ago this day.
Then your poor Mother and dear little Eugene were both alive, and your
Father had more to make him happy then he has now. Now your poor
Mother and Eugene are both in the cold ground, and we can never see
them
again, or talk with them, while we live in this world. But I hope that
when we die, we shall be able to see and know them again in a brighter
and better world then this. You must be a good girl, and set a good
example
to your little brother, so that he may be good too, and then you will
both
be happy in this world and in the world beyond the grave. Everybody
must
die sometime or other, and the good will be happier after death, then
they
are while they live. It is your body only that will die and be
buried,
your spirit or soul, that part of you which thinks, and is happy or
unhappy,
will live forever. Therefore, if you wish to be always happy, you must
be always good, for your mind will live forever and ever, and you never
can forget your own conduct if you are wicked. Every bad action will be
remembered by you after your body is dead, and your mind will be
unhappy
for it, but if you are good and virtuous, your mind will be happy in
this
life and the life which the soul lives after the body is dead and
buried.
The walking is so slippery that I cannot visit you very often, and I
have
had such hard fortune, and have been obliged to spend so much money on
account of your poor Mother's frequent, long and painful sickness, and
the sicknesses of my dear little children, that I cannot afford to pay
for riding. You and little Willie must wait patiently a few days, and
your
Father will come and see you, and pay your aunt for your board.
You must study, my dear, and learn all you
can while you are young, both how to read and how to work, for if your
poor father should die, his dear little children will have nobody to
take
care of them, and to pay for their board and education. you would then
have to take care of yourselves, which you could not do unless you know
how to read and to work. Besides if your father lives to be old, he
hopes
his little son and daughter, who will then be a man and a woman, will
be
both able and willing to provide for him, as he does now for them, and
that they will make his old age happy by their ............ and
virtuous
conduct.
Your father is very happy that you are so
well taken care of, and hopes that you are good and pleasant children
in
return.
Your father has no little children to talk to here, ___ he can only
go and look at the grave of his dear little Eugene, and your most
excellent
Mother. This he does two or three times a week, because he has not his
living children to amuse him.
Good bye my dear little children.
This is the first of the
letters in our family collection. It is addressed by Josiah Bigelow to
his 5 year old daughter Rosalie, although it is also clearly to his
ailing wife Elizabeth. Almost 4 months before the date of this letter,
they lost their 3 year old son Eugene, to Scarlet Fever, and grief
seems to have exacerbated Elizabeth’s condition. Josiah is working and
living at their family home in Waltham; Elizabeth, Rosalie and baby son
William are staying with relatives in Natick. I presume this is because
Elizabeth is not well enough to care for her children herself, and they
hope she will recover enough for them to return home eventually.
Waltham, June 29, 1842
My Dear Little Daughter,
You do not know how much your father
thinks of you, your little brother, and your poor sick mother; how much
he wishes to hear from you, or to be with you and see you. Father
wishes he had his dear little children to lie at home nights, and to
run and meet him day-times. But his little children are a great way
off, and he does not know how to walk so far, or to pay the expense of
riding to see them.
You must be a good girl and not
trouble your Aunt, or tear and dirty your clothes. Be kind to little
William Henry, and see that he does not get hurt or do mischief. Read
every day, several times, to your cousin Elizabeth, and be good-natured
to her and to little William. If your Aunt gets tired of keeping you,
you must spend part of your time with your Grandmother and with Aunt
Sarah; and cousin Lizzy must come home with you in cherry-time, and
stay as long with you.
I am sorry you did not take your
little straw bonnet with you, but if you keep the other one clean, it
will answer very well for a poor man’s child. When you are old enough,
you will have to earn you own clothes, and then I hope you will be wise
enough to take good care of them.
Tell Mother that the red cherries
will be dead ripe, nearly all of them, by Sunday, and that the trees
are filled with birds almost the whole time; and besides, I am afraid
that if I go to Natick at Independence, I shall not find a cherry on my
return. If it would not trouble our friends too much at Natick, I
should like to have Mother come over on Sunday and pick a great lot of
cherries to take back with her, and perhaps Father would go to Natick
with her and spend Independence Day with Uncle Abraham in hunting
woodcocks. The ride will do Mother some good, and she will then have
cherry pies, and Father may possibly shoot her a bird. But Mother must
not urge her friends against their will.
There is to be a great cold-water
celebration here on the 4th of July, and the engine men will turn out
and have an address in the forenoon, and Mr Simmons will deliver an
oration in the afternoon to the public generally.
Tell Grandpa Bigelow that he had
better not send any wood till we have somebody at home to cook for the
one who brings it. Father has examined his store of provisions, and
finds that his pork is mostly rock-salt at the bottom of the tub. Ask
Mother whether she thinks our Cincinnati bacon will keep. I rather
think it will; and we shall want it when Uncle Andrew comes.
Father gets along very finely with
house-keeping, and sleeps soundly all night, having no little ones to
disturb him or call for water. Tell Mother to send me a letter by
Friday’s mail, and I shall probably get it that evening. – You must
keep this letter, my dear little daughter, till you learn to read
writing, and can read it yourself.
Kiss Mother and little Billy Button
for me and for yourself too,
Your Father.
Modified - 09/01/2011
(c) Copyright 2011 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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