Gideon L. ⁷ BIGELOW

1592C.89      Gideon L. ⁷ BIGELOW, son of Isaac ⁶ ( Amasa ⁵, Isaac ⁴, Isaac ³, Samuel ², John¹) and Lavinia (LOOMER) BIGELOW, was born at Mequon, Orankee, WI on 04 April 1837 and married Harriet L. Loomer on 12 July 1863 at Oakland, Jefferson, WI. Harriet was born 0l June 1840 at Cambridgeport, MA the daughter of Charles and Mary Ann (Rivers) Loomer. When 16 years of age, Gideon went to Rochester, NY to learn the gunsmith's trade. He later returned home and attended Wayland University at Beaver Dam, WI. In 1867, he moved to Tomah, WI and in 1873 to San Francisco. In the late 1880's, he located in San Jose, Santa Clara, CA and was engaged in the sewing machine business. Harriet died at San Jose on 10 May 1912 and her cremated remains are in the Cypress Lawn Cemetery at Colma, CA. Gideon died at San Jose and his remains are in the California Crematory, Oakland, CA.

Children of Gideon and Harriet (Loomer) Bigelow:

1592C.891     Edwin Harvey, b 26 April 1867 Lincoln, Monroe, WI; d 18 Oct 1872 Sugar Creek, Walworth. WI.

1592C.892t   Orville Herbert, b 09 April 1869 Tomah, Monroe, WI; d 29 Oct 1941 Oakland, CA; m (1) Ella "Eva" Virginia Gausline and (2) in 1923 Ruth Bain; 6 children.(see below)

1592C.893    Mary Josephine, b 13 Sept 1870 Tomah; d 18 June 1960 Campbell, CA; m (1) William S. Gardner, div. before 1892, (2) 26 Nov 1892 George N. Richmond; 1 son, Ralph.

15923C.894   Lola Viola Edith, b 17 July 1878 San Jose. CA; d 02 Jan 1884 San Jose.

Sources:
Bigelow Society,The Bigelow Family Genealogy, Vol II, pg 156;
Howe, Bigelow Family of America;
Information from handwritten notes of Gideon L. supplied by descendant;
death certificates and family Bible of Gideon;
correspondence between Bigelow Society historian/genealogist and descendant;
Forge: The Bigelow Society Quarterly; Jan 1989; vol 18, no 1, p 11-12; (see below)
Forge: The Bigelow Society Quarterly; Jan 1985; vol 14, no 1, p 5; below
GIDEON BIGELOW, of San Jose, CA.
Gideon L. ⁷ BIGELOW, son of Isaac ⁶ ( Amasa ⁵, Isaac ⁴, Isaac ³, Samuel ², John¹) and Lavinia (LOOMER) BIGELOW, was born in Meguon, WI on 4 April 1837, the family having recently migrated there from Nova Scotia. At the age of 16, Gideon went to Rochester, NY to learn the gunsmith's trade. On his return to Wisconsin, he attended Wayland University. In 1867 he moved to Tomah, Monroe county, WI, having previously married, on 12 July 1863, Harriet L.   Loomer. In 1873 they moved to San Francisco, CA, where Gideon was in the sewing machine business, but was also occupied with machinery of all sorts. See below for one of his inventions.
Gideon and Harriet had four children, two of whom died in infancy. The surviving son and daughter both lived in the Bay area. Gideon and Harriet later moved to San Jose, where she died in 1912, Gideon in 1927. Gideon's picture is shown above.

     Their surviving son, Orville Herbert ⁸ Bigelow, born Tomah, WI 09 Apr 1869, married Eva Gausline, and they had six sons:

i      Charles Frederick, born ca 1890 San Jose, CA; died 27 June 1950--where?; married 1922 Cleo Reeder.

ii     Herbert, born ca 1892 San Jose, according to family records, but county records state died 21 Sept 1895, age 1 month.

iii    Frank Louis, born ca 1894 Portland,OR (again from family records); death unknown, but buried Portland, OR.

iv   Ray Harvey, born ca 1897 Portland, OR; died 1971 Portland; married Ruth Hoover. 1 son.

v    George Dewey, born 1899 or 1900 Portland, OR; died 10 Sept 1945 Portland, OR; married____1917 Muriel Van Alstyne. At least one son, Louis.

vi Harry James, born 29 June 1914 Portland, OR; married 15 Jan 1937 Martha E. Stone, and divorced after three sons.

Orville died 1941 Oakland, Alameda county, CA; his first wife, Ella Virginia "Eva" Gausline, was born July 1871 in PA and died Oct 1921 in Portland. In 1923 Orville married (2) Ruth Bain.
Above data supplied by family members with whom we have lost contact. Bigelow Society seeks corrections and contact with descendants of this nearly contemporary family. Below is one of Gideon's inventions.

