USA > New York > Ulster County > History of Ulster County, New York, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers. Vol. II > Part 17
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upon a more careful study of the situation concluded to re- turn to the Dutch settlement at Saugerties, some eight miles farther north. Hle there purchased the house and store on the corner of Main Street now known as Russell's Block,-to-day perhaps the most valuable piece of land of its size in the town,-and commenced a general shipping and commission business. He bought or advanced on the pro- duce of the surrounding country, which he shipped to the New York market and sold, making his settlements largely in merchandise. He was quite prosperous, and seeins very soon to have been recognized as one of the leading men of the county.
In 1Sil the county of Greene was earved out of the eounties of Ulster and Albany, and at the same time Sau- gerties, theretofore a part of the town of Kingston, was itself incorporated into a town. Mr. Bigelow was elected the second supervisor of the new town, fand was re-elected every year till he took up his residence elsewhere. Upon his application, a post-office was established at Sangerties, and he was its first postmaster. He continued to hold this office also till he moved to Bristol, now called Maklen, about two miles north of Saugerties. The navigation of Saugerties Creck in those days was subject to serious in- terruptious from freshets and shoals, which proved such an inconvenience to his business that after five years' experi- ence Mr. Bigelow determined to go two miles farther north, where he could have his dock privileges and warehouse di- reetly on the river, with plenty of water.
This section of Ulster County had been originally settled by German refugees from the Palatinate, who found au asy- lum from the persecutions of Louis XIV. along the banks of the Ifudson River, between Kingston and Catskill. They were a simple-minded people, living mostly upon the pro- duets of their land, which was but poorly tilled, and upon the fish with which in those days the waters of the Hudson teemned. They had little enterprise, disliked all Yankee novelties, and discouraged what the Yankees considered iur- provements. They rapidly diminished in numbers, their descendants having to a considerable extent disappeared, leaving seareely any durable traces of their existence behind them. The only house in Bristol, when Mr. Bigelow ar- rived there, was an old fish- house, which stood upon the site now occupied by the Malden House.
He had purchased from the heirs of John Wolven, in 180S, a traet of about two hundred aeres, for which he paid six thousand dollars. This land, or most of it, is now the property of Mr. Francis Pigeon. Upou the upper end of this property he built a frame store, on the south side of the road leading to what is now known as the Isham wharf.t He erected for his own use the first dwelling-house in the place, which is now occupied by Jeremiah Parris. Soon after settling there he commenced building the brick store into which he moved in 1814. Four years later he took his brothers-in-law, Charles and Giles Isham, into partnership with him, under the firm-name of Bigelow & Isham. Giles Isham had been his elerk for several years previous. Not long after this partnership was formed Mr. Bigelow withdrew from it, built the stone store on a prop-
t benjamin Enyder was the first.
# This store was afterwards burned.
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HISTORY OF ULSTER COUNTY, NEW YORK.
erty adjoining on the north, that which the firm had accu- pied, and which he purchased from John Van Steen- berg on the 22d day of June, 1813. Its water-privileges constituted its chief value. Here be re-established himself, first alone, and afterwards associated with him his son-in law, Stephen Kellogg, and his two ofdest sons, Edward and David. He here prosecuted a prosperous business till he retired with a handsome competence about 1846.
Though diligent in business, Mr. Bigelow did not forget or neglect his duties to the public. He erected the first two hotels in Bristol; he procured the establishment of a post-office in the place, which led to a change of its name to Malden, and the appointment of one of his clerks, Judson HI. Calkins, as postmaster. He, with his two brothers-in-law, b: re almost the entire expense of construct. ing the first church and parsonage in Malden. Ile procured the charter for the turnpike which naites Malden with the mountain settlements in its rear, and furnished mnost, if not all the money for building it. He also built the first academy in Malden, and the first sloop that was ever con- structed in the town of Saugerties. She was called the " Phoenix," and plied between Bristol and New York.
Mr. Bigelow's habits of business bore the impress of strong individuality, and go far to explain his unin- terrupted success as a merchant, and his influence in whatever community he was a citizen. He never bought what he could not pay for at the time ; he never gave a note in his life, nor endorsed but one, and that he had to pay. It was for one hundred and fifty dollars, in behalf of a rela- tive, and before he left Connecticut. This note is still in the family. Ile often spoke of this as one of the indis- cretions of his youth, but at the same time be regarded the money it cost him as the best investment he ever made, for it cured bim for life of any di-position to use or lend his financial credit. It is needless to say that there was no house on the Hudson in better financial standing.
