It took three one week trips to clean and clear out the old house at 5 Bigelow Road in Westport over the past year. My brother Bruce and his son Kyle were there for the first week, I was solo for the second and my wife Kim with me for this third and final trip. Being vacant may or may not have caused the kitchen sink to burst and the 4 inch copper septic pipe to corrode and crack which led to a flooded basement. I swept, wet-vacuumed and fan-dried all to a satisfactory state. Kim packed up clothes and emptied and organized the file cabinet. We found the family silver(plate), Galen’s State quarter-dollar collection and several rifles, one a 100+ year old “gallery-style” Model 1906 Winchester .22 caliber repeater. From it’s age I suspect it once belonged to a youthful Theodore Roosevelt Bigalow.
Clearing out the old tools from the basement with local handy man and contractor John Sprague we also discovered a hidden metal box packed with Dad’s Korea-era Army insignia, nudie cards, dice, military pay script, spent bullets and casings. Pretty funny actually. Great job of hiding it from three sons while they grew through puberty.
There were at least another 100+ oil paintings that had been taken off their stretcher bars, rolled up, and numbered with descriptions. We carefully packed them up into bins purchased at the Ticonderoga Walmart, as well as an entire bureau dresser drawer full of labeled and cataloged photographs, many corresponding to the rolls of paintings. All of that now resides in off-site storage here in Atlanta. I have plans (and hopes) of unrolling and photographing all to post on this site should anyone be interested in owning an original Galen Bigelow in the future.
We also packed up the remaining stretched and barn-wood framed oil paintings in the house. We gifted the large historical copy paintings Dad did for practice to the folks who helped us empty the place. Hopefully the contract for sale will go through this week and the proceeds go towards my mother’s assisted living expenses here in Atlanta.
We were surprised (and pleased, albeit with mixed emotions) to discover that the old farmhouse had been demolished with mother nature retaking the property quickly. The place had stood for 200+ years and in recent years had been slowly decomposing, housing feral cats. Ruth was the last of the clan to live there. In less than a year it is now a mound of grass and stone, with little to no evidence of the 50+ Bigalow souls who farmed the land, raised live stock, bridled horses, rigged farm equipment, rode in carriages and sleighs, hunted venison, ice fished on the lake, canned vegetables for the long winters, drank Port and Canadien Rye, cut and stacked firewood, cuddled in the cold and slept for over two centuries.
Galen Edward Bigelow 
Hello Tom
Gail Smith Whelan here. To explain who I am: Charlotte (Lottie) Bigelow was my grandmother. She married William Curtis Bartholomew. I have his diary starting in 1913 and running until 1955. Lottie and Will had 3 children, Eldie, Blanch and William Glen. My mother was Blanch who died in ’92. She married my father, Maynard Smith from Springfield,Vermont, in ’34. I was born in ’36. My brother Curtis was born in ’45.
I remember learning to ride bareback on old Peg on that farm when I was 9 years old.
I’m the historian in our family and just received knowledge of your blog from Ira Smith. I, too paint and write and asked if my artistic genes might have come from the Bigelow’s. He referred me to your site with your father’s wonderful paintings. Some of them are so realistic that they remind me of photographs. I shall look at them again, to be sure. IRA says that Galen is the only one that has aware of who paints.
I see that you live in Atlanta, site of recent political ruckus. So glad to see the results. It is a new day. God bless us all.
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Nice to virtually meet you Gail. I believe that the “artist gene” sources from the Bigalow side for certain. Joseph was a shoemaker and made wooden zoo animal toys for the children. I know this because I remember my grandparents having some at their old house. Especially an old elephant with real ivory tusks. My youngest brother David, deceased, was quite talented as well as myself. I did editorial cartoons in my hometown weekly newspaper growing up, went to Art School (as did my daughter) and started in the Ad Business as a visualizer (drew storyboards for TV commercials). I founded my own ad agency in Atlanta in 1985 (www.bigelow.co) and have since retired. I still do freelance creative, mostly animated video projects, which have been a great diversion over the pass 4 tumultuous years. My wife and I are proud to have done our part to help turn Georgia blue this last election and we look forward to better, brighter days ahead.
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