Oliver Bigelow (1759-1817)
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Dr. Oliver Bigelow, a surgeon in the American army during the Revolutionary War, left his mark in several states, and is best known as the founder of Johnstown in Licking County, Ohio.
Oliver was born December 23, 1759 in Colchester, New London County, Connecticut. He was the son of John and Hannah (Douglass) Bigelow. He became a physician by the ancient method of apprenticing to an older physician. During the Revolutionary War, he went aboard the British prison ship Jersey as a volunteer prisoner in order to attend the captured American prisoners. Washington Irving in his multi-volume biography of George Washington does mention the presence of a surgeon on a prison-ship. Bigelow’s name does appear among Vermont military records from which he served. Today his name appears on his grave marker, on the stone noting “Bigelow Park”, and on the street marked “Bigelow Drive” at the MacDonalds' restaurant. At one time, Main Street was named Bigelow Street. After the Revolutionary War, Oliver Bigelow graduated from a medical course and for a short time he practiced medicine in Goshen, New York. The Bigelows, Gardners and other families had traveled there after the desolation of the Wyoming Massacre that took place in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania on July 3, 1778. After the Revolutionary War, Oliver Bigelow was one of a number of Connecticut residents who settled in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, where he is listed on the 1790 and 1800 censuses. While in Pennsylvania, he at age twenty-six married on January 25, 1786 Esther Harding, daughter of Stephen and Amy (Gardner) Harding, also Connecticut natives. Esther was born in Colchester, New London, Connecticut on April 13, 1759. Shortly after 1800 the Oliver Bigelow family settled in Tompkins County, New York, at Lansing which is now part of Cayuga County. Here their seventh child Harriet was born July 2, 1809, ending Esther’s twenty years of childbearing at age fifty. President John Adams had deeded land to John Alston Brown in payment for military service during the American Revolution. On December 7, 1810, John Alston Brown of Boone County, Kentucky, deeded a four thousand acre tract of land to Oliver Bigelow for $10,000 or $2.50 per acre. |
Children of Oliver and Esther Harding Bigelow:
Nancy Anna Bigelow Gibbs Born: 1789 Luzerne Co., Pa Died: 1870 Tompkins Co., NY Esther Bigelow Walling Born: 1792 Luzerne Co., PA Died: 1856 Bremer, IA Oliver Bigelow, Jr. Born: 1794 Luzerne Co., PA Died: After 1850 Sabra Bigelow Born: 1797 Luzerne Co., PA Died: 1817 Genoa Co., NY Lydia Bigelow Born: 1798 Luzerne Co., PA Died: 1874 Lansing, NY Eunice Bigelow Born: 1801 Luzerne Co., PA Died: 1816 Johnstown, Ohio Harriet Bigelow Johnson Born: 1809 Tompkins Co., NY Died: 1840 Tioga Co., NY 
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Since Oliver with his brother John held large land claims in Ohio, they wished to locate their families to that new state. In 1811 Oliver Bigelow, a doctor and Revolutionary War veteran, comes to the area. He planned to build a town and began mapping streets, alleys, a town square and a cemetery.
Oliver's wife had a brother named Elisha Harding and he served as Oliver’s attorney when he was purchasing land that would become Johnstown. In 1813 Oliver Bigelow finished laying out this little village and decided to donate the streets and alleyways and the public square at the southwest corner of what today is West Coshocton Street (U.S. Route 62) and Main Street (State Route 37). In addition he donated property for a burying ground (Bigelow Cemetery) for the Johnstown residents. All assume that he named the town after Johnstown, New York but more than likely he named it after his father and brother both named John. Apparently Oliver and his family spent some time in Licking County, Ohio. Dr. Bigelow became the first practicing doctor of medicine in the village and even served as mayor. His daughter Eunice, almost fifteen years old, died in Johnstown on April 16, 1816. She was one of the early burials in Bigelow Cemetery. In 1817 the Old Colonial Cemetery (now Bigelow Cemetery) was deeded to the village whose population is fewer than 100. On November 5, Oliver Bigelow, aged fifty-eight, died and wass buried at this village cemetery. His executor was Elihu Bigelow, son of Oliver’s brother John and his heirs were brother-in-law Elisha Harding, son Oliver Bigelow, Jr., wife Lydia Bigelow, daughter Nancy Bigelow Gibbs and her husband Garret G. Gibbs. Oliver’s widow and children returned to their home in Lansing, New York, where they lived for many years. Esther died May 20, 1838. First born Anna married Garrett Gibbs and died June 20, 1870 in Lansing, New York. Esther married Peter Walling and died March 6, 1856 in Fredericksburg, Bremer County, Iowa and was survived by two adult children. Oliver Jr. was listed as head of his family in Lansing, New York in 1850. Sabra, unmarried, died in Genoa, Cayuga County, New York on May 10, 1817. HIs daughter Lydia was unmarried and died June 20, 1874 at Lansing, New York. The youngest child Harriet marriesd William T. Johnson and died in Owego, New York on May 24, 1840. |