Abby Williams Hill who lived in the late 19^th and early 20^th century (1861-1943) was a remarkable woman for her time.  She was a painter and a social activist, a brave woman who did not let much stand in her way.  She was the founder of the Washington State Congress of Mothers which eventually became known as the PTA.  She was a supporter of early childhood education.  Visits to the Tuskeegee Institute and the Flathead reservation made her a champion of equal education for all. However despite these accomplishments, she is best known for her landscape paintings of the American West.

In the early 1900s Hill was commissioned by the Great Northern and later the Northern Pacific railway to produce paintings to promote tourism in the area.  Leaving her husband behind in Tacoma but taking her four young children, one son and three daughters, Hill camped and painted 22 paintings in 18 weeks. Instead of a salary the railroad gave her tickets for a 1000 mile long journey for herself and her children.  This allowed her to keep rights to her work and later she negotiated to have the paintings returned.  The experience of producing these paintings created in Hill a lifelong love for the outdoors.  Later in life, concerned by the threat of commercialism, Hill traveled for 7 years in the 1920s and produced a series of National Parks paintings to document what she viewed as disappearing landscapes.

The painting which illustrates this post exemplifies Hill’s character.  When she painted the mountain, it was unnamed, and the US Geological Survey let her name it.  She named it Mount Booker, after Booker T. Washington, the famous African American educator that she came to know at Tuskegee. As you can imagine, it was controversial in the early 1900s for a white woman to be naming a mountain after a black man however Abby stood her ground.

“Here was a glorious monument not made by the hand of man but carved by the Almighty.  What could be more fitting than to name it for one of the most truly great men of our times… When we look at Mt. Booker let us be thankful for Booker Washington’s life, for what he did to solve seemingly impossible problems… His influence like the stream from the mountain will go on through the ages to bless and help mankind.” (Newsclipping)

If you find yourself fascinated by Hill, a more thorough biography can be found here.

When Hill died in 1943 her children looked for a place to house the collection of her artwork and papers.  As she had spent much of her life in Tacoma, the University of Puget Sound’s Archives & Special Collections (UPS) was chosen as the site.  UPS’s Abbey Williams Hill Collection grew piecemeal over several decades.  The current collection consists of paintings but in addition there are letters and journals. Digitization of these materials is ongoing .  The majority of Hill’s personal papers are still only available in their original paper format.  She was a prolific writer and the bulk of this collection is from the early 1900s through 1910.  There is a collection of photos, both family photos and photos taken by Hill on her travels. Also included is ephemera such as old National Park passes and pamphlets. The collection is housed on the second floor of UPS’s Collins Memorial Library is available for research by appointment only. If you want additional information about the collection send an email to: [email protected].

References

Fields, Ronald. “The wanderer, a portrait of Abby Williams Hill.” The University of Puget Sound. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 July 2016

Newsclipping, “Mountain in State of Washington Named in Honor of Booker Washington by Mrs. Abby Williams Hill, Painter”, The New York Age, March 8, 1930, Box 17, Folder 15, Abby Williams Hill Collection, Collins Memorial Library, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington.

Washington is home to three National Parks (aren’t we lucky?)  Each park has its own unique features and opportunities for exploration and discovery.  As the state library we have a mission to collect, preserve, and make accessible to Washingtonians materials on the government, history, culture, and natural resources of the state.  As the national parks are one of our state unique treasures we have a variety of items in our collection that focus on Olympic, Rainier and the North Cascades National Parks.

Olympic National Park is on the Olympic Peninsula on the far western part of our state.  The park contains such a variety of landscapes, mountains, a temperate rain forest and wild coastlines. Activities include hiking, backpacking, beachcombing, fishing even a hot spring, your choices are endless. Olympic National Park is also home to several beautiful old lodges, Kalaloch and Lake Crescent lodges were built in the early 1900s and have all the beauty and character you would expect from this era.

If you choose to make a trip to the park what materials do we have at the state library to enhance your visit? A small handful are highlighted below, but if you check our catalog you will find a wide array of materials, from books, to maps, to state and federal documents.

Natural Wonders

Blau, S F, and Keith L. Hoofnagle. Exploring the Olympic Seashore. , 1980. Print.

Hanify, Mary L, and Craig Blencowe. Guide to the Hoh Rain Forest: An Interpretive Handbook. Port Angeles: PenPrint, 1975. Print.

Kirk, Ruth, Jerry F. Franklin, and Louis Kirk. The Olympic Rain Forest: An Ecological Web. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1992. Print.

McNulty, Tim. Olympic National Park: A Natural History Guide. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co, 1996. Print.

Stewart, Charles. Wildflowers of the Olympics: 100 Wildflowers of Olympic National Park. San Francisco: Nature Education Enterprises, 1972. Print.

Tabor, R W. Guide to the Geology of Olympic National Park. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1975. Print.

History & Literature

Beres, Nancy, Mitzi Chandler, and Russell Dalton. Island of Rivers: An Anthology Celebrating 50 Years of Olympic National Park. Seattle, WA: Pacific Northwest National Parks & Forests Association, 1988. Print.