During the war of 1812 the scarcity of currency com- pelled him to issue his own paper in the form of currency, redeemable on presentation, for the convenience of his customers. The venerable Peter Schutt, who is now oue of the two or three oblest inhabitants of the town of Sau- gerties, says he remembers when the Bigeton " sliepla ters were the only contener in the place," addlings. " Aml we were all glad enough to get them."
Mr. Bigelow was educated in the Presbyterian faith, and during the last twenty years of his life was a consistent professor of religion. Though he had enjoyed the most limited opportunities for education, Mr. Bigelow was so liberally emlowed in every way by nature that he was sure to occupy a prominent place in whatever sphere of life he might be placed. He was about six feet two inches high, and of prodigious strength in early manhood. He died on the 12th day of February, 1850. in the seventy-second year of his age, leaving six children,-Emmeline, who was born in Colebrook, and married Stephen Kellogg, of Troy; Eilward, who was born in Saugerties; and David, John, and Adeline, who were born in Bristol.
Mrs. Asa Bigelow survived her husband three years, dying at her residence in Malden, Sept. 14, 1853, in the seventy-third year of her age.
JOHN BIGELOW.
John Bigelow, the youngest son of Asa Bigelow anl Lucy Isham, was born in the village of Malden and toxy of Saugerties, on the 25th day of November, 1817. II .. graduated at Union College in July. 1835. In Septemb .: of that year he entered the law-office of Bushnell & Gan' in the city of Hudson, where his associate students were F. F. Marbury, Judge Theodore Miller, and ex-Judge Williams 11. Leonard. In November following, Mr. Bushnell form- ! a partnership with the Hon. B. F. Butler, in the city of New York, and Mr. Bigelow decided to try his fortunes at the same time in our great commercial metropolis. H. entered the office of the late Judge Bonney, afterwar.i. concluding his professional studies in the office of the 'are Robert and Theodore Sedgwick. He was admitted to the bar in the month of September, 1838. During the car's years of his professional life much of his time was devoted to literary pursuits. He was an occasional contributor to the New York Review, to the Democratic Review, to the Vr : World, to the Evening Post, to the Plebeian, aud to the Dad's News, all published in New York. His articles on consti- tutional reform in the Democratic Revive during the years 1815-16 were republished in a pamphlet and widely cire's- lated. Shortly after Silas Wright was chosen Governor, in 1844, he appointed Mr. Bigelow one of the inspectors of the State prison at Sing Sing. The late James Powers. .. Catskill, and Benjamin HI. Mace. of Newburgh, were his as- sociates. Mr. Bigelow held this position till, by the opera- tion of the new constitution, the office became elective. in 1847. At no time since the prison was founded had it come soo near being a source of revenue to the State :: during the last year of his inspectorship. Its earnings ia that year were within a few hundred dollars of its expenses. and in the following, under the same management, wou's undoubtedly have exceeded them.
His experience of three years as an inspector at Sites Sing satisfied him and his associates of what it was re- served for the administration of Governor Robinson to demonstrate thirty years later, -- that there was no good rea. son why that prison at least should not be self-sustaining. Mr. Bigelor was author of each of the three annual re- ports unde by the board of inspectors to the Legislatur during his teri of office, which show the processes by which, through discreet and faithful management, thi- prison for a time ceased to be a burden to the State.
In the anti-slavery contest which resulted in the nomine. tion of Martin Van Buren for President by the Free-Soll Democracy. against Gen. Cass, who had the regular party nomination, Mr. Bigelow took a lively interest, and suf- ported the candidature of Mr. Van Buren actively through the daily press. His zeal and efficiency doubtless contrib- uted to procure from the late William C. Bryant an invita- tion to join him in the proprietorship and editorship of th- Evening Post. Mr. Bigclow embraced this invitation, pur- chased one-third interest in that property, and in the month of November, 1849, took final leave of his old profession and entered upon the career of journalism. Ti.c Evening Post thrived rapidly under his management. During the sucereding ten years its net income advanced
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from less than ten thousand dollars a year to about seventy thousand dollars; its opinions became the opinions of a great majority of the nation, and its influence was scarcely second to that of any other journal in the country.
