The Zimmerman Papers
Page 1
I received an E-mail and later the following from a Richard Zimmerman
on his research.......................ROD 2008
Subject:Samuel Bigelow update
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2007 21:30:45 -0500
From: "Richard H. Zimmerman" < rhz1415@starpower.net >
Last week, I completed an extensive update of the Samuel
Bigelow family, of which you saw an earlier version last fall, and this revision
ios attached. I trust that the new information may be of interest to you
and may fill some of the gaps that were left in the earlier version I prepared.
I have included documentation for the move of Samuel to Ohio from Connecticut,
apparently beginning in 1832 and first to Trumbull County rather than to
Portage Co. as thought earlier. There is also a hint about a Conn family
in Salisbury.
I appreciate your work in making a tentative connection
for Samuel to Jonathan (5). I am troubled by one point listed in Volume I
of the Bigelow genealogy regarding this connection. It shows that Eunice
(12169.2) was baptised 24 Sep 1793, whereas Thomas Coleman (12169.2)
and Samuel (12169.3) were not baptised until 7 May 1797. I wonder why Samuel
was not baptised until 1797 if he were born as early as 1785 when an assumed
younger sister was baptised nearly 4 years earlier?
When I was checking the land records for Ellsworth Twp.
of Trumbull (now Mahoning) Co., Ohio, I discovered that there was a second
Samuel Bigelow listed. This Samuel Bigelow lived in Middletown, Middlesex
Co., Connecticut, and the three transactions recorded for him were done on
June 18, 1804. For all three transactions, Samuel's ownership is traced back
to the Connecticut Land Co., a company formed to purchase the land from the
state and then sell it. On one parcel, Samuel acquired title to the land
in 1794, although the land itself was not surveyed until 1796. The whole
enterprise was rather speculative since the amount of land was considerably
overestimated, since the maps of the time showed the south shore of Lake
Erie running east-west rather than the true northeast-southwest. As a result,
much of the land anticipated and included in the sale was on the bottom of
Lake Erie! Some investors lost a consideerable amount of money.
Anyway, this Samuel is clearly not my ancestor and I've
not located him in Volume I, although my search was not as complete as it
could have been. The indications in the land deeds are that he owned as much
as 5,000 acres of land in Ohio so must have been somewhat prosperous. If
we assume that he was at least 30 when he purchase land in 1794 (actually
probably older), then his birth date was almost certainly before 1764. A
possibility might be 12959.
If you would like copies of any of the property deeds,
I will be glad to send you copies.
One way forward regarding my ancestor Samuel would be to locate land records
for Salisbury in the period 1830-1836. I assume that he owned land there
and also that he probably sold it in order to purchase the land in Ohio and
also some later in Michigan. If the records are available and go back far
enough, it might be possible to determine if he had inherited land and from
whom. This could be a promising approach if the records still exist.
With kind regards,
Dick
Samuel Bigelow Family History
Richard H. Zimmerman
18 April 2007
The Bigelow family consists of the descendants of John
Biglo (1617-1703), who emigrated to Watertown, Middlesex County, Massachusetts,
from England in 1635. He was a blacksmith. He married Mary Warren in Watertown
on 30 October 1642 and they had 13 children, of whom 11 reached adulthood
and of whom 10 had children.
In early 1989, I corresponded regularly and intensively with Patricia Bigelow,
who was the genealogist of The Bigelow Society. Unfortunately, she died 7
May 1989 before we had a chance to fully explore the connection between Samuel
Bigelow and John Biglo. Pat was convinced that Samuel was a descendant of
John, probably the 6th generation and probably through Jonathan, second son
and second child of John and Mary Biglo. However, the connection has still
not been made.
1 Samuel Bigelow was born in Connecticut, possibly
Hartford, at some point between 1775 and 1800. He is mentioned in G.B. Howe’s
1890 work, Genealogy of the Bigelow Family of America, in which the information
was supplied by his grandson, George (see 1.5.1 below). In his account, Samuel
was supposed to have been born in 1776, the sole child of this marriage,
his father died soon after and his mother, Mary Lyman Bigelow, then married
a man named John Conn and raised a large family. I have been unable
either to confirm or to discount any of this information. However, a Robert
Conn is recorded on the 1820 Census for Salisbury, CT, and is the second
person listed after the entry for Samuel Bigelow; the age listed indicates
that he could have been a sibling of Samuel. Since U.S. Census records for
1810 through 1840 recorded only a range of years for those enumerated, it
is only possible to estimate birth years ,but from these one can deduce a
birth date for Samuel anytime between 1775 and 1800. Census records for 1850
(age 65) and 1860 (age 75) indicate a birth date in the latter half of 1784
or the first half of 1785. His tombstone seen in July 2003 indicates that
he died 23 December 1863 at age 81, indicating a birth date in 1782.
The Census records show that he lived in Salisbury, Litchfield
Co., CT, in 1810, 1820 and 1830 after which he is recorded in Streetsboro
Township, Portage Co., OH. Pat Bigelow indicated that he moved to Streetsboro
in 1833 (Forge: The Bigelow Society Quarterly, 17(2):27,30; 1988).
However, he bought three parcels of land in Trumbull (now Mahoning) Co.,
OH from three different owners in late 1832 and early 1833. The deed for
the first purchase of 81.1 acres (lot no. 8) in Ellsworth Twp. was dated
20 Nov 1832, the deed for the second purchase of 79.8 acres (lot no. 1) in
Ellsworth Twp. was dated 23 Nov 1832 and the deed for the third purchase
of 57.12 acres (part of lot no. 36) in Berlin (Twp.), is dated 1 Feb 1833.
Samuel Bigelow is referred to as a resident of Trumbull Co. in deed #1, from
Ellsworth Twp., in deed #2, and from Berlin, in deed #3. [Berlin Twp., now
part of Mahoning Co., is adjacent to the Portage Co., line, and Ellsworth
Twp. is the next one east of Berlin Twp., towards Youngstown. (Deed #1
from Jacob and Catherine Andrews of Stark Co., OH, to Samuel Bigelow dated
20 Nov 1832; deed #2 from Daniel and Elizabeth Coit of Norwicj, New London
Co., CT to Samuel Bigalow dated 23 November 1832; deed #3 from Thomas and
Sally Mather of Middletown, Middlesex Co., CT, to Samuel A. Bigelow dated
1 Feb 1833)
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Rod Bigelow
Box 13 Chazy Lake
Dannemora, N.Y. 12929
rodbigelow@netzero.net 
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