Horace Holly ⁸ BIGELOW

Horace Holly (8) Bigelow (1827 - 1911)

Children of Horace H. and Adelaide (Buck) Bigelow:

15182.4291     Adelaide  Frances,  b  24  Dec  1860 Marlborough; m 23 June 1886 George A. Stevens.

15182.4292t    Irving Ellsworth, b 11 Nov 1862 Trenton. NJ; d_1939 Worcester; rn 17 Nov 1887 Lillian A. Drennan; 4 children.

15182.4293t    Francis "Frank" H., b 09 Feb 1875 Worcester; d _____ 1950's??; m Edith Jordon; 3 daughters(see below)

Sources:
Bigelow Family Genealogy Vol II , p 327;
Howe, Bigelow Family of America; p 412 plate^;
miscellaneous sources and biographies.
Descendant notes:

New Note 01/17/06:
Hi Rod,
My great great grandmother was Mary Howe Bigelow, sister of Horace Bigelow of Worcester and White City. I have been told that he commissioned portraits of his five sisters (Electa, Cordelia, Mary, Anne and Ada) and that they hung in his roller skating rink at White City. Was it called Bigelow Gardens?
In 1982, the portrait of Electa was owned By Marjorie Field, late of Oregon. The portrait of Mary was owned by Dr. Richard Evans of Cleveland, and the portrait of Cordelia hung in the house where she lived and later owned by Willard Wheeler in Berlin, MA.  I have often wondered where Anne and Ada are! I have old Polaroids of the pictures of Electa and Mary. I would love to hear from anyone with more information about the portraits, and Mary Howe Bigelow in particular.
Regards, Bill
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William Drury                                   Opera
Chelmsford, MA                              Railroads
wdrury@alum.mit.edu                      Genealogy
http://mysite.verizon.net/vzeowl81/

New Note2:
Subject: Janice Bigelow
Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 12:49:54 -0500
From: "zephreny parmenter" <zephparm@hotmail.com>
 Bigelows, Howes, Parmenters, Rices, Taintors and Cashmans all came in through Boston in the 1600's. Grandma's father was  John Bigelow of the Northborough/Marlborough area, and he practiced architecture. Her mother was a Howe
(my great great grandfather was Horace Bigelow, an entrepaneur and social liberal who owned a shoe factory in Worcester Ma. He instituted profit sharing in his company, built the White City amusement park in Worcester and later donated it's electric generating plant to the city).  Her first husband was a Murray (2 children, Anne and Margie) and her second was Paul Parmenter (2 kids, Dan- my father- and John, in CA now). She and grandpa Paul were distant cousins, the Bigelows and Parmenters having known each other since at least the 1750's if not longer. My father Dan Parmenter married Kathleen Loughman (pron "Lockman"), the Loughmans being from MA (Cape Cod) and NY (the Bronx- my great grandfather was a military man and moved a lot. He was high ranking officer in the Navy and a set a record for
the deepest sea dive in about 1913). I'm ashamed at  the moment to say I can't remember much about the Bigelow line beyond John Bigelow, although I do know family tales dating back to the French and Indian War.
Zeph

In the spring of 1861, Horace Holly Bigelow and his wife Adelaide E. Bigelow were enjoying their first child, daughter Adelaide F. Bigelow, who had been born in Marlborough, Massachusetts the previous December 24th. The baby was undoubtedly very welcomed by 33 year old Horace and his 23 year old wife of two years. Horace previously had been married to his first cousin Lucy Anne Howe, but she had died childless on September 25, 1857.

Horace had worked as a shoemaker for many years. He learned this trade from his father Levi in the family's home shoe shop. Early on Horace's creativity allowed him to invent heel pressing and nailing machines. With his entreprenurial talents he was able to build a substantial business in this industry. In fact, he is credited with laying the foundation of the mass-production shoe making industry in Massachusetts, and at one time owned a plant in Worcester which employed some 500 workers. Soon his shoemaking business had branches in New York and Rhode Island.

At Gettysburg, Pennsylvania in that spring of 1861 the Civil War broke out. As the fighting intensified, ever greater demand was placed upon manufacturers to meet the needs of their armies. In the North, the very high demand for shoes for soldiers prompted Horace to develop a shoe manufacturing facility in a New Jersey state prison to help meet that need.

At the outbreak of the war the North soon realized that it's capitol in Washington, D.C. was very vulnerable to attack from the forces of the South just across the Potomac River in Virginia. A 24 year old citizen-soldier, Colonel Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth, is credited with quickly organizing a regiment of New York City firemen to take on the defense of Washington. Ellsworth had studied law under President Lincloln and was highly regarded by him.

Soon after arriving in Washington, Colonel Ellsworth was given the mission of capturing Alexandria, Virginia. Upon entering Alexandria, Colonel Ellsworth saw the Confederate flag still flying over the Marshall House Hotel. With reckless bravery shown by many at the outset of the war, he ran to the rooftop and tore down the Confederate colors. Returning to the ground floor with the flag draped over his shoulder, he was gunned down by the furious owner of the hotel, James Jackson. Ellsworth's companion in this emotion charged attack was Corporal Francis E. Brownell. Brownell killed Jackson and then managed to escape with his own life. Colonel Ellsworth was the first Union officer killed in the war, and the story of his death had a profound effect on Horace and Adelaide Bigelow.

For a time Horace and his young family were living in Trenton, New Jersey where he oversaw the prison shoe manufacturing facility. While there, Adelaide and Horace's second child was born on November 11, 1862, a son whom they named Irving Ellsworth Bigelow in honor of the fallen Union hero, Colonel Elmer Ephraim Ellsworth.

For five generations the middle name Ellsworth has been passed down. The youngest to receive this distinguished name is Vance Ellsworth Bigelow, son of Derald Ellsworth Bigelow, son of Chester Ellsworth Bigelow, Jr., son of Chester Ellsworth Bigelow, Sr., son of Irving Ellsworth Bigelow, the son of Horace Holly Bigelow who started this legacy.

Hi,
My name is Michael Perna Jr and I live a short distance from where the White City Amusement Park once was.  I came across your site and thought I would e-mail you to let you (& your family) know about a book I wrote, published in 1998 - "Remembering Lake Quinsigamond - from Steamboats to White City".
There is a great deal of information on H. H. Bigelow and a whole chapter on White City.
 If you think anyone might be interested in this book, I can furnish a bit more detail.
 Thanks!

< rodbigelow@netzero.net > 

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