In 1916 and 1917, Margaret Bigelow went to Honolulu, Hawaii by boat to teach at the Korean Girls’ Seminary, established by Syngman Rhee in 1916 in the Puunui area on the island. The school was to improve the educational opportunities for the daughters particularly of those working on sugar plantations in the area. These photographs…
Many Olympia families took to campsites in the summertime for fun, recreation, and get-togethers. The images on this page show a beachfront shack that the Bigelows repaired to in the early 20th century summer. Digitization and posting of these images from the Bigelow House Collection funded through the Pendleton & Elisabeth Carey Miller Charitable Foundation.…
Living close to Budd Inlet and Priest Point Park, the Bigelow family enjoyed waterfront activities. These images are iconic snapshots of water sports that many families around Olympia enjoyed during the summer. Digitization and posting of these images from the Bigelow House Collection funded through the Pendleton & Elisabeth Carey Miller Charitable Foundation. ©Bigelow House…
The Bigelow children enjoyed a wide variety of friends and social activities. The images on this page show some of the many get-togethers they experienced as young adults in the early 20th century. Digitization and posting of these images from the Bigelow House Collection funded through the Pendleton & Elisabeth Carey Miller Charitable Foundation. ©Bigelow…
Daniel R. Bigelow claimed and was granted 160 acres under the Oregon Donation Land Law. The property included a spring which remains flowing on the property. Daniel and his wife established the “Bigelow Orchard” and raised a variety of crops and livestock, according to early agricultural census records. The property had a variety of outbuildings…
The Bigelow House, listed on local, state and national registers of historic places, was built by 1860 and is a fine example of the Carpenter Gothic style. The house, which was restored in the 1990s, retains the signature elements of the style on the exterior. The house interior features authentic furnishings and artwork as well…
Margaret Stewart was born in Ohio in 1819, the daughter of Ann McLaughlin (1795-1847) and Reverend William Stewart (1794-1885). Margaret married William Nathan White in Illinois in 1835. William Nathan White came over the Oregon Trail in 1850 and Margaret White followed in 1851. After living in Oregon and then Chehalis area, they moved to…
Mary Ann Campbell Bigelow 1913-2005 Mary Ann Campbell married Daniel Sylvester Bigelow in 1935 and moved into the Bigelow House sharing it first with Margaret and then for many years with Ruth and her husband. It was not until Ruth’s death in 1950 that the family lived in the entire house. Mary Ann and Daniel…
Daniel Sylvester Bigelow 1911-2005 Daniel Bigelow was the oldest child of George Royal and Edith Sylvester Bigelow. He followed in the family tradition of law, graduating from the University of Washington Law School. He worked for the State of Washington. He married Mary Ann Campbell in 1935. They had four sons: George, John, David and…
George Royal Bigelow 1881-1961 The youngest of the D. R. and Ann Elizabeth White Bigelow family attended Tacoma High School (with Margaret) and Ohio Wesleyan University before graduating from the University of Washington Law School. He married Edith Sylvester (1881-1973) in 1910. They had four children. He was a long- time attorney in Olympia, including…
Richardson Lee (Ray) Bigelow 1873-1967 Ray Bigelow married Belle Knox (1878-1927) in 1900. They had one child. Ray was working as a dairyman in 1910 and he worked at Sloan Shipyards in Olympia in World War I. He was later an insurance agent and built the Bigelow Apartments in 1922 and continued to manage them…
Ruth Bigelow 1860-1950 Ruth worked at the Territorial Legislature as a “Messenger” in 1879 and was attending Union Academy also in 1879. She passed teacher exam that same year. It is unclear if she taught locally. She married Albert Wright (1860-1953) in 1910 at the Bigelow House and lived her entire life there. The Wright…
Duncan Jotham Bigelow 1871-1945 Duncan Bigelow attended the Olympia Collegiate Institute, graduating in 1892. He later owned a large dairy farm on land near Bigelow Lake where he had an award winning herd and also farmed in South Bay. He married Sarah Markham (1872-1965) in 1893. Duncan Bigelow also ran unsuccessfully for Thurston County Sheriff.…
Margaret Bigelow 1878 -1937 Margaret was the youngest of the Bigelow daughters. She graduated from Tacoma High School and taught in several schools locally. She later graduated from Ellensburg Normal School, attended Ohio Wesleyan University and later attended Columbia University and secured a Master of Arts there in 1914. She returned to teach in Olympia…
Evaline Bigelow 1858-1959 Evaline attended the Union Academy and taught in schools in several areas of western Washington before her marriage to William Bonney (1856-1945) in 1882. Both William and Evaline were active in the Washington State Historical Society, where William was a curator. The Bonneys had two children who lived to adulthood. Zaidee (high…
Tirzah Bigelow 1855-1927 Tirzah was the oldest of the Bigelow children. She attended Union Academy, founded by Daniel Bigelow, and taught in the Olympia and Tacoma area. She married the Union Academy Principal, Miller Royal (1852-3?-1910) in 1877 and they had two children–Ethel Royal Hardman and Bonnie Royal Gastra. Tirzah and Miller were later divorced…
Daniel Richardson Bigelow 1824-1905 Daniel Bigelow was born in New York and graduated from Union College in Schenectady, New York and read law at Harvard before coming west in 1851 via the Oregon Trail to Portland, Oregon and then north by ship to Olympia. Active in politics, he was a member of the first Territorial…
The Bigelow Family After their marriage in 1854, Daniel Richardson and Ann Elizabeth White Bigelow raised a large family at the Bigelow House. Click on individual pages in the Bigelow House Photograph Collection to see images of family members, mostly at the Bigelow House and at other important events in their lives. There are also…
