Thomas Corwin ⁷ BIGELOW

Children of Thomas C. and Mary J. (Chapman) Bigelow, born at Farmer:

1555E.561     George Andrew, b March 1862; d 22 Oct 1876 Farmer.

1555E.562     Nellie, b 05 Oct 1865; d 07 Jan 1935 Farmer; m 1882 Wesley Blair, divorced.

Children of Thomas C. and Nettie (Butler) Biglow:  (also see below)

1555E.563     Lula E., b B.  1891 D.  1958;   Marriage Ed W. Haines (B.  1889 D.  1960)  H.Occupation:  Miner;
Lived in Carthage, Mo.  and later years in Mesa, Arizona Both buried in Mount Hope Cemetary, Joplin, Missouri
Children - 1 dtr:
Nadine Haines (now deceased) married  ____Dwyer, had 1 son Eddie
2nd marriage to Roland McKay, 1 dtr, Sharon, 2 sons, Clark Haynes and Roland  McKay (see below).

1555E.564     Zena, b B. 11-7-1895 D. 6-21-1973   Marriage Audrie Barclay(B. 9-26-1893  D. 11-15-1960)   H. Occupation: Factory; Lived and raised their children in Arkansas City, Kansas; Both buried in Mayfield Cemetary, McDonald County, Missouri 9 Children in birth order: Tom, Carl, Delmar, Donald, Darrel, Jeanine, Donna, Treva, and Maudie May.  Carl and Darrel died as infants Tom & Donald both married,lived a normal lifespan, and are now deceased. Delmar, Jeanine, Donna, Treva, & Maudie are living and married with children.

1555E.565     Ila (known as Trix), b B. 1897 D. 7-31-1967    Marriage George Lamphear  H.Occupation:  Farmer
Divorced George after 3 children, lived & raised her children in Fresno, Calif. Trix is buried in Indian Springs Cemetary beside her father (Tom) and mother (Nettie) and daughter Gwendolyn who died at the age of 4 yrs.
Children in birth order:  Gene, Gwendolyn, and Madeline Gene & Gwendolyn deceased.  Madeline may be living in California

1555E.566     Murphy Corwin, b  (see below) Murphy Corwin, B. 4-29-1901 D. Apr 1970;   Marriage Minnie Jewel Conner (B.8-6-1913   D. Living at age 85 on home place)   H. Occupation:  Farmer Known as Murph and denied the middle name Corwin. Lived and raised his children on the orignial Tom Biglow farm in McDonald County, Mo. Buried in Mayfield Cemetary, McDonald County, Missouri Children in birth order:  Patsy Lou, Janet Sue, Murphy Junior, and JoAnn; Patsy married and divorced John Roger Cashman, 3 sons Janet married Marvin Pennell, 2 sons, living in Springfield, Missouri Murphy Biglow, Jr. married Joan Mahan, 2 dtrs, living in McDonald County, Mo. on original Tom Biglow farm. JoAnn married Manford Leroy Greninger, 1 dtr, and 2 sons living in Campbell, TX

1555E.567     Vera June, b B. Jan 1905 D.  ? (deceased)   Marriage Jess Swadley (B. ? D. ? (deceased)  H. Occupation:  Factory; Lived and raised 3 children in Petaluma, California Children in birth order:  Gloria, Stanley Lee, and Corwin (known as Corky) Vera's children are believed to be living in California.

1555E.568     Josephine Opal,  B. 1908 D. 1989   1st Marriage Donald Krokroskia  H. Occupation:  Musician
Divorced before son Ronald was born.   Donald joined the Navy. 2nd Marriage Glenn Croddy  H. Occupation: Farmer, B. 1910 D. 1977   and Lineman Lived on farm in McDonald Co., late in life moved to Joplin, Mo. Both Glenn & Opal buried in Mount Hope Cemetary, Joplin, Mo. Children:  Together they raised Opal's son, Ronald Krokroskia Ronald and his 2nd wife, Marjorie, also buried in Mount Hope Cemetary, Joplin, Mo.

