1692A.4     Lawrence Goodhue ⁶  BIGELOW, son of  Levi ⁵ ( David ⁴ , Daniel ³ , Joshua ², John ¹), and Nancy (GOODHUE) BIGELOW, was born 08 October 1818 at Derbyline, Orleans co, VT. He married, at Chester, VT, Elizabeth Henry, born 28 July 1810. He worked for his father's lumber and mercantile interests in Stanstead, Quebec, and later in Buckingham, Quebec. He was active, when in the United States, in the anti-slavery movement. He made Burlington, VT, his permanent home, but due to his wife's health, made several trips to the south, seeking a kinder climate for her tuberculosis. She died 15 September 1853 at Burlington, he on 15 October 1867, also at Burlington, Chittenden county, VT. During his years in Buckingham, Quebec, he was recognized as a leader in the town, and donated the land on which St. Andrew's church and cemetery originally stood.

 Pat (Mrs. Edward) Bigelow, Fairbanks, Alaska sent me this information in a letter in 1983:  That there was a James Stewart Sr holding land in 1831 in Buckingham Twp Quebec according to land records.  She also said the township was formed in 1823 which made James Stewart Sr's family certainly a pioneer family.  This information fits with the information I've gleaned off the internet from an old newspaper - site is mentioned
below: Quote from The Buckingham Post "In 1826 James Smith and his sons James, William, Rodney and John, settled on lots Nos. 13, 14 and 15 in range 6. Robert Donnelly with his wife, two daughters and grandson, Robert Ackert, came also in the same year, settling on lot 14 in the 5th range.
In the same year al90 a few other settlers came in, among whom were John Mar, James Stewart, John Cameron, who all settled in the 5th range on lots 13, 20 and 16 respectively."
THE BUCKINGHAM POST (also mention of Levi ⁵ Bigelow 1826 farm in this piece) http://iquebec.ifrance.com/maclaren/bhampost.htm
Regards,
Elaine Bigelow
bigelowx@aol.com
................................
 THE BUCKINGHAM POST

We have been privileged recently to go back into the past,and read some data
relative to the Buckingham of 20 to 50 years ago. Among the papers and cuttings from Buckingham Post from 1906 until the death of the late editor in 1939. This privilege has been accorded to us by a valued subscriber in whose possession these papers have been for some time.
From these papers we quote the following notes relative to the Buckingham Post.

"The first newspaper published in Buckingham bore the
name "The Buckingham General Advertiser and Land List", and was
owned and edited by S.J. Jones; it appeared monthly. The first
number is dated December 1882. It was short lived.

In 1895 Mr. George R. Osborne published the first number
of the Buckingham Post, a weekly paper. Not long after he sold it
to a Mr. Ringrose who in turn sold it to a Mr. McLaren. After thus
changing hands several times, Mr. Osborne was offered $100.00 to
take it back.
This he did, and in 1901 he sold it to the actual proprietor,
Mr. A.B. Parker, who ever since took a very lively and active
interest in it and soon made a success of it. It's first issue
under his direction, is dated July 5th, 1901.

Mr. Albert Parker was 43 years of age when he took "The

Buckingham Post" in hand. Be is now fast approaching his 80th birtl

day, in fact he will be 80 next November (1938). Bale and hearty h,

is a friend of everybody and has no enemy".

EDITOR'S NOTTE: We remember Mr. Ringrose living in Buck-

ingham at that time, as Mrs. Ringrose had a millinary store on Main

Street, in the Mart n Block, but who the Mr. McLaren is we have not

the faintest idea.

One thing we do know is that no person knows the anxiety,

heartaches and discouragement the late editor suffered in his effor

to start a new busi-ess for the support of his wife and family aft@

twenty-five years spent in lumbering, both up river and in the admi

istrative end of the east side business of Ross Brothers.

Ee made the grade by blood and sweat and tears and was

gathered to his forefathers at the ripe old age of eighty-one,

successful in his new found interest and, as far as we know, res-

pected by all who knew him.

Republishcd November 2nd, 1962.

REP@BLISHED FROM "@dE POST" OF JANUARY 5TH. 1899.

m e authorship was withheld by request. (It was written

by one of John O. Smith's grandchildren. The Buckingham Post gave

a prize to the best essay written. The prize was the sum of five

dollars@.

me name of Buckingham was no doubt, given to this town-

ship by a Mr. Ackley, surveyor, who surveyed the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and

part of the 4th ranges previous to the year 1823, the remaining

por-

tion of the township was surveyed later, by Colonel Fortune who

surveyed the remainder of the 4th and part of the 5th ranges: by

Mr. Bouchette of Quebec who surveyed the remainder of range 5 and

also the 6th to 9th ranges inclusive and by John Newman, an old

country Irishman, who surveyed the 10th, 11th and 12th ranges.

