rodbigelow@netzero.net
Child of John Milton and Sarah (Crooks) Bigelow, born at Albany, Albany, NY:
15599.4221 Albert Stewart, b 08 Dec 1874; d
25
Nov 1876.
Sources:
Bigelow Society,The Bigelow Family Genealogy, Vol II, pg 401;
Howe, Bigelow Family of America;
records of Bigelow Society historian/genealogist.
John M. Bigelow, M.D., Ph.D., was born in
Albany on the 32d day of August, 1S47, and descends from one of the
oldest and most respected families in American colonial history. His
ancestors migrated from Braintree, Essex county, England, and settled
near Boston, Mass., soon after the landing of the Pilgrims in 1620.
From that time until the present they have been conspicuous in
professional, commercial, civil, military and social affairs, many of
them holding high official posts in the array, the State and the
nation. They were especially prominent in developing the early history
of New England and in shaping the destinies of the Massachusetts
colony. Among Dr. Bigelow's ancestors are Dr. Jacob Bigelow and Dr.
Henry J. Bigelow, D.C.L., of Boston; Hon. John Bigelow, secretary of
state; Harriet Beecher Stowe, the famous authoress ; and Hon. Alpheus
Bigelow, justice of the Supreme Court ; and many who were active as
soldiers, officers or civiUans during the war of the Revolution. On his
mother's side he is of pure German stock, being a descendant of Jacob
von Zimmer, a general in the army of Frederick the Great, who settled
in America in 1732. Another famous ancestor was Frederick Basslaer, a
professor in the University of Berne, Switzerland, who came to the
United States in 1740. The late T. S. Doolittle, D.D., LL.D.,
vice-president of Rutgers College, was also connected with the family.
Dr. Bigelow's great-great-grandfather. Dr.
Josiah Bigelow, of Weston, Mass., was born in 1730 and died in 1810,
and was a prominent physician, as was also his son. Dr. Uriah Bigelow,
of Worcester, N. Y., who was born in 1765 and died in 1842. His
grandfather, Dr. Uriah Gregory Bigelow, sr., of Worcester, and son of
Dr. Uriah, was born in 1794, married Miss Henrietta Barnes in 1816,
became a member of the New York State Medical Society, and died in
1850. Dr. Bigelow's father, Dr. Uriah Gregory Bigelow, jr., was born in
Worcester, N. Y., in 1821, married Lovina von Zimmer in 1843. settled
in Albany in May, 1844. and died here in February, 1872; he was at one
time president of the Albany County Medical Society, curator of the
Albany Medical College, member of the New York State Medical Society,
and was one of the leading physicians of the city.
Dr John M. Bigelow inherited the sturdy
characteristics and rare mental endowments of this splendid ancestry,
and ably represents the fifth of five generations of talented
physicians and surgeons. From early youth he has worked assiduouslv,
first, to secure an education, and afterward to practice those
principles which hard And continued study enabled him to master. He was
graduated from the Albany Boys' Academy with full diploma in 1863 and
won several prizes, among them the Van Rensselaer classical medal. In
1864 he entered the junior class of Williams College, where he made
rapid progress in his studies, and from which he was graduated with the
degree of A.B. in 1866. Soon afterward he began the study of medicine
at the Albany Medical College and later entered the College of
Physicians and Surgeons of New York city, and received the degree of
M.D. from each institution in 1870. He became a practicing physician in
Albany, by license in 1869.
Dr. Bigelow was among the first physicians in
the United States to make a specialty of diseases of the throat and
nose, in the treatment of which he has had a wide and valuable
experience. There are few practitioners in the State who are better
known or enjoy a higher reputation. His work in colleges and hospitals
has been varied. He was professor of materia medica and therapeutics
and of diseases of the throat and nose in the Albany Medical College
from 1870 to 1896, when he resigned the former chair to devote his
attention to the latter. He has been attending physician to the Albany
City and St. Peter's Hospitals since 1870, and the Old Men's Home
•since 1874, and is now attending physician and surgeon for the
diseases of the throat and nose to each of these institutions. In
therapeutics he is a recognized authority in this country. His
lectures, which are mainly extempore, embody the most advanced and
tenable thoughts and facts of the science and art of medicine of the
present age, and the remark is often made that they have the finish of
a book. They are certainly combined with and illustrated by a long and
successful practice, and are remarkable for their command of language
and clear, concise presentation of the subject. His connection with the
Albany Medical College has been of inestimable value to that
institution and to the hundreds of students who have pursued their
professional education under his able and conscientious teachings.
Dr. Bigelow was county physician in 1871, has
been president, and for twenty-seven years a member of the Albany
County Medical Society, and is a member of the New York State Medical
Society and the American Medical Association. He has been a member of
the International Medical Congress, was one of the honorary presidents
of the Pan-American Congress, and is a member of the Phi Beta Kappa and
Alpha Delta Phi college fraternities, and of Masters Lodge No. 5, F.
& A. M., of Albany. He is a life member and ex-president of the
Young Merl's Association, an honorary member of the Albany Burgesses
Corps, a charter member of the Albany Club, an associate member of the
Albany Press Club, a member of the Unconditional Republican Club, and
an honorary member of several other organizations. In March, 1893,
Rutgers College conferred upon him the degree of Ph.D.
On February 14, 1874, Dr. Bigelow was married
to Miss Sara A., daughter of the late Thomas P. and Amelia T. Crook, of
Albany, where she was born January 11, 1848. She died September 21,
1879. Their only son and child, Albert Stewart Bigelow, died November
26, 1876.
rodbigelow@netzero.net