Brant, Irving. The Olympic Forests for a National Park. New York: Emergency Conservation Committee, 1938. Print.

Wray, Jacilee. River Near the Sea: An Ethnohistory of the Queets River Valley. Place of publication not identified: Publisher not identified, 2014. Print.

Guidebooks

Camp Lightly Please: Backcountry Guide to Olympic National Park. Washington, D.C.?: U.S. Dept. of the Interior?, 1979. Print.

Molvar, Erik. Hiking Olympic National Park. Helena, Mont: Falcon, 1996. Print

Parratt, Smitty. Gods & Goblins: A Field Guide to Place Names of Olympic National Park. Port Angeles, WA: CP Publications, 1984. Print.

Steelquist, Robert, Pat O’Hara, Cindy McIntyre, and Keith D. Lazelle. Olympic National Park & the Olympic Peninsula: A Traveler’s Companion. Del Mar, Calif: Published by Woodlands Press in conjunction with Pacific Northwest National Parks and Forests Association, 1985. Print.

Perhaps you are a smartphone hiker?  Our Federal collection contains a lot of electronic information that could help you on your travels.  How about Forest Service Topo Maps for the Olympic National Forest?  Maybe you like to go off road the Motor Vehicle Use Maps show the roads, trails and areas that you can use.  Are you a birder?  The Great Washington State Birding Trail – Olympic Loop would be a wonderful companion on your trip.

And last but very much not least the Port Angeles Public Library located right at the foot of the Olympic National Park created a collection of oral histories from their patrons about their experiences visiting, living in and working at national parks throughout the U.S.  These recordings were funded with a grant from the WSL and hosted on the Washington Rural Heritage site. Have a listen and then go on out and create your own personal story at one of our state and country’s incredible jewels.

SAT, SEP 24 AT 8:00 AM, TACOMA, WA * Greater Tacoma Convention & Trade Center * Tickets $15 – $35 

          Join Ancestry, Washington State Archives, Washington State Library, Legacy Washington and the Washington State Historical Society as they present Ancestry Day in Washington State, Sept 23-24, 2016. Both novice and experienced genealogists are welcome at this event. Registration for the Ancestry Day on Saturday, Sept 24 is $35.00 and includes admission to all Saturday classes presented by Ancestry. Lunch tickets can be purchased for an additional $15.00, which includes a box lunch and the lunch speaker.

Special presentations will be offered by the Washington State Historical Society and the Washington State History Museum on Friday, Sept. 23, for $15.00. These are limited to the first 225 participants that register for Saturday.

Proceeds benefit the Washington State Archives, Washington State Library, Legacy Washington and the Washington State Historical Society.

Pre-registration is encouraged and available online thru 5:00 pm, September 17, 2016. If you miss the pre-registration deadline, you can purchase a ticket at the door for Saturday’s event ONLY.

From the desk of Jeff Martin

A Pioneer’s Search for an Ideal Home

Written by: Phoebe Goodell Judson

Union Printing, Binding and Stationary Co., Bellingham, Washington

Publication date: 1925

Phoebe Goodell Judson who crossed the Plains in 1853 and became a resident on Puget Sound before the organization of Washington Territory.

A Book of Personal Memoirs (Published in the author’s 95^th year)
CHAPTER I

It is the oft repeated inquiry of my friends as to what induced me to bury myself more than fifty years ago in this far-off corner of the world, that has determined me to take my pen in hand at this late day.

Did I come around the Horn, cross the Isthmus, or come across the plains? Was I not afraid of the Indians, and much more they ask. So I have decided to answer them all and singly by writing a short history of our pioneer life, and to affectionately dedicate my book to the memory of the late Holden A. Judson, my dear husband, who journeyed with me for half a century in the wilderness.

This will be but a condensed narrative of events which I shall endeavor to recall out of the mists of the past, written with no attempt at literary display, containing no fiction, but simply a record of the homely, everyday incidents of a plain woman, who has now exceeded her three score years and ten, and who has roughed it in the early fifties on the extreme northwestern frontier.

Time has passed so rapidly I can scarcely realize that I have already attained the number of years allotted to mortals on earth.

The romance of frontier life beyond the confines of civilization with its varied, exciting and interesting experiences among the children of nature both human and brute-has caused the years to fly swiftly, as on the wings of the wind.

Excerpt by Phoebe Goodell Judson

Taking an in-state vacation this month?  Need ideas of things to do?  Well Shirley has done it again! August is the last month in the series but she tells us she’s barely scratched the surface of interesting things happening around our beautiful state.

From the desk of Shirley Lewis

August 1

Hungry? The Washington State Department of Agriculture created the Savor Washington series of online publications to tempt taste buds and satisfy nutritional needs from “Seattle to Spokane, through diverse landscapes and great local food.” Happy traveling and bon appétit!

August 2

Nine men from the University of Washington made a splash at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. Their inspiring story is vividly described in The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics by Daniel James Brown. A Public Broadcasting System (PBS) American Experience documentary entitled The Boys of ’36 will debut on August 2, 2016. For more reading about rowing at University of Washington, try Ready all!: George Yeoman Pocock and Crew Racing by Gordon Newell (First paperback edition, book was originally published in 1987.