Trappers and hunters were in the habit of coming from Montreal for

furs, as at that time this township was a wilderness in which the

wild beast made his home and in which the Indian experienced the

joy

of inhabiting a miniature Indian's heaven, namely a happy hunting

ground. A great many hunters, when they returned to Montreal put

up at an hotel run by Mr. Smith (Justus) and no doubt often related

to their hosts stories of their adventures in this unsettled

portion

of the country and told him of the river du Lievre with its succes-

sion of falls and rapids along whose bank a vast forest containing

many kinds of valuable timber which had a commercial value, such,

that if properly managed, meant a mine of wealth for the owner.

meir worthy host was no doubt made ambitious by these glowing

accounts for in 1823 he came to Buckingham and selected a place on

lot No. 11 in range 4 to build a saw mill, and he built a log

shanty

directly behind where Mr. Albert MacLaren's house now stands.

Mr. Smith then returned to Montreal and on his next trip

he brought with him a number of men to aid in constructing the

mill;

they were Mr. Mathews, who came as a clerk; Clement Eaton a mill-

wright; Daniel Dale and Samuel Lough as carpenters; Baxter Bowman,

Patrick McFaul and a Mr. Hall as laborers. me mill was completed

in 1824 Levi Bigelow of Stanstead, Quebec came to

In the year 1824 Levis Bigelow of Stansread,Quebec came

to

the little settlement and built a shanty on Lot No. 10 in 3rd range

and commenced to farm, employing a number of men to make the neces-

sary improvements as the law required upon the lot he chose. This

farm that he cleared was known as the Dugway Farm. He also built

a small store and brought in provisions and goods for his men,

brin@

ing the latter from Montreal to Buckingham first locating in the

Justus Smith came from Montreal. On the 13th May, 1825, the family

of

Bigelow shanty and after remaining there for one year they moved

their belongings in a canoe up to a shanty where Mr. James Maclaren

house now stands.

In the meantime rhe family of Mr. Amos Donnelly came to

buckingham and settled on l.ot lZ, range 5. In 18Z6 Captain Smith

moved his family consi3ting of wife, sister-in-law and son, into a

smaLl log shanty near the mill. Mr. Smlth had also a daughter, but

she contracted measles whi3e coeling from t@ontreal and died, being

buried on what is now Bridge St., in frtDtof there the residence

of Mr. Albert Maclaren now stands.

@he little boy of Eive years also caugnt the measles, but

is stil] livin8 ln the person of Mr. John 0. Smith the oldest resi-

dent of the township today.

In 1825 the fami]y of Issac @endall and Major Corning

came to Buckingham and lived in a house of Mr. aigelow's on Lot 8

in 3rd range for a t[ne, until the year 1827 they moved on a lots

Nos. 14 and 15, range 7. In 1826 James Smith and his sons James@

William, P.odney and John came to Buckingham, settling OD lots Nos.

13, 14 and 15 in range 6; Robert @onnelly accompanied by his wife,

two daughters and grandson Robert Ackert came also in the same year

and settled on Lot 14 in the ?th range; and a few other settlers

came in among whom were John Mar, settling on l.ot 16, in 5th range

and John Price and Mr. Page settling on Lots 21, Z2 and Z3 in the

5th range.

Most of these latter were retired. In the same yesr,

18Z6 Mr. Bigelow built a hone of pop]ar logs OD Lot 10, range 5,

opposite what is now @oss Brothers' Store. de also built a small

store and shoemakers' shop, employing klr. Adam @evenDy as shoe-

maker. About this time Solomon Cole and fami]y came and settled

on Lots 16 and 17 in the 7th range, Elisha Newton settled on Lot 13

in range 8. In the month of April 1827 Captain J. Smith built the

first frame house wilich his son, klr. John 0. Smith now occupies.

llle lumber which composed the building stood in the

foresl

three weeks before tbe family tnoved into ir. AD elm twig fovnd in

a birch stump has become a beautiful elm tree, measuring about

lZ ft. in circumference. @ e fir5t death in the township, 1824,

was that of Mr. Hall who was to level a place upon which Captain

Smith might build his mill. @rhe next death was that of one of the

men a native of Stanstead county, who dies of typhoid fever, and as

there was no conven_ent place to bury him in the settlement he was

buried at the lower end of tt:e clearing near the sand hill on cor-

ner of Lot No. 11, range 4, d place which was after@ards used as a

burying ground, and at the present day there is growing upon one

of the graves a plne tree that is more than 18 inches through.

