Bigelow-Shaw Family Papers

Levi Bigelow was born in 1773 to David Bigelow (1730-1810) and second wife Deborah Heywood Bigelow (1736-1823) in Worcester, MA. David Bigelow was married twice and had 12 children, though not all survived into adulthood. David was a trained carpenter and later became a Unitarian deacon. He also served as a selectman and representative from Massachusetts to the Convention to ratify the Constitution of the United States.

Levi Bigelow married Nancy Goodhue (1782-1811) in 1803. She was one of 8 children of Doctor Josiah Goodhue (Jr.) (1728-1797) and first wife Rachel Burr (1758-1813). Details of their children are as follows: Charles Frederick Henry Goodhue (1783-1855) was a member of the Canadian Parliament. Elisabeth (Betsy) (b. 1788) was married to the prominent Amos Twitchell (1781-1850), a doctor based in Keene, NH. They did not have any children. Josiah Cosmore Goodhue (1796-1848) studied medicine at Union College in Schenectady, NY and was involved in the establishment of the first hospital in Chicago, IL. He married Catharine Dunn and had 9 children. William Sewell Goodhue (circa 1798-1826) studied law at Union College, graduating in 1816. He next attended Yale, graduating in 1818 with a medical degree. He practiced medicine, law, or both in Alabama and was a candidate for governor there at the time of his death. George Jervis Goodhue (1800-1873) was a member of Canada's Parliament and twice married with 7 children. Harriet Amelia Goodhue (1801-1868) married Levi Chamberlain, a lawyer of Keene, NH, and had 3 children. In the previous generation, Nancy's paternal grandfather Josiah Goodhue Sr. (1728-1797) was a Congregational minister who graduated from Harvard in 1755 in the same class as John Adams. He helped to train Nathan Smith, founder of Dartmouth Medical School.

Levi Bigelow and Nancy Goodhue Bigelow moved to Putney, VT, and later resided some years in Quebec, where he owned a lumber and mercantile business. Their children were Laura (1804-1809), Elisabeth (died young), Lucius (1806-1841), Lawrence (1810-1867), Nancy Howard (1808-1878), and Levi (Jr.) (1814-1843). Lawrence married Elizabeth Henry (1810-1853) and they had 10 children, though some did not survive into adulthood. Their daughter Elizabeth Twitchell Bigelow (1845-1925), married to Amos Cooper, is referenced in the collection. Levi (Jr.) studied medicine and practiced in Keene, NH.

George Bradford Shaw was born in Dummerston, VT on February 14, 1800. He was the youngest son of Bela Shaw and L. Smith. The family also included Bela Shaw Jr. (1887-1865), Asa Shaw (b. 1791), Nancy Shaw (1794-1849), and Alanson Shaw (1795-1826). Nancy Shaw married the politician William Cahoon (1774-1833) in 1817 and had family of 8 children. Notable details of these children are as follows: George Clinton Cahoon (b. 1798) (son of Sarah Perry Lawrence (b. 1768)) married Mary Ripley Baylies, descendant of the founder and first president of Dartmouth College. Harriet Helen Cahoon (1822-1893) married Nicholas Baylies Jr., brother of Mary Ripley Baylies. Edward Augustus Cahoon (1819-1862) graduated from UVM in 1838 and went on to be a state senator.

George Bradford Shaw was educated at Peacham and entered the University of Vermont in 1816 as a sophomore. He graduated in 1819 then worked as a tutor at the university from 1819-1820. He next studied law under Griswold and Follett in Burlington as well as Hon. I. Fletcher in Lyndon. He was admitted to the Vermont Bar at Danville in 1822. He married Susan Maria Griswold (b. 1799 in Burlington), daughter of William A. Griswold (of Griswold and Follett) on February 25, 1823. Their daughter, Maria, was born in September 1824. Tragically the baby died on February 21, 1825 followed by her mother Susan Maria on February 27, 1825.

George worked as the Secretary to the Governor and Council under Governor Crafts from 1828-1830. He married Nancy Howard Bigelow (b. 1808) of Keene, NH on June 23, 1830. They had 7 children: William Goodhue Shaw (b. 1831 in Danville. Graduated from UVM 1849. m. Mary Alice Bissell in 1870 d.1892 in Burlington), George Norman Shaw (1832-1833), Susan Maria (Shaw) Gay (b. 1834 in Quebec m. Charles Gay 1858), Elisabeth Mary or Mary Elizabeth Shaw (1839-1840), Fanny Elizabeth Shaw (1841-1906), Frederick Shaw (b. 1845?), and George Bigelow Shaw (b. 1847, graduated from UVM 1865 d. 1916).

George Bradford Shaw lived for a short time in Lowell, MA. In 1833 he worked at his father-in-law Levi Bigelow's lumbering and merchant business in Buckingham, Quebec, Canada, returning to Burlington in 1836 and to the practice of law. In 1839 and 1840 he worked as the Reporter of Decisions of the Supreme Court and edited two volumes of the Vermont Supreme Court reports. From 1849 until his death in 1853 he was a Trustee of the University of Vermont. He died from apoplexy on December 1, 1853 in Burlington. Nancy Howard (Bigelow) Shaw died in 1878.

[adapted from University of Vermont Obituary Record, Volume 1, 1895 and genealogical data]