Upon the election af Mr. Lincoln, in 1860, Mr. Bigelow, thinking he had no further occasion to labor for the accu- nulation of wealth, and anxious to execute some long- cherished literary plans, which could not flourish amid the distractions of a journalist's life, sold out his interest in the Evening Post to Mr. Parke Godwin, the son-in-law of Mr. Bryant, and retired to the country home which he had purchased a few years before, near West Point, on the Iludson. He was not permitted to long enjoy his repose. The Rebellion broke out in the course of the succeeding winter, and in August following he was requested by Presi- dent Lincoln to accept the position of consul at Paris, with the understanding that his government should have the benefit of his valuable experience as a journalist, and his familiarity with the language and literature of France, in counteracting, through the French press, the influences operating throughout Continental Europe in favor of a dis- solution of our Union.
During his consulate Mr. Bigelow found such erroneous opinions prevailing in France, in regard to the relative commercial importance of the Northern and the Southern States, that he prepared and published a work designed to convey more correet notions to the French people. It was written in French, and entitled " Les Etats Unis d' Amor- ique en 1863," and was published by the eminent publish- ing-house of Hachette & Co. The book was very favor- ably received by the French press and public, and is under- stood to have had a very important effeet not only in forming the public sentiment in France which ultimately prevailed in favor of the Federal Uninn, and which effectually dis- couraged the supposol desire of the imperial government for its dismemberment, but exerted no inconsiderable intlu- enee in shaping the events which resulted in the overthrow of dynasticism in France and the consolidation of the pres- cut republican government in that country.
In the mouth of December, 1865, the sudden death of the Hon. Wm. L. Dayton ereated a vacaney in the Amer- ican legation af Paris. hamediately upon the receipt of this intelligence at Washington, Mr. Bigelow was uomi- nated charge d'affaires by President Lincoln und unani- mously confirmed by the Senate, without even the usual reference to a committee. At the expiration of only sutli- cient time to ascertain the sentiments of the French gov- erument npon the subject, Mr. Bigelow was nominated Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the same post, aud was again unanimously confirmed by the Senate.
During his official residenec in Paris, Mr. Bigelow was fortunate enough to discover conclusive evidence of the connivance of the imperial government in a plot to furnish the Confederate government with four first-ches iron-clad Elcamers. It was by the judicious use of the testimony he furnished the Seeretary of State that our government was enabled to prevent those formidable vessels from being used by the enemies of the Union. 'The history of the discovery of this lot aud its defeat is said by those who
have heard it to constitute one of the most romantic chap- ters in our national annals.
Next in importance to the defeat of this scheme for making the duck yards of France the basis of military operations against our Union, and the measure which spre- cially occupied the attention of Mr. Bigelow during his mission in France, was the expulsion of the imperial army from Mexico. The termination of the Rebellion, in 1865, brought this subjeet prominently forward and gave it Eu- ropean importance. It was Mr. Bigelow's policy to treat the occupation of Mexico by a French army as an impe- rial or dynastie and not a French measure, and to so mani- fest the opposition of the American government to the attempt of Napoleon to impose dynastie institutions upon a sister-republic as not to wound the pride of the French people or drive them into a support of the imperial gor- ernment in defense of the national honor. In this policy Mr. Bigelow was entirely successful. Without a single written threat, and without the use of a single public ex- pression on the part of the American envoy that could touch the national pride, the emperor found himself obliged to defer to an irresistible public sentiment among his own people, and to withdraw his armies with such precipitation as to eost the life of the infatuated Austrian prince whom he had beguiled into his illomened conspiracy.
With the happy solution of this question all matters of difference between the two governments were disposed of. For the ordinary routine of diplomatie life Mr. Bigelow had no taste, and he availed himself of the first occasion that presented itself to ask Mr. Seward to send him a suc- eessor. This Mr. Seward hesitated to do until the appli- cation was renewed and urged upon him, when he nawied Gen. John A. Dix to the French mission, and Mr. Bigelow returned to the United States.
