Ebenezer Bigelow (1774 - 1858)

Born 3 Feb 1774 in Cornwallis, Kings, Nova Scotia

Ancestors

Husband of Nancy Anne (Rand) Bigelow — married 28 Apr 1803 (to 19 Dec 1854) in Cornwallis, Kings, Nova Scotia

Descendants

Died 1 Jun 1858 at age 84 in Kings, Nova Scotia

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Biography

Ebenezer Bigelow was born in 1774 to Amasa Bigelow and Rosina Cone. He married Nancy Anne Rand in 1803 and had six children. Ebenezer owned a small shipyard at Oak Point, Kingsport. He built a ship every year of his adult life. He died at Kings County, Nova Scotia and was buried at Habitant Cemetery.

The Bigelow Family

Following is a description of the Bigelow Family Fonds held at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia.^[1]

The Bigelow family was involved in shipbuilding in the Kings County region of Nova Scotia for five generations. Amasa Bigelow (1755-1799) arrived in Cornwallis c. 1762 with his New England Planter father and became a ship’s carpenter, later operating a sawmill on Deep Hollows Mountain. He married Roxana Cone in 1775. The eldest of their eleven children, Ebenezer (1776-1860), established a shipyard at Oak Point, Kingsport, where he designed, built and sailed a variety of small vessels. He was married in 1804 to Nancy Rand, with whom he had six children.

Ebenezer Jr. (1815-1899) followed in his father’s footsteps and in 1838 established his own shipyard in Canning, Nova Scotia. Over the next fifty years he was the master builder on 67 ships, from 12-tonne sloops to the 1164-tonne Arbela, designed by his son Gideon.

Ebenezer, Jr. married Waite Sanford in 1834 and had 10 children, three of whom (John, Gideon and Samuel) joined him in the Bigelow Shipyard, eventually taking it over after his death in 1860. They in turn were joined by Ebenezer, Jr.’s grandsons, Scott and Halle, whose vessels included 4 tern schooners and one steamship, the Brunswick (1909). The last ship built in the Bigelow Shipyard was the Cape Blomidon, which was launched in 1919.

Sources

1. ↑ Bigelow Family Fonds Bigelow Family : accessed 17 Jan 2019

• Howe, Gilman Bigelow. Genealogy of the Bigelow Family of America: From the Marriage in 1642 of John Biglo and Mary Warren to the Year 1890. United States: C. Hamilton, 1890. pp. 217-218 https://www.google.com/books/edition/Genealogy_of_the_Bigelow_Family_of_Ameri/lcEKiggzDaEC?hl=en&gbpv=0
• Vital Statistics of Nova Scotia 1763-1957
• Canada Census's
• The Bigelow Society [[1]]
• Bigelow Family Genealogy, Vol 1, page 279-280
• Information from the Dalhousie University Archives
• hhennigar.ca Person ID I99237
• Ancestry.com ID 30835656
• Bigelow Society Ebenezer Bigelow : accessed 17 Jan 2019