JOHN BIGELOW OF UNION

Page 5

Forgotten First Citizen

# 16312.74 John⁷ Bigelow, son of Asa⁶( David⁵, David⁴, John³, Joshua², John¹) and Lucy (Isham) Bigelow, was born at Malden-on-Hudson, Ulster, NY on 25 November 1817. He is known as "The Forgotten Citizen" as he had an outstanding career as a lawyer, editor, appointed by President Lincoln to be Consul at Paris (1861); in 1864 from Charge d'Affaires to Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Napoleon III.

A wordsmith gets his due

Papers of 19th-century Union College grad who went on to fame and died in 1911 to be shown by school
By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer
Published 11:31 p.m., Thursday, December 15, 2011

Annette LeClair, librarian and head of technical services for Union College's Schaffer Library, right, and digital projects assistant Matthew Connolly, left, unwrap a plaster death mask from 1911 of Union College graduate John Bigelow, in the Special Collections storage area of the library on Tuesday Dec. 13, 2011 in Schenectady, N.Y. Bigelow was a founder of the New York Public Library, consul general to Paris for President Abraham Lincoln and a friend to Charles Dickens and other literary figures. An exhibit marking the centennial of his death begins in the library on Dec. 19. (Philip Kamrass / Times Union )

SCHENECTADY — John Bigelow transferred to Union College as a junior in 1834 and quickly established himself as one of the nerviest, wordiest and brightest students on campus. He was a bookish fellow who grew extravagant side whiskers and hunkered down among the library stacks. Itching for an intellectual tussle, he engaged his volatile disposition in heated arguments about literature, philosophy and politics of the day with classmates, professors and even the president.
     When he didn't receive any honors at commencement, he left town in a fit of pique. Success apparently healed young Bigelow's wounded ego on his way to becoming a protean figure in 19th-century American letters. Bigelow built an illustrious career as a lawyer, a prolific author and editor; and co-owner of the New York Evening Post with poet William Cullen Bryant. He was President Abraham Lincoln's minister to France during the Civil War, a founder of the New York Public Library, a political operative and a bon vivant who befriended presidents and literary lions.
     On Monday, to mark the centennial of Bigelow's death on Dec. 13, 1911, at age 94, Union College librarians are honoring the notable alumnus with a display of some of the 4,000 books from his personal library and 20,000 letters descendants donated to his alma mater. At 80 linear feet, it is the largest collection of correspondence and materials ever given to Union since the school's founding in 1795. It rivals the volume of the Bigelow papers at the New York Public Library.
     Under the direction of systems librarian David Fuller and the aid of student interns, the entire collection of letters is being digitized in a searchable database that is expected to go online in February. An event will be planned around the database unveiling. They'll invite Bigelow family members, who still live in Bigelow's mansion in Highland Falls, near West Point. Bigelow also had a townhouse in Manhattan on tony Gramercy Park, a gift from friend Samuel Tilden.
     "Bigelow is an amazing figure who deserves to be better known," said library Annette LeClair, head of technical services and a prime Bigelow booster. "The online database will bring Bigelow into the digital age and to a much wider audience. His family appreciates our efforts."
The exhibit at Schaffer Library will also include Bigelow's typewriter, a Blickensderfer 9 made in Stamford, Conn. with an oaken carrying case. They'll also display a plaster death mask cast of his craggy, angular face.
     Bigelow was a teetotaler and health fanatic who believed in the curative powers of watermelon. Library staffers will toast him Monday on the 100th anniversary of his death with slices of melon. "I've come to admire him for many reasons," LeClair said. "The array of people who knew him, respected and corresponded with him is remarkable."
     Letters written to Bigelow came from a constellation of famous writers such as Charles Dickens, Mark Twain and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and political figures including Theodore Roosevelt and William Howard Taft.
     "Dear First Citizen," began a Dec. 28, 1909, letter from Twain, who thanked Bigelow for a condolence letter he sent after the death of Twain's daughter. "In some future day I shall ring at your door at 1 o'clock — without previous notice — and claim a refreshment." He signed it "Sincerely, affectionately S.L. Clemens."
     The letters offer windows into pivotal moments of history, such as the letter that Thurlow Weed, publisher of the Albany Evening Journal and a Republican political adviser, wrote to Bigelow after Lincoln was assassinated. "Are we not in the midst of a Revolution?!! The President Dead," Weed wrote. "I believe that Seward will survive, but he has suffered through two fearful ordeals."
     Bigelow held just two elected positions in his long career — Secretary of State of New York and Inspector of Prisons at Sing Sing — but through writing and lobbying he influenced significant legislation and public works.
     Bigelow's fingerprints were all over maneuvering behind the U.S. acquisition of rights to build a canal through Panama instead of Nicaragua.
A typed letter marked "personal" from Teddy Roosevelt at the White House on Jan. 6, 1904, began: "I am so pleased that you liked my message on Panama," Roosevelt wrote.
     The trove of letters have produced a kind of "Bigelow effect," wowing students who have worked to organize and digitize them."His letters give you a good sense of what was going on in political affairs during his lifetime," said Matthew Connolly, who graduated with a writing degree from Ithaca College in May and who perused the letters to produce 40 short biographies of Bigelow's associates for the database.
     Bigelow initially was allied with the Democratic Party and was strongly opposed to slavery. He broke with Democrats in 1855 when they supported the extension of slavery into Kansas, and switched parties. He became a savvy Republican Party operative sent to Paris by Lincoln to sway public opinion and encourage the French to support the Union blockade of Confederate ports.
     LeClair was rendered nearly breathless when she articulated the qualities she came to admire in Bigelow."He was a critical thinker with a wide breadth of interests and he also had a high level of personal integrity," LeClair said. "It sounds kind of corny, but he was the type of student Union hopes to educate, an idealistic young person who sees education as a means of service." The collection includes a volume of Bigelow's diary. The final entry was dated Dec. 6, 1911, a week before his death. He reminisced about his time at Union. He looked back not in anger, but in gratitude.
Reach Paul Grondahl at 454-5623 or pgrondahl@timesunion.com.

Bibliography:
Clapp, Margaret A., Forgotten First Citizen: John Bigelow (1947; repr. 1968).
Howe,Bigelow Family of America; Biographical Encyclopedia of U.S.
Times Union Article

John Bigelow of Union

Modified - 12/21/2011
(c) Copyright 2011 Bigelow Society, Inc. All rights reserved.
Rod Bigelow - Director
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Rod Bigelow (Roger Jon¹² BIGELOW)

Box 13 Chazy Lake
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