Forge Vol 22; No 1

William Sturgis ⁸ BIGELOW  AT TUCKERNUCK ISLAND  Part II

Tuckernuck Island was a place where Dr. William Sturgis BIGELOW and his contemporaries could join in spiritual contemplation as personal mysticism became a way of life for them. The journey to Tuckernuck in the early 1900's was in the nature of a pilgrimage. A train from Boston to Woods Hole, then a sidewheel steamer made the three-hour trip across Nantucket Sound. Landing at the wharf, they would pile their luggage into a box wagon and were driven to Madaket, thence to proceed by boat to Tuckernuck. Here, in the quiet of a summer day they were in a world of their own choosing, self-isolated from the world at large.

One of Dr. BIGELOW's most intimate friends, George Cabot LODGE, expressed the philosophy of this group of young Bostonians when he wrote:

We loved too much for prayer or praise
The golden reach of noontide sea,
We loved the large tranquillity
Of flowing distances and days,
In calm, dark sunsets of the blaze
Of moonlit waves, the ecstasy
And spacious thoughts of liberty
Thrilled us in deep and purest ways.

BIGELOW had some remarkable guests, among them were Senator Henry Cabot LODGE, his son George C. LODGE, Henry ADAMS, Bishop LAWRENCE, John LaFARGE, Charles Warren STODDARD, Dr. Wier MITCHELL and Theodore ROOSEVELT. While the latter came as a friend rather than as a devotee of spiritualism, he found the island well worth his visit.. Perhaps the common bond which united these men of diverse accomplishments was a sympathy for "Bill" BIGELOW's concern for human values.

BIGELOW made his concern clear when, in the course of a lecture on "Buddhism and Immortality," which he gave in 1908, he stated: "Each man carries in himself the conditions and limitations of his own universe, and it is for him to say how large that universe shall be."

Seated on the porch of his Tuckernuck home, gazing at the peaceful life of the island, watching the shorebirds swooping, or witnessing one of the golden sunsets when the sun drops quietly in a molten sea, Dr. BIGELOW felt the tranquillity of his thoughts strengthened by his surroundings. "This world the preparation for immortality."

He was the descendant of a famous medical family, on the one hand and of a daring maritime merchant on the other. Perhaps this admixture of diverse inheritances contributed to his conscious application of the Buddhist philosophy to his everyday life.

BIGELOW had a New England conscience, in that he felt a definite duty to his ancestors. Wealthy through inheritance, both in money and brains, he was continuously seeking some way to justify his existence. What his ancestors had gained materially, he sought to gain culturally. Some of his friends felt, as did Henry JAMES: "Sturgis is like everyone else, bound to find Paradise in this world... He looks for Paradise in absorption in the Infinite...When Sturgis...suddenly realizes that Paradise is a dream, and the dream is over, I fear that he is too sensitive a nature to stand the shock..."

But, as Lawrence W. CHISHOLM observed in his outstanding biographical sttudy: Fenollosa: The far East and American Culture, Dr. BIGELOW was seeking more than Paradise: "Illusion or not, Buddhism provided BIGEI,OW with justification for his insignifigance in a world which was passing him by."

Where such contemporaries as Henry JAMES and Oliver W. HOLMES Jr. gained reputation and prestige, BIGELOW was content to pursue his own destiny in his own way, and that way had taken him to the isolation of Tuckernuck. The island provided a perfect proving ground not only in its natural environment but in the character of its few inhabitants. Capt. Thomas SANDSBURY, of the Life Saving Station, helped BIGELOW with various additions to the "West End House . The ex-whaler, Capt. George E. COFFIN, a neighbor, had his own experiences to offer, and Marcus DUNHAM, fisherman and life-saver, could talk at length on the verities of the practical life. Miss Anne RING, the schoolteacher, could discuss with BIGELOW the poetry of BROWNING as well as dwell on the mysticism of the Catholic Church, while Mrs. BROOKS, with her generous nature, could bake an apple pie or blueberry tarts to remind him of the joys of the table. Edward BARRETT became his dependable boatman.

