Representative women of New England/Abbie A. Bigelow

by Mary H. Graves

ABBIE ANN BIGELOW, president of the Worcester Branch of the Baldwinsville Hospital Cottages, is a native of Marlboro, Mass. Born August 1, 1837, (laughter of William and Eunice (Wilson) Gibbon, she passed the first twenty years of her life as Abbie A. Gibbon in her childhood's home, leaving school at the age of twelve years to become her mother's helper ABBIE A. BIGELOW in the household cares of a large family. Her grandfather, Samuel Gibbon, was the son of Samuel, Sr., and Lydia Gibbon, and was born April 27, 1759, in Dedham, Mass. He married Abigail Colburn, of Dedham, November 25, 1784, and went to Marlboro in December of the same year. He was a farmer and storekeeper and a prominent citizen of Marlboro, being a Justice of the Peace and Representative in the Legislature. He died January 12, 1833, at the age of seventy-four. His first wife, Abigail Colburn, died in 1787; his second wife, Elizabeth Perkins, died in 1800; and his third wife, Abigail Cogswell, died March 31, 1826.

William Gibbon, above named, son of Samuel and his third wife, was born in Marlboro, Mass., July 25, 1807, being the twelfth of a family of thirteen children. He was a farmer and held many town offices. He was president of the First National Bank of Marlboro, also a charter member of the Marlboro Savings Bank, in which he was a director for many years. He died November 11, 1890, in the room where he was born, having lived all his life in the same house. This house, although two hundred years old, is still in good repair. It •has never been mortgaged, and has had but three owners.

Eunice Wilson, wife of William Gibbon, was born December 1, 1808, in Peterboro, N.H. She was married in 1835, and died October 31, 1890, just eleven days before her husband. Neither of them was ever sick, and both passed away from the infirmity of old age. Their graves are in Brigham Cemetery, Marlboro, Mass., very near the old home and on land once owned by Mr. Gibbon.

Eunice Wilson's parents were William' and Dotia (Smith) Wilson. William' was the son of Major Robert^ Wilson, who came to America with his parents from the north of Ireland in 1737. His father, William,^ settled in Townsend, Mass. Major Robert Wilson married Mary Hodge, of West Carybridge, and went to Peterboro, N.H., where he became a farmer and tavern-keeper. William' Wilson also kept a public house, the Wilson Tavern, a noted place for assemblies and balls and public meetings in his day. The house is still well preserved, and is a well-known landmark in Peterboro.

James Wilson, another son of Major Robert and uncle of Eunice, was born in 1766. He settled in Keene, N.H., and from 1809 to 1811 was a member of Congress, where on account of his great height (being over six feet tall and very large in every way) he was known as "Long Jim."

Abbie Ann Gibbon was married May 20, 1858, to Walter Balfour Bigelow, of Marlboro. He died March 30, 1872, leaving her with two small children. Mr. Bigelow was the youngest son of Gershom Bigelow, of Marlboro, who was born March 22, 1768, and his second wife, Eunice Wilder, who was born in Sterling, Mass., January 13, 1790.

Mr. Bigelow and his brother Charles were shoe manufacturers, having a large factory in Marlboro, and were the first to make shoes by what was called "team work." Burnt out in 1852, they went to New York and made shoes at Sing Sing, employing prison labor. They also carried on the same business at Trenton, N.J., and several other places, including Worcester, Mass., where they were managers of the once large and prosperous Bay State Shoe and Leather Company, whose main factory was there located.

Mr. and Mrs. Bigelow had three children who outlived their earliest infancy: Lawrence Gibbon, born November 23, 1866; Ralph Olin, born July 21, 1868, who died in 1871; and Isabella Francis, born December 27, 1869.

Lawrence Gibbon Bigelow was educated in the public schools of Worcester and the Highland Military Academy, where he was graduated in 1882. He has been a member of the State militia, having enlisted as a private in Battery B, of Worcester, and been successively promoted till he became Captain, serving in that rank ten years. He married Fannie Davis Clark, of Worcester, October 9, 1889, and has one daughter, Gretchen Bigelow, born November 4, 1890. Isabella Francis Bigelow was married October 31, 1900, to Allan J. McFarlane, of Newtonville, Mass. They have one son, Harold.

Mrs. Bigelow has lived in Worcester for the past thirty-three years. She is a member of St. Mark's Episcopal Church. In addition to her home duties she has found time for many outside interests. She is a member of the Worcester Woman's Club and a charter life member of the Worcester Y. W. C. A., also of the Y. M. C. A. Woman's Auxiliary, in both of which societies she has held offices. The presidency of the charitable society known as the Worcestf»r Branch of the Baldwinsville Hospital Cottages for Children, its purpose being to aid that benevolent institution, Mrs. Bigelow has held for four years and, as indicated above, still holds. For the same length of time she has served as treasurer of the Woman's Christian Temperance Union of Worcester, remaining in office at present writing (November, 1903).