EARLY DAY MANSIONS

No. 42—Harry A. Bigelow

By MARGARET PITCAIRN STRACHAN

Early in the '70's the northwest corner of Fourth and Pike was referred to as "Harry's Frog Pond" by the friends and relatives of Harry Bigelow. Although Harry didn't object to their mirth at his expense, he himself didn't envisage Fourth Avenue as we know it today with the Bigelow Building on that northwest corner, and thousands of persons passing the site daily. To Harry at that time it meant a nice spot to build his home at some future date.

Harry A. Bigelow was born November 1, 1848, in Hillsdale County, Mich., the son of Townsend and Diana H. Bigelow of New York. At the age of 16 he went to Illinois and enlisted in the Ninth Illinois Cavalry, serving in the Army of Tennessee until the end of the Civil War. His army experience led him to decide that the greatest possibilities of the country were in the Far West.

Harry came to Seattle with his sister, Anna Bigelow Horton, and her family (this was the Julius Horton family) in 1869, when he was 20 years old. They came west by the Union Pacific Railroad to San Francisco and then north on the sailing vessel Marmion. Henry built his home on Third Avenue between Spring and Seneca. It was in this house, September 22, 1873, that Harry was married to Emma Hall.

Emma Hall Bigelow was the daughter of Sarah Crane Hall and Walter B. Hall, who came west in 1870 with Sarah's father, Daniel Crane, as described in the Crane article last Sunday. Emma was born in Indiana, December 20, 1853.

When Emma arrived in Seattle she applied for a teacher's certificate and her first school was at Black River. Some of her teacher's certificates are today in the possession of her daughter, Lillian Bigelow Boyd. One, dated May, 1871, reads: "The undersigned having examined Miss Emma Hall in orthography, defining, reading, writing, English grammer, and being satisfied that she is of good moral character, finds her to be entitled to a certification of qualification to teach a common school in School District No. 11. O. Carr, Supt. Comm. Schools, King County, W. T."

One of the men from Black River would ride into Seattle on horseback, bringing a horse for Emma to ride, and she'd go with him to her school, boarding out there during the week with one of the homesteader's families. On pleasant days the ride would be beautiful, with Mount Rainier rising in the distance. They might see Indians in the woods, gathering bark, roots or berries. But there must have been many days when it was a long, wet trip, with the rain soaking Emma's full skirt as she rode side-saddle.

When Harry's brother-in-law, Julius Horton, bought land on the Duwamish River, Harry had done likewise. During 1876 the Bigelows lived on their farm and Harry raised hops, just as Julius did. Lillian was born in 1874. Emma used to hurry through her housework, leave the baby in Harry's care, or at her brother-in-law's, and paddle a canoe across the Duwamish to teach school. After teaching all day she would paddle back.

The certificate issued to Emma that year is written in fine script, and says: "To the Directors of School District — You are hereby authorized to employ Mrs. Emma H. Bigelow to teach for a term of four months, she having been duly examined according to law. John H. Hall, Supt. Com. Schools."

The Bigelow portion of the hop farm was sole to Abram Manderville in 1877. The following year Harry entered the employ of Schwabacher Brothers and was sent to Neah Bay to trade with the Indians. He bartered groceries and clothes for sealskins.Harry learned to speak Chinook and acted as interpreter for the Indians.

At that time stock for the store was brought to Seattle by boat and, after unloading it, the men carted it to the store by wheelbarrows. They would work until midnight, pushing the barrows along the planked streets flanked by their wooden sidewalks.

Harry took charge of the old Tacoma Mill Company's store in Tacoma in1880 and operated it three years. On his return to Seattle he built a house on the northwest corner of Fourth and Pike Streets on the "frog pond' lots he had bought back in the early '70s. Seattle was growing slowly. There were more than ?000 persons in town.

It was in 1880 that Emma Bigelow had her second child, a son she named Clair. Six years later a second son, Earl, was born. Clair died in 1927, but Lilian and Earl still live in Washington—Lilian at Auburn and Earl in Seattle. They recall the horse cars running on Pike Street, and the street being covered with heavy planks. Lilian remembers her mother sang in the choir of the First Presbyterian Church on the corner of Third and Madison Streets.

The Bigelows used to go on parties on sailing ships to Port Blakely, and they had such good times on these occasions that Mrs. Bigelow loved to reminisce about them years later.

Charlie Throndike has an amusing member of Harry Bigelow in the early '80s. Harry at that time was head clerk for C. P. Sont's grocery store, and Charlie was cashier. Every Friday night they put up the sugar in 20-pound packages for Saturday's rush. There were 16 men working at the job, two to a barrel. Charlie and Harry always paired off together. They had a contest each time, and the last ones to empty their barrel had to pay for the lunch for the entire group. Harry was very tall, so he did the shoveling while Charlie weighed the sugar. THanks to Harry's extreme height they were never stuck, Mr. Thorndike says! But a tiny clerk name J. W. Hughes was stuck every time!

While living at Fourth and Pike, Harry was on the police force and rose to the rank of captain. In 1890 he was appointed deputy United States marshal by President Harrison and for three years was chief deputy in this state. After retiring from this office he engaged in the real-estate and brokerage business until 1897.

Harry, his son Clair and brother-in-law, Walter A. Hall, sailed for Dawson, Yukon Territory, by way of St. Michael, during the gold rush. Low water in the Yukon River prevented them from going as far as they'd planned, and they located near Rampart City in American territory. After a year's prospecting they obtained an interest in 21 claims.

When he decided to return to Seattle, Harry and three other men embarked in a rowboat and traveled day and night to cover the 1,000 miles to St. Michael, where they took a steamer to Seattle. They made the trip in the rowboat in 12 days.

For several years Harry again carried on a real-estate business. In 1901 he became one of the incorporators of the Queen Oil Co., with valuable landed interests in Kern County, California. When he health began to fail he went abroad. He died in Carlsbad, Austria, July 28, 1907. His wife lived until August 30, 1922.

There is no furniture left today from the house on the corner of Fourth and Pike, because the family rented the residence furnished when they moved to one of the Crane homes on Fourth between Madison and Spring Streets about a year before the fire of '89.

Although Mrs. Boyd was just a girl at that time, she remembers that the means of heating the old house was by stoves in each room. There were the usual double parlors, a center hall with its long stairway, a large dining room and kitchen. Upstairs there were four bedrooms. Mrs. Body recalls playing with her china-head dolls in the back parlor, going to school at the Central School at Sixth and Madison Streets.

Source: "Seattle Times" ⁷⁶⁰⁸