Son of John P. and Louisa Ann (Brown) Bigelow:
Mayors of
Boston: an illustrated epitome of who the mayors have been and what
they have done
By State Street Trust Company (Boston, Mass.), Walton Advertising and
Printing Company (Boston, Mass.)
p.21
John Prescott Bigelow was the son of Timothy Bigelow, who for
eleven years was speaker of the House of
Representatives and was a
grandson of Colonel Timothy Bigelow, the Revolutionary War hero of
Worcester.
His birthplace was Groton,
Massachusetts, where he was born August 25, 1797. He entered
Harvard and
graduated in 1815.
He was admitted to the bar in
1818. In 1824 he went abroad, where he spent some years. His wife died
in
1847, and his son also was
taken from him, and he turned to politics, in which he had early taken
an interest.
He became a member of the Common
Council for Ward 9, where he was one of those who worked the hardest to
stay the cholera scourge which afflicted Boston.
In 1828 the Whigs elected him to the House of Representatives of
Massachusetts, to which he was re-elected with the exception of one
year, until 1836.
He was prominent in the
movement to reduce the number of membership (which was then over 700);
was active on many committees, and took a leading part in railroad
legislation.
From 1836 to 1843 he served as
Secretary of State with marked ability, and then became a member of the
Executive Council under
Governor Briggs, serving four years. He was elected Mayor of Boston in
1848.
During his tenure of
office the jail at Charles and Cambridge Streets was completed at a
cost of $450,000.
In the summer of 1849,
Asiatic cholera caused the death of no less than 5,080 people out of a
population
of 130,000. An event that
was fraught with much trouble for Mayor Bigelow was a meeting in
1850 at
Faneuil Hall to
congratulate George Thompson, the abolitionist, upon his arrival in
this country. Cheers for
Daniel Webster, Jenny
Lind, and the Union, which the police, acting under the instructions of
Mayor Bigelow,
did nothing to stop, broke
up the meeting. The next year the Board of Aldermen declined to allow
the use of
Faneuil Hall for a
reception to Daniel Webster, because of the fear of a disturbance.
Webster and his friends
were furious, and when the
Common Council with the concurrence of the Mayor, later sent a
committee to
wait upon Webster at the
Revere House and "tender him in the name of the City Council an
invitation to meet
and address his
fellow-citizens in Faneuil Hall," Webster curtly replied it was not
convenient for him to accept.
At the next election the Mayor and Council were all retired to private
life.
In 1851, the last term of Bigelow,
every section of Boston was supplied with pure water at a cost of
$4,321,000, the new
almhouse was built on Deer Island, a system of telegraphic fire alarms
invented by
Dr. William F. Channing
was installed and the great pageant was held to celebrate the
completion of the
railroads between Boston
and
Canada and the Great Lakes.
On Mayor Bigelow's retirement a
number of friends wished to show him their appreciation by presenting
him with a silver vase. He
asked that the money be given to the Public Library, and this was the
first gift
the library
received. Mr. Bigelow became one of its Board of Trustees. He
died July 4, 1872.
Transcribed by Janice
Farnsworth
Subject: John Prescott Bigelow
Source Prescott Memorial
John Prescott/Mary Platts Line - Lancaster, Mass.
p.110
John Prescott Bigelow b. 1797 son of the Hon.
Timothy Bigelow & his wife Lucy Prescott (dau of Dr. Oliver
Prescott, Sen'r & wife, Lydia Baldwin - p.77 Prescott
Memorial) (see Lucy Prescott p.78, below)
John Prescott Bigelow m. 1824, Louisa Brown, an
English lady, who died in 1847.
He graduated Harvard College in 1815; studied law. He was
president of the Common
Council of the City of Boston; for several years he was Secretary of
State for Mass.,
and subsequently the Mayor of Boston and member of the Executive
Council. Mr.
Bigelow laid the foundation of the Boston Public Library, which he has
the satisfaction
of seeing grow to the gigantic proportions of some 150,000 volumes and
has been one of the
Trustees from its foundation until feeble health compelled him to
resign on the 11th of January , 1869.
