"A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of the City of
Seattle and County of King, Washington." New York and Chicago: Lewis Publishing
Co., 1903.  p. 244.
 
ISAAC N. BIGELOW

     Isaac N. Bigelow, one of the builders of the city of Seattle, is a native
of King county, Nova Scotia, born on the 13th of May, 1838. He represents one of
the oldest families of this country, tracing his ancestry back to John Bigelow,
who emigrated from Essex county, England, to Massachusetts, in 1630. He was a
freeholder and a select man of Watertown, a member of the Congregational church
and died on the 14th of July, 1703, at the age of eighty-six years. His son,
Samuel Bigelow, born in Watertown, in 1653, was proprietor of an inn and one of
the influential men of the community. He served as a sergeant in the militia and
represented his town in the general court. His will bears date 1720. His son,
Isaac Bigelow, born in Watertown in 1691, held a commission from the governor as
sergeant of the colonial militia and his death occurred in 1744. His son, Isaac
Bigelow, Jr., the next in line of succession, was born in Colchester,
Connecticut, on the 4th of May, 1713, and removed to Nova Scotia, where he
received land grants from the government for settling there, but later he
returned to Colchester, Connecticut, and reared his family there. He died in
1792. His son, Amasa Bigelow, the great-grandfather of our subject, was born in
Colchester, Connecticut, in 1755, was a ship carpenter and lost his life by
accident in 1799. He married Roxana Cone and their son, Ebenezer Bigelow, was
born in Cornwall, Nova Scotia, about the year 1779. The latter married Nancy
Rand in 1804 and died in 1860. He was also a ship builder and became a very
prominent representative of that department of industrial activity. His son,
David Bigelow, the father of our subject, was born in 1813, married Martha
Jane Weaver, and died in 1847, at the age of thirty-four years. He had
learned the ship-builder's trade under the direction of his father, carried on a
large and successful business and was highly esteemed by all who knew him.
His wife departed this life in the fifty-ninth year of her age. She was the
mother of seven children, of whom four are living, three being residents of the
Pacific coast, namely: H. Allen of Oakland, California; Rebecca, who is living
in Seattle; and the subject of this review.
     Isaac N. Bigelow obtained his education in the public schools of his native
town and in early life learned the carpenter's trade. For a number of years he
was engaged with his brother Benjamin in ship-building and remained in the east
until 1875, at which time he came to Seattle, where he became identified with
the business interests of the city as a contractor and builder. His marked skill
in that vocation and his honorable business methods soon secured him an
extensive patronage, whereby his labors became very profitable. As his financial
resources increased he made extensive investments in real estate and purchased
and platted what is known as Bigelow's addition to the city. He also platted
Bigelow's second addition and the Lake Union addition, all of which have become
greatly improved, being transformed into residence districts of the city. Both
before and since the great fire in Seattle in 1889 Mr. Bigelow has been
extensively engaged in building in this city, his labor in this direction,
however, being largely the improvement of his own property. He built and owned
one of the largest sawmills north of San Francisco but later, selling his
interest in the property for thirty thousand dollars, he invested that amount in
the Seattle Dime Savings Bank, of which he was the president and principal
stockholder for four years. At the expiration of that time he was obliged to
suspend, but he has the gratification of having paid one hundred cents on the
dollar. Honesty has ever been one of the salient features of his character and
no one can say aught that is detrimental concerning his business life. He has
erected many residences on his property and also built the Bigelow block on Pike
street and another large building on Second avenue and Union streets. He is now
living retired with a good competency and makes his home in a nice residence at
No. 912 Queen Ann avenue. He is an active and valued member of the
Congregational church, in which he is serving as a trustee and deacon and also
as superintendent of the Sunday-school. He takes an active and acceptable part
in all church work and his labors in that behalf have been very effective. He
has also contributed in large measure to the improvement and progress of Seattle
and obtained the first street railway franchise. He also secured the paving of
Pike street with brick and in many ways has contributed to the substantial
improvement of the city; He is a Master Mason, having been made a member of the
craft in Nova Scotia in 1863.
     In the same year Mr. Bigelow was married to Miss Emeline Davidson, also a
native of King county, with whom in youth he attended the same school. Their
union has been blessed with two sons and a daughter: David E., a mineral expert
and assayer now in Cedoras Island, Mexico; E. Victor, a Congregational minister,
now serving as pastor of Elliott church, in Lowell, Massachusetts; and Clara M.,
who is at home with her parents. Rev. Bigelow is a graduate of Washington
University and also of Yale College and has taken a post-graduate course in
Harvard College. Mrs. Bigelow, like her husband, is actively engaged in church
work, and both are most highly respected by a host of friends in Seattle. His
purpose has ever been commendable, his actions manly, his conduct sincere and
above all his life has been influenced by a sense of conscientious obligation
concerning his relations to his fellow men and his duties of citizenship.


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Submitted to the Washington Biographies Project in October 2008 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.