Writing in a semi-diary, in 1904, Dr. BIGELOW described the great September gale of the 18th: "It blew hard from the southeast all night, and about 7 a.m. began very hard. The first thing to go was the vane, bumping, crumbling down the roof. The house was shaking like a tent. Next one of the 'twins' (an outhouse) blew over forward and rolled down the bank. then a little lull; then a black squall started over from Muskeget, due northwest, tearing the tops off the waves in dense clouds which did not fall back into the water. Then it struck the house and for a few minutes it was impossible to stand. The west door of the washroom blew open, the door of the middle room to the kitchen burst open and everything blew off the stove; pots, pans and kettles. The windmill wobbled and revolved slowly, but never lost a slat."

For over half a century, Dr. BIGELOW kept track of the almost constant erosion of Tuckernuck's north and west shores. "very heavy surf...6 to 10 feet cut off the bank," he noted in 1904. "The last of the road around Robert's lot went, leaving about a foot to squeeze by on. Ed BARRETT says he paced it five years ago-96 paces from the corner of the fence to the bank. The smallest loss in any one year since was 10 paces; the largest 39." "The bank is cutting away fast. (1907) Miss HILL is to have her house moved this year to the mouth of North Pond." In the following year: "About 70 feet of bank cut off. Charley BROOKS gives it eight years to the corner of the tennis court. I guess six".

George Cabot LODGE, the son of Senator Henry Cabot LODGE, was as close a friend as BIGELOW could hope to enjoy. In the late summer of 1909, LODGE was stricken while visiting Tuckernuck, and before medical aid could reach him, he died. He was only 35 years of age. Thc tragedy struck BIGELOW deeply, and during the next two years he traveled in Europe. In Paris he suffered a serious illness. In early July 1912, he was back at Tuckernuck. But something of the spirit which had so marked his days, and had been woven with the companionship of his friends, had vanished. "It is inexpressibly sad here, since 'Bay' (LODGE) left, he wrote in 1912.

With the erosion of Tuckernuck's western shore came that inevitable day when the BIGELOW house was, in part, moved and the rest dismantled. By this time Dr. BIGELOW had died, and where, he once sat to survey a world of sunlight sparkling on the sea, filled with the scent of bayberry, from island thickets, and made musical with the songs of birds, the land had vanished. Upon his death his ashes were taken to Japan, to be buried close to the temples of Kyoto, where his friend Fenollosa had studied. In that art connoisseur's poem, "East and West," there is predicted the ultimate union of east and west, and that the beginnings of such a union will be through art. But, in Dr. BIGELOW's concept, the initial linking of the two segments of early powers might be through the merging of the minds, with the process of thought serving as an alchemy to break down the forces arrayed by prejudice.

It is said of William Sturgis BIGEl,OW that his true character was in the pursuit of his conviction that man's highest qualities lay in the range of his spiritual analysis. This was no self-centerod man. He lived in the hope that the freedom of man's spirit would bring right to the world.

The grandson of John LaFARGE, L. Bancel LaFARGE, now owns that portion of the BIGELOW house moved to another site, as well as some of the personal possessions of the man.

In George Cabot LODGE's poem "Tuckernuck," dedicated to "W.S.B." (William Sturgis Bigelow), the concluding lines sound a requiem for both men:
We loved too much for song or speech
The star transcendent loneliness,
And in its silent tenderness
Of hearts thrown open each to each
We found the perfect peace that brings
A foretaste of eternal things.

CONTRIBUTOR: SOURCE:
John E. BIGELOW of Wellesley Hills MA.
1) CAPE COD COMPASS, Vol. 25, 1972; page 88:
NANTUCKET'S VANISHING LOAF, By Edward A. STACKPOLE
Portions and photo reprinted w!th permission of Yankee Publishing, Inc.

RELATED ARTICLES:

1) FORGE; Vol. 20, No. 3; July 1991: page 60-61:
WILLIAM STURGIS BIGELOW, FRIEND TO PRES. THEODORE ROOSEVELT (BIGELOW-PRATT GOLD COIN)

2) FORGE; Vol. 2; No. l ; January 1973 page 5:
LIBRARY SEEKS BIGELOW PAPERS (on 3 generations of Doctors: Jacob Scollay BIGELOW, Jacob Henry BIGELOW, and William Sturgis BIGELOW)

3) HISTORIC NANTUCKET, July 1979; page 16:
NOTES ON TUCKERNUCK, By Diana WALKER (copy in Bigelow Library)

Article above scanned from:
February 1993 FORGE: The Bigelow Society Quarterly; Vol. 22, No. 1

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