Sources:
Bigelow Society,The Bigelow Family Genealogy, Vol II, pg 113;
Howe, Bigelow Family of America;
Bigelow Society,The Bigelow Family Genealogy, Vol I ;
records of Bigelow Society historian/genealogist.

From: Clark and Duffy McKay
Sent: Thursday, October 29, 2009 9:04 PM
Subject: info on Nadine Haines
Hi,
We just came across your site and have been researching our family tree. The info you supplied was fascinating. My husband is the grandson of Nadine, Lulas' and Thomas daughter. Her sons names that you didn't have are Clark Haynes and Roland (not sure of his middle name). My husband is Clarks' son. Would love to have any more info you have.
Regards,
Stephanie McKay
clarkmckay17@msn.com

Note:
From: Janet Sue (Biglow) Pennell     mjpenl@earthlink.net
 From: Springfield, Missouri
 Time: 1999-06-17 03:15:45
Janet Sue Biglow Pennell, great grand daughter of Honorable Andrew C. Biglow (Bigelow), Born 02 July, 1805, Ticondaroga, Essex Co., NY, died 27 March, 1875. Janet is the daughter of Murphy Corwin Biglow, son of Thomas Corwin ⁷ Biglow whose father was Andrew Craig  ⁶  Biglow (Bigelow). We have been trying to find information on Samuel ⁵ Bigelow, born <1779 in Ticondaroga, NY, and married to Mary, born <1783 in Ticondaroga NY; parents of Andrew C. Bigelow.
Janet
More from: Janet Sue (Biglow) Pennell     mjpenl@earthlink.net