The firfit suicide was that of Johtl Rainbilt,

millwright,

of St. Andrews, who hanged himself in a moment of temporary in5anit

no doubt brought on by worrylng over money which he had lent and

which he expected to lose. The second suicide was that of Peter

Sullivan, who shot himselr because the girl he wished to marry

refused him.

The first marriage uas that of Patrick McFaul to @artha

Dale, which was performed in Hull, the parties going and coming

in a canoe on the Grand River. In the year 1825 or '26 Marcus

Childs from Stanstead took up land in the township on Lot No. 12,

in range 4, and returning home sent Simedore Noyes and his-@other

Narren, the latter accompanied by his family, to do settlement dut-

ies on his land. The Noyes brothers cleared a large portion of

the hill directly back of where Israel Uewson now lives and built

a log hut, which, if still standing would occupy a space in Mr.

Hewson's garden.

The brothers the first year raised a splendind crop of

corn as there was no way of grinding it, they with Captain Smith,
who also had raised a large crop, drew it with an ox sled to the
Basin, but if in a canoe and started for the nearest grist mill
which was at Hull. They got as far as the head of Kettle Island
the first night and there camped, and early the next torning cont-
inued their @ourney, arriving at Null, somewhat later in the day.
One of the men went up and told Sqr. Wright and he sent down a
yoke of oxen and a sled and drew up their grist to the mill.

When it was being ground the men accompanied by the present
John O. Smith then a little boy, went over to the other side
of the river where Sussex Street in Ottawa now is, and was then
but a path in the bush which had been cut through the cedar swamp.

A large number of men were then working at the Canal, being under
the supervision of Colonel By, from whom the place then derived its
name of Bytown The party after watching the men work, went back
to the mill, getting their grist returned home by the same way they
came. From this time on settlers rapidly came into the township
among whom were numerous Irish who settled in what is now Connaught
They would have suffered a great deal only for Levi Bigelow, who
advanced clothing and provisions for which he did not get his pay
for many years.

About this time Thomas Burke and family came into the
settlement and Levi Bigelow built a house for them to live in
where Mrs. Burke also opened a store. In the same year, 1827, Onisimus?
Larwill, a native of St. Andrews' Quebec, came to Buckingham being
a tinsmith by trade and settled on lot 17, in 2nd range.

Other settlers were a Mr. Jamson who located on Lot No.
in Range 5 accompanied by three sons, Thomas, Adam and William,
settling on Lots ? and ? in range 7. John Pearson from England
with his sons: John, Thomas, William, Daniel and Angus settling
on lot 2 in 7th range, in the year 182? Samuel Lough and Lewis
Dunning settled on Lots 7 and 8 in range 6, now owned by Angus
Cameron and Robert Gorman. In the year 183?, Levi Bigelow built
a large two-storey house across the street from where Ross
Brothers' Store now stands and a small store and office now occupied
by Mr. Wm. Parker.

About this time Levi Bigelow was appointed postmaster
and mail now arriving from Montreal three times a week was brought
by the Steamer Shannon. The first Catholic Church was erected on
Lot 8 in range 4, owncd by Constantine O'Neill . And I think the
first priest was Father Brady. The next church built was a Union
Church and was afterwards occupied by the Presbyterians. The land
on which it was erected was given by Lawrence Bigelow in the year
1837 or 38. Tbe Episcopalian Church was built in 1852, land
being given by Baxter Bowman ior the purpose. Ihe land for parsonage
and burying ground was given by Geo. Eaton, agent for proprietors.
The first settled clergyman was Rev. R.L. Stevenson. The
first Presbyterian mlnister was Rev. Mr. Bell. The first doctor
was Dr. Denis Lemen, the second was Dr. T.M. Ferguson and Dr. d.
Sauve. Previous to the coming of Dr. Lemen, the nearest doctor
was at St. Andrews', Que.

The Hudson Bay Company had a trading post at Lac du Sable
and Sir George Simpson used to go up every winter in his sleigh
drawn by dogs and attended by Indian guides. The Post there was
managed by m OS. Taylor, and was afterwards abandoned and moved to
this place being situated where J. P. Thompson's store now stands.
Mr. Kayior left and Mr. Archibald McNaughton was sent to fill his
place, and he filled the position of manager until the post was
abandoned in Buckingham.

Meanwhile settlers had been rapidly taking up land, and
soon lots Nos. 9 and 10 and 11 in range 4 were set aside as a village
and latterly incorporated as a town. The town and township began
to grow rapidly at the time of the mines and they have continued growing
until now, rhough some say it would be a more enterprising place if
the descend.mts of the old settlers had as much as sticktoitiveness
as their forefathers had.

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