Mayor Shurtleff, in presenting his resignation, said of him that
"he had ever been an ardent friend of the Library and that he gave the
first money that
was received towards it foundation." He expressed "great regret
that his present feeble health demands the severance of the tie which
had for so long a time connected him with this and other branches of
the City Goverment." It was Mr. Bigelow's delight to do good and
be useful, and he was entirely void of that selfishness and
exclusiveness which is but too common among many in higher
walks of life. (record ends.)
p.78
Lucy Prescott b. Mar 13, 1771 m. Sept. 30, 1791,
Hon. Timothy Bigelow, son of
Col. Timothy Bigelow of Worcester (who commanded one of the Mass.
regiments
in the Revolutionary War.) Hon. Timothy Bigelow was b. April 30, 1767;
grad. Harvard
Coll. 1786; read law with Hon. Levi Lincoln, Sen'r and opened an office
at Groton, Mass.
in 1789.
He was eminently successful
in the practice of his profession; a sound
lawyer and distinguished advocate. In 1802 he was rep. to the General
Court and was
chosen from that body as one of the Executive Council, in which office
he served two
years. In 1806 he removed from Groton, Mass., to Medford, Mass.,
and opened an
office for practice in Boston. He represented the town of Medford
in the General Court
nearly if not quite all the years from the time of his removal there
to the time of his death.
He was a Senator for Middlesex County, from 1797
to 1801, inclusive, and
Councillor again in 1821.
His executive abilities were of the first order,and he had a
fine opportunity to exhibit them while presiding as Speaker of the
House of Rep's for
eleven years, beside presiding in various literary and charitable
societies of which he
was a member. He was a close student and a great reader.
Books in all the liberal
arts and sciences were his familiar acquaintances. He died May
18, 1821, aged 54
years and 19 days. Mrs. Bigelow died in the consolation of a
religious faith, Dec 17,
1852 aged 81 years and 9 mos. The newspapers of the day that
recorded her death,
stated that she was a worthy consort of a good and eminant man. She was
well known
for her moral loveliness and beauty, the
elevation of her character, the gentle-
ness of her nature, and calm self-possession. It is said that a
prominent trait in her
endowments was a concern for the welfare of others and a resignation
and Christian
patience and fortitude under trials and losses of her children.
p.110
Hon. Timothy Bigelow and wife, Lucy Prescott.
Children:
1. Katherine Bigelow b. 1793 m. June 28, 1819,
Hon. Abbott Lawrence of Boston,
b. Dec 16, 1792. Was repeatedly elected a Rep. to the General
Court, a Representative
to Congress, and for several years was resident
minister of the United
States at the Court of St. James. He founded and endowed at Harvard
Univ.,
a School of Science, applied to the arts, and
gave liberally to other institutions.
He died Aug 18, 1855. See a Memoir of him
in the Historical & Genealogical Register, Vol. X.
p.297, October 1856. See also Lawrence Genealogy.
2. Rev. Andrew Bigelow, b. at Groton, Mass., May
7, 1795; m. Jan 26, 1824, Amelia
Sargent Stanwood, b. at Gloucester, Mass., Sept. 12, 1806; she was the
dau. of
Theodore & Sarah (Rogers) Stanwood. Graduated at Harvard
College, 1814. Studied
Theology, and settled first at Medford then in Taunton. Resided in
Boston, 1865 to 1869. Two children:
1. Timothy Bigelow b.
at Medford Mar 15, 1825; now (1869) of Boston.
2. Theodore Stanwood
Bigelow b. in do., Aug 1, 1826; now (1869) also of
Boston.
3. John Prescott Bigelow (see above)
4. Edward Bigelow b. and died in Medford June
1838, unmarried.
5. Helen Bigelow.
6. Francis Rufus Bigelow b. ___; he was a
merchant of Boston.
7. Elizabeth Prescott Bigelow who m. Henry
Stevens, a merchant in New York City.
Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth
Subject:
Founder of the Boston
Public
Library controversy
Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2007 11:45:35 EDT
From: Farns10th@aol.com
Subject: John Prescott Bigelow, Founder of the Boston Public Library.
Source: The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. p.205
The New England Historic, Genealogical Society held a special meeting
to
commemorate the event,
which President Wilder opened by a brief speech, and at which Messrs.
William
W. Wheildon, Thomas
C. Amory and Nathaniel F. Safford read excellent papers on topics
suggested
by the occasion. The
pamphlet before us contains the proceedings with the president's
speech,
the papers of Messrs.