GIDEON L. 7 BIGELOW'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Gideon L 7 Bigelow (lsaac 6 , Amasa 5 , Isaac 4 , Isaac 3 , Samuel 2 , John 1 ) was featured in Forge Vol.
14, No.1, p 15. Now, from descendant Barbara Espeseth of Issaquah, WA, we have a portion of Gideon's
own view of his early life, as written in a notebook in his later years. With some additional punctuation
and paragraphing for clarity, here is the story of his life:
"My mother, Mrs. Lavinia Bigelow, was the daughter of Stephen Loomer and Miss Rand, and their
homes was at Cornwallace[Cornwallis] Nova Scotia. Mother had a brother David who was the oldest and
a sister Ruth who died when age sixteen and several other sisters whose names I cannot remember, and
a brother Abram who was the youngest of the family who moved with his family of wife and several
children to New Orleans just before the Southern rebellion commenced about 1860 and they never was
heard from.
"Father Isaac Bigelow moved with his famly from Nova Scotia in the fall of 1834 by schooner to N.
York and then by the Erie canal as far as Schoharra in Herkimer county NY where they remained until
spring, on account of the canal freezing so the boats could not run. As soon as the boats started in the
spring of 1835 they went to Buffalo and took a schooner and went around the lakes to Milwaukee,
Wisconsin which was first starting Father had an older brother there [DanieI6] who had just built a saw
mill three miles up the Milwaukee River, and they called the place Mechanicville. Father and others
went up the river sixteen miles and took up land and commenced improving it. Some of them moved
their families up with a boat but father waited till the river froze, in the winter of 1836-37, and
moved up on the ice as there was no road.
"Father's eyesight commenced to fail from cattaracks so that he got so he could only follow main
roads to neighbors, and in the fall of 1844 nearly all of the family had the ague and father was sick and
supposed he had the ague the same as the rest, he was able to be up some of the time but one morning he
was found dead in bed.
"I was born April 4th 1837, and can remember when my sister Ruth was married in 1840. When I
was seven years old I walked with the rest of the children to a funeral four miles and a half and back,
and then played around and at night went to bed with my right leg bent up, and it did not get so that it
would straighten for three months. It was called white swelling. Mother blistered it with herbs,
polticed it and at last cured it. But I have always been weakly and when young, sick every few weeks.
"When I was fourteen mother married my father's brother [Gideon6] who lived in Richland county,
Ohio, and I went there and stayed a year and in the fall of 1852 I went to Rochester NY to learn the gun
trade with Wm Billinghurst. I was with him four years, then went back to Wms and worked on the farm
one year and went to school in winter. The next summer I worked at wagon work some and worked
through harvest. In 1859 I worked eight months on [the] farm for my brotherinlaw J.B. Loomer ... Then I
went to Beaverdam to Wayland University four months, and in the spring went to Illinois and worked
three months at $12.00 per month, and then went back to Walworth Co, Wis and worked through harvest,
and then worked six months in a wagon shop.
"After that until 1864 I worked at wagon making for myself, and in 1864 I made a trip east to Nova
Scotia stoping at Niagara Falls and Rochester and went to Ogdensburg and took a boat across the St.
Lawrence river to Canada. Then went on through to Albany and Worcester and Boston and staid a week
there, then took a schooner up the Bay of Fundy to Nova Scotia where my people came from. Visited
relatives till the middle of July and then took a schooner to New York where I stayed two weeks, then
went up Long Island sound to Fall River, and from there to Boston.
"After remaining there several weeks I went back to my sister Ruby's forty-five miles south of
Chicago to visit her and my mother, and my wife's sister Ruth and her husband came there on a visit and
we went home to Wisconsin together-1864.
"In 1863 I married Harriet L. Loomer and lived in Sugar Creek, Walworth co Wis until the fall of
1865. There we moved to Monroe co near Tomah where I had 40 acres of land. Lived there until 1868,
then went to Tomah and started a gun shop, and then and when work was dull put my time in studying
medicine under the instructions of Dr. G.R. Vincent In 1870 I went into the S.[ewing] machine business.
"In the fall of 1873 I came to California, went to work for the Davis S. Machine Co., was traveling ,
agent for them all over the coast from San Diego to British Columbia and Idieha [Idaho} for a number of
years. Then I was traveling agent for the New Home S. Machine co for the coast until 1889. In 1888 I
made a trip of two thousand miles with a team, all over the mountains in the northern part of California.
In 1889 I made a trip with a team sixteen hundred miles.
"My eyesight began to fail rapidly until 1900 when I got so I could hardly see to get around, and I
had one eye operated on, and it was not a success. In 1905 I had another operation which was
successful. In 1909 I was run over by a horse and buggy driven by a woman, which injured my neck,
head, two ribs, and left hip, and lower spine.... Here the journal ends. Gideon traditionally died in
1927 in San Jose, California; we have not found proof.
The marriage of Harriet (Loomer) Bigelow to her brother-in-law Gideon 6 Bigelow'in Aug 1851
clears up the matter alluded to and confirms her status. Gideon's previous wife, Mrs. Mary (McCart)
Bigelow had died in 1850, in Richland County, WI. Harriet Bigelow is supposed to have died in Missouri
in 1872, and been living either with one of her children or step-children, Gideon Bigelow was single and
living with his son Isaac in Richland in 1860. Again, more rigorous census search is called for.
SOURCE:
Journal of Gideon Bigelow, as copied by Barbara Espeseth, with some editing and comments by Patricia Bigelow.

Rod Bigelow (Roger Jon¹² BIGELOW)

Box 13 Chazy Lake
Dannemora, N.Y. 12929

rodbigelow@netzero.net

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