     First, I want to thank you for supplying so much information on the Bigelow geneology. I was just amazed that someone had spent so much time tracing the ancestry of the Bigelows .  Don Bigelow certainly left a tremendous gift to the Bigelow descendants.
     Let me tell you what I know about Thomas Corwin Bigelow, my grandfather.  I never met him, but my mother who is still living knew him and loved him when she was a child.  He was always called Mr. Biglow.  We were aware that he dropped the "e" in Bigelow.  My father and aunts told us that our name once had an "e", but it was dropped. We were aware that he was married once before in Ohio and had two children, Andrew and Nellie.  My mother has a picture of Andrew whose age  appears to be 12 or 13 years old.  My mother says she was told that a horse threw Andrew and his neck was broken. The family in Ohio knew where Thomas was because Nellie brought her children to visit them once.
     We are not sure why Thomas went west.  My father told us that Thomas' father took all his sons west in the gold rush and they staked claims. There was a story that one son died on the way west and they buried him in a shallow grave under a wagon bed.  When they returned to Ohio they found the grave and returned his body to Ohio to be buried. Mother says Mr. Biglow told of seeing huge hurds of buffalo that ran in certain paths to water and that it was dangerous to be in that area when they ran for water.  They ran blindly across the plains trampling anything in their way.
     We wonder if perhaps Mr. Biglow did not return all the way to Ohio but stopped in Kansas.  Or perhaps he did and then went west after his divorce.  Or perhaps he went west after the tragic death of his son.  We just are not sure why he went to Galena, KS and purchased mines there.  We know that he met Nettie Butler, my grandmother, on a stagecoach trip to Noel, Missouri.  Nettie's mother was a descendant of the Daniel Boone family (which is interesting but doesn't have any bearing on the subject). Mr. Biglow would make trips to Noel for supplies.  He met Nettie and they fell in love although he was considerably older.  Mr. Biglow was 50 years old and my grandmother lacked a few days being 16 years old when they married.  Nettie Butler was a beautiful young blonde.  Her mother had been left alone with 3 children to raise and it was
understandable that she would not object to her daughter marrying Mr. Biglow .  He was a man of some means and was a gentleman well respected.  Mother said he looked and acted much younger than his age.  Nettie and Mr. Biglow had 6 children and he lived to see his youngest daughter, Opal, married and expecting her first child.
     Tom and Nettie lived in Galena, Kansas until her health deteriorated and they feared she would die.  They had heard that the water at Indian Springs, Missouri was healing so they sold the mines and moved there.  She recovered soon after but they never returned to the mines.  In 1908 they bought a farm approximately 10 miles from Indian Springs where the soil was rich
and a spring bubbled up from the ground.  They moved their house from Indian Springs to that property and lived there the remainder of their lives.  That property remains in the family today.  My father was 7 years old when they moved there and he later bought his sisters shares of the property.  When my father, Murph, died my brother, Murphy bought out the shares willed to my sisters and I and he lives on the property. Actually, my mother, Minnie, still lives in the old home moved from Indian Springs  that my father grew up in and where he lived and raised his own family (my family).
     My father was born in Galena while his father still ran the mines.  A couple of men at the mines were good friends with Mr. Biglow.  When they heard that Tom had a son they both asked him to name it after them.  Their last name was Murphy.  Rather than offend either of his friends, Mr. Biglow named his son Murphy after both of them.
     My mothers family lived only a couple of miles from the Biglow family and were good friends.  My mother recalls Mr. Biglow very vividly.  She said he loved children.    Her family was very close friends with Mr. Biglow's nearest neighbors.  Mother says when her family went to visit those neighbors, she would always run down to Mr. Biglows.
She said the yard was usually full of children and Mr. Biglow was right in the middle entertaining the children.  He would turn handsprings for the children and play ball, etc. The other grownups would be inside visiting but Mr. Biglow was out with the children.  He called my mother his little secretary which pleased her very much.  She says although he did not live to see her marry my father, she is sure he would be pleased because he thought so much of her.  Mother has a picture of him standing holding a horse. He was slender, about 5ft. 6in., and had a white beard that came down approximately
six inches on his chest.  She thinks he had dark hair before it turned white.
     Speaking of hair color, my older sister has beautiful red hair.  My aunt Lula told mother that her fathers sisters had red hair.  Also, my first son had the same red hair.  Their hair just glistened in the sun like a copper penny.  Both my sister and my son had fair skin, no freckles, brown eyes, dark eyebrows and beautiful red hair which turned auburn when they matured.  We always thought this was due to some Irish blood in our family tree, but obviously the Bigelows are English.  Perhaps one of them may have married an Irish lady.  My father thought we were of Irish descent.  He had blonde hair like his mother and was often told he had an Irish temper.  We really didn't know much about the family history except that Mr. Biglows father was a judge in Ohio and that his sisters had red hair.
     I was not surprised to see that the Bigelows held offices in government.  Apparently Thomas Biglow's family was quite political.  Mr. Biglow received a letter once from one of his brothers that said, if you will stop voting the Democratic ticket I will come and see you.  Mr. Biglow responded, well, I guess I won't be seeing you any time soon then.  Mr. Biglow was a very stong democrat and his wife, Nettie, was just as strong a republican.  They rode separately to the polls.  In those days men would come around with wagons and haul people to the polls.  Mr. Biglow would not ride with a republican.
     In your information about Thomas Biglow it was mentioned that he lived in the Dakotas. That is not true.  He never lived in the Dakotas.  I can tell you how that rumor probably got started.  My father, Murphy Corwin Biglow, for many years raised strawberries which is a spring crop.  His farm did not have a fall crop.  For several years he would go to the Dakotas and work in the wheat field for hire to gain extra money for his family.  He generally worked around Bismarck, North Dakota.  He probably got his social security number there.  From that people may have thought he was born there. He was not.  He never owned property there or lived there at any time with his family. He would travel there alone, work the harvest, and return to his family in McDonald county, Missouri.
     That is about all that I know about the history of the Biglow family.  The name stops with my brother, Murphy Junior Biglow, who had only daughters.  He appears to be the ninth generations from John Biglo  that came over from England.  I want to thank you again for passing the history on to me.  It was very interesting to me to learn how and where the name began.  I plan to continue to research some of our contemporary family to get exact dates.  Some of the dates were found on tombstones and some from my mothers Bible.  They may not be exactly accurate but they are close.  For example Thomas C. Biglows tombstone says he was born in 1840 and your information says 1841.  We are pretty sure 1840 is correct because he was 88 yrs old when he passed away just one month after his 88th birthday.  He was in good health all of his life and died quietly one night of a heart attack.

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