Wheildon, Amory and Safford in full, and some extracts from the
Massachusetts
records furnished
by Mr. David Pulsifer, showing the transition from a provincial to a
state
government. It also
contains the doings by the state and city in honor of the day,
includinjg
Governor Long's pro-
clamation and speech, and Dr. Hopkin's prayer. Besides this, there are
other
matters, particu-
larly an elaborate article by Mr. Wheildon, which appeared in the
Sunday
Herald, Oct. 3, 1880,
calling attention to the event.
Reply to Francis Brimley on the Claims of Honorable John P. Bigelow as
Founder
of the Boston
Public Library. By Timothy Bigelow. Read before the Boston Antiquarian
Club,
May 11, 1880.
Boston: Tolman & White, Printers, 383 Washington Street. 1880
(8vopp.50).
This is a caustic reply to a communication from the Honorable Francis
Brinley,
of Newport, R.I.,
read at a previous meeting of the Boston Antiquarian Club, in which the
claims
of the friends of
the Honorable John Prescott Bigelow that he was the founder of the
Boston
Public Library were
controverted. The author, who is a nephew of Mr. Bigelow, and familiar
with
the incidents in his
life, has been indefatigable in collecting new facts bearing upon the
point
at issue. We think
that the evidence here presented shows that the idea of giving the
Bigelow
Fund to the city for
a public library originated with Mayor Bigelow himself, and that if
this
is considered the origin
of the Public Library, of which however we have serious doubts, the
claims
of his friends are well
founded.
End.
Transcribed by Janice Farnsworth
http://books.google.com/books?id=hcCJeNtX9PQC&pg=PA205&dq=John+Prescott,+founder&ie=ISO-8859-1
Also from Internet:
Mayor
John Prescott Bigelow
Served 1849-1851
"Born in Groton, August 25, 1797; died July 4,
1872, served as Mayor during 1849-1851.
His administration has been characterized as one of 'marked ability and
discretion.' The year prior to his election, the Mayor and Aldermen had
refused to license the sale of intoxicating liquors. Mayor Bigelow said
that the attempt to suppress the traffic in this way had utterly
failed; and he recommended the re-establishment of the license system.
The Mayor had the support of the grand jury, but when a test case in
regard to licensing came up before the Board of Aldermen, the Mayor had
not a single supporter. In spite of legal licenses, there was said to
be 1,500 places where intoxicating liquors were sold, according to City
Marshall Tukey.
Mayor Bigelow was opposed to the erection of a new county jail
recommended by his predecessor, and for which contracts had been made.
But the Aldermen decided to proceed with the work at a reduced expense.
The building was completed in 1851 at an outlay, including the site, of
about $450,000.
Mayor Bigelow, like his predecessor Quincy,
realized that the high rate of taxation made necessary by diverse city
projects induced many of the largest owners of personal property to
escape into the country at the annual period of taxation. The evil has
grown since that time in spite of attempts to check it by legislative
enactment.
The national census of 1850 gave Boston's
population as 136,881. The rapid growth was due to the opening of
railroad communication with the West and steamship communication with
the East. The valuation of all property within the city amounted to
$180,000,500. The tax levy was $1,237,000, a rate of $6.80 a thousand;
and the funded debt had increased to more than $6,000,000, including
the water loans. Mayor Bigelow complained of the heavy burden the city
had to bear, but the new work developed made it impossible to reduce
the outlay.
In the last year of his administration, Mayor Bigelow was able to state
that every section of the city was supplied with pure water. The entire
cost of the water works amounted to $4,321,000. In the same year. a new
almshouse on Deer Island was completed and the system of telegraphic
fire alarms introduced.
One of the events under Mayor Bigelow was the
attempt to break up a meeting in Faneuil Hall, called to receive George
Thompson [abolitionist], then a member of the British parliament, on
his arrival in this country. Another was the refusal of the Board of
Aldermen to allow Faneuil Hall to be used for a reception in honor of
Daniel Webster. The refusal was made on the ground that it might cause
a disturbance and aroused intense indignation. The Common Council tried
in vain to mend matters by inviting Daniel Webster to address his
fellow citizens in Faneuil Hall at another time. The Mayor and Aldermen
concurred later in this invitation. Politically, of course, the whole
affair was a blunder, and all who had opposed Mr. Webster found
themselves promptly relegated to private life.
The crowning event in Mayor Bigelow's career
as head of the municipality was the completion of the railroad line
connecting Boston with Canada and the Great Lakes. It was celebrated in
September, 1851."
Rod
Bigelow
rodbigelow@netzero.net 