The gravity of the responsibilities which Mr. Bigelow bad sustained during his official residence in France and the value of his public services were so highly appreciated by the American residents in Paris as to secure to him a compliment on leaving that was never before paid to any American minister. He received from them a substantially nanimous invitation to a farewell dinner, which was given at the Grand Hotel, in Paris, the 19th of December, 180G. The guests numbered about three hundred.
White in France, Mr. Bigelow discovered, and at a great expense became the proprietor of, the original manuscript of Franklin's famous autobiography. On his return to the United States, in 1867, he found, upon a careful inspection of the manuscript, that it had never been correctly printed, but that more than twelve hundred important variations from the manuscript had been incorporated into the received printed version. He devoted a portion of his leisure in pre- paring for the press the correct text of this popular work which he afterwards extended so as to give a complete " biography of Franklin by himself."
From the spring of the year 1870 to the spring of 1873 Mr. Bigelow resided with his family in Germany, for the double advantage of educating his children and watching the progress and consequences of the war between France aud Germany.
In 1874 it was apparent that President Grant was in-
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HISTORY OF ULSTER COUNTY, NEW YORK.
tending to be a candidate for the presidency for a third time if he could secure the nomination. None of the leading Republicans in active politics, however much they disapproved of violating the traditional limitations of the presidential term of office, had the courage to take a pub- lic stand against it. The Republican State Convention, in the fall of 1874, refused 10 express any disapproval of the third candidature, while some of the most prominent leaders of the party actively encouraged it.
It was in this state of affairs that Samuel J. Tilden was proposed by the Democratic party for Governor. Mr. Bige- low was very pronounced in his hostility to a third term ; prepared a history of the Presidential example and national tradition against it,-which occupied more than a page of the New York Tribune of the 14th September, 187 1, -- and he also shared the respect entertained by all parties and all classes of society in New York for Mr. Tilden, whom he had also known somewhat intimately for a period of more than forty years, and with whose administrative views he had always been in substantial sympathy.
Mr. Tildeu was elected, defeating Governor Dix by a majority of over fifty thousand. He signalized the first six months of his administration by a message to the Legis- lature exposing some of the scandalous abuses in the man- agement of the canals of the State. The charges were so startling and so specific that the Legislature ordered a Com- mission of four persons to be appointed by the Governor to investigate the subject. Mr. Bigelaw was requested to accept a place on this commission, with Hon. Daniel Ma- gone, A. E. Orr, and John D. Van Buren, Jr., for his associates. Upon its organization, in April, Mr. Bigch.w was chosen chairman of the Commission. It sat until the oud of the year, during which time it made twelve several reports to the Exceutive and one final report to the Legi-la- ture, so fully sustaining the allegations made in the Gov- ernor's canal message as to lead to a complete reform in the canal management of the State, and to bring down their annual exp. nous three or four hundred per cent. In the autumn of 1575, in recognition of the services of this Commission, Mr. Bigclow was nominated by the Democratic State Convention by acclamation. for the office of Secretary of State, and was elected. He was also solicited to accept. the nomination for comptroller from the Republican State Convention the same year.
Mr. Bigclow spent three months of the summer of 1877 in Europe with Governor Tilden, and since the expiration of his term of office, in the month of December of that year, he has devoted. himself to his farm and to favorite literary pursuits.
Shortly after his admission to the bar Mr. Bigelow pre- pared for the press, frotu the author's notes, Norman's " Travels in Yucatan" and Gregg's " Commerce of the Prairies." In the year 1550, and while editing the Ecen- ing l'est, he gave the fruits of his observations during a four mouths' trip to the West Indies in a little volume entitled " Jamaica in 1950; or, The Effects of Sixteen years of Freedom on a Slave Colony."
During his residence in Germany, in IS71, he addressed an elaborate communication to Sinator Conkling, of New York, setting forth the propriety of having a national cele-
bration of the centennial anniversary of American inde- pemlence and the proper mode of doing it. The publi- cation of this paper in the New York Tribune first brought the subject to public attention, and went far to prepare the country for the notable Exhibition at Philadelphia in the summer of 1876.
Shortly after the organization of the provisional gor- ernment in France, under the presidency of M. Thiers, in 1871, Mr. Bigelow publishedl a book entitled " France and Hereditary Monarchy," the purpose of which was to demon- strate the failure of dynastie institutions to secure the tran- quillity and prosperity of France; to explain the equal failure of all previous attempts to give her people popular institutions ; and finally, to show why she would find the best guarantees of good government in the sovereignty of her people. This book was published by Sampson Low & Co., of London. It was partially translated by Father Hya- cinthe, and republished in Paris.
Mr. Bigelow married Jane T., daughter of Evan and Jane Poultney, of Baltimore, Md., in June, 1850.
CHARLES ISHAM,
son of Samuel and Mary Isham, was born at Colchester, Conn., Aug. 20, 1784. The name is English, and its carly history will be found in " Burke's Peerage." Charles Islam removed from the State of Connecticut into the State of New York, and his father, Samuel Ishan, also cante into the State soon after, and became a most prominent and conspicuous citizen of Ulster County. The latter was the son of John Isham, who was born at Barnstable, Mass., in the year 1720, and removed to Colchester, Conn., where, in 1551, he married Dorothy Foote, and where he died in the year 1802. Samuel Isham was born in Colchester, in 1752; he married Miss Mary Adams, a native of the place, by whom he had six children, -two sons and four daughters. In 1807 he removed to Bristol, on the Hudson, where his two sons and his son-in-law, Asa Bigelow, were already settled. Previous to his re- moval into this State his wife died, and he married a widow, who survived him. Perhaps the leading man in the village of Bristol (now Malden) affer 1810 was Samuel Isham. He was prominent ou account of his age, his per- sonal qualities, and his relationship to the three founders of the village. Ile was a man of strong mind, of great good sense, and one whose opinion was of weight with his neighbors. A> characteristic of him, it is related that in his native town he was the first to pay his taxes, and was one of the carliest subscribers to the Hartford Courant. Sanirel Ishami died in 1827.
Charles Isham, the elder of the sons, moved carly in this century to Ulster County, N. Y .; he first went to Shandaken, where he remained but a short time, when he removed to Bristol, ou the bank of the Hudson River. He married Flora Bradley, a daughter of Judge William Brad- ley, who came from Hartford, to settle on the Hudson, in 1812. About this time he formed a partnership with his brother Giles, under the firm.name of C. & G. Ishaw.
Chat ham
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They built a wharf and store, and innaediately commeneed to build up a business, which at the time of the dissolution of the partnership was one of the largest on the river. The first of a now large bluestone business had its origin at this place. The Ishams became interested in tanning, lumbering, ete., and each year for many years launched a vessel that had been built for them. They had built for them on one of their wharves, which had now become exten- sive, the first propeller which was used for freighting pur- poses on the river, the " Wyoming." They were large land- holders, owning farms of several hundred aeres. The mag- nitude of an undertaking never frightened them ; they were always ready to take hold of any enterprise that looked re- inunerative, never gave notes, always had money to carry out whatever they undertook. The Ishams had a survey made for a railroad to run into Delaware County, and pro- cured a charter from the Legislature for the purpose, but the road was not built.
Charles Isham has six children, three of whom are now living, one daughter and two sons, William B. and Charles H., who continue a business of which the father formed the nucleus in his early tanning operations. His eldest son, Samuel, died in 1865. Giles Ishan, the youngest son of Samuel Isham, and brother of Charles, was born in
Colchester, Conn. For a time he was a clerk with his brother-in-law, Asa Bigelow, but later was a partner in the enterprises mentioned above. He was married to Jane Lilburn, and had nine children, of whom two sons are now living in their native town. The Ishams have been well known on the Hudson River for many years, and that, too, for their industry, enterprise, and strict integrity. One of their first eares had been the organiza- tion of a Presbyterian Church and the erection of a small but tasteful church edifice. The first pastor called to it was Rev. John N. Lewis, who had married a daughter of Col. Edwards, a prominent citizen of the State and neigh- boring county. An academy was built, and Mr. Merritt Bradford, of Connecticut, was seeured to take charge of it and educate their children. Thus these wise builders laid the foundation for a truly prosperous and intelligent eon- munity. There is no more beautiful site along the Hudson River than that selected by these brothers, Charles and Giles Ishamn, and their brother-in-law, Asa Bigelow, for their homes, and for many years uo better one for busi- ness purposes ; it can be truly said of it that it was a lively place.
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