August 3

Speaking of Olympics, visit the diverse wilderness of Olympic National Park. Explore rainforests, high peaks, and the beautiful peninsular coast. Tim McNulty’s classic guide, Olympic National Park: A Natural History, is the perfect book to plan your adventure.

August 4

It’s a big election year and the best place to get the official information on elections in Washington is at the Elections Division of the Office of the Secretary of State. For more help with information on issues, elections, and voting, contact the Washington State Library’s Ask a Librarian service.

August 5

Head to Joyce (Clallam County) on the Olympic Peninsula for the Joyce Daze Wild Blackberry Festival. These wonderful berries are a lot of work to pick, but the pie is worth the trip. While you are there, check out the Joyce General Store.

August 8

Washington State Parks presents a Centennial GeoTour to celebrate our state park’s centennial. This GeoTour will end on September 30, 2016, so start enjoying these geocaching activities now and watch this page for future fun.

August 9

Visit the Northwest Carriage Museum in Raymond (Pacific County) to see what hot wheels were when the horse supplied the power.

August 10

Explore Okanogan Country in north central Washington. Check out the history, arts scene, Native American Heritage, and recreation opportunities in this beautiful area. Frank Matsura, a Japanese native who came to Washington in the early 20^th century, captured Okanogan County’s people and scenery with excellent photographs.

August 11

Whatcom Museum celebrates 75 years of “art, nature & history” today with an open house and free admission in all three buildings. Activities for children, tours, music, and food trucks will all be available to make a memorable anniversary.

August 12

Are your boots made for walking? Evergreen State Volkssport Association is ready for you. Finding your way? Discover orienteering at the Cascade Orienteering Club. When you’re tired of walking, explore the Washington State Library’s Northwest Collection in person or through the WSL online catalog.

August 15

Let your flights of fancy soar at the Washington State International Kite Festival in Long Beach on August 15-21. Also in Long Beach, check out the World Kite Museum website to learn all about these delightful kites.

August 16

Here’s a new Washington State Library created resource: Historic Fire Lookouts of Washington. Enjoy this map featuring historic photographs of fire lookouts and read more about fire lookouts at WSL’s blog.

August 17

Hot enough? Sure, it’s warm now, but you’ll wish you had a quilt this winter.  Check out the La Conner Quilt & Textile Museum for beautiful displays of weaving, quilting, and other textile arts.

August 18

Pullman (Whitman County) hosts the National Lentil Festival which has been celebrating lentils since 1989. Food, brews, wine, fun run, a parade, posters, and more: this lentil festival has it all.

August 19

Chief Seattle Days, a three-day public festival, began in 1911 to honor Chief Seattle, the leader of the Suquamish People and namesake of the City of Seattle. The 2016 festival runs August 19 – 21 in Suquamish (Kitsap County). Later this month, the Makah Tribe of Neah Bay celebrates the 92^nd Annual Makah Days on August 26-28, 2016.

August 22

Take a walk on the wild side and/or enjoy the writings of those who do. Washington’s natural beauty can be enjoyed by getting outside or reading these works for a sense of the place called Washington:

• Winter Brothers: A Season at the Edge of America by Ivan Doig
• Crow Planet: Essential Wisdom from the Urban Wilderness by Lyanda Lynn Haupt
• Island Year by Hazel Heckman
• Singing Grass, Burning Sage: Discovering Washington’s Shrub-steppe by Jack Nisbet
• Sky Time I Gray’s River: Living for Keeps in a Forgotten Place or Wintergreen: Rambles in a Ravaged Land by Robert Michael Pyle.
• Columbia Highlands: Exploring Washington’s Last Frontier by Craig Romano
• The Street-Smart Naturalist: Field Notes from Seattle by David B. Williams

August 23

Apples – why just one a day? The Washington Apple Commission declares Washington is the state for apples. Adam and Eve never had it so good.

August 24

Football fans don’t have much longer to wait:  the Seattle Seahawks, Washington State University Cougars, University of Washington Huskies, and numerous other Washington football teams will soon take the fields. Go ___________ (fill in the team mascot of your choice)! Enjoy some armchair quarterbacking with these titles:  Seattle Seahawks: One Super Season; Defense, Dominance and the Emerald City’s First NFL Title, Tales from the Washington State Cougars Sideline: A Collection of the Greatest Cougar Stories Ever or Go Huskies!: Celebrating Washington’s Football Tradition.

August 25

Set sail on the Lady Washington or the Hawaiian Chieftain or visit them at the Grays Harbor Historical Seaport.

August 26

From WSL’s Northwest Collection, read some fiction with Washington settings:

The Orchardist by Amanda Coplin

Horse Heaven Hill by Zane Grey

Snow Falling on Cedars  or East of the Mountains by David Guterson

Border Songs; The Highest Tide; or Truth like the Sun are all by Jim Lynch

August 29

Tired of the same old grind? Consider the Cedar Creek Grist Mill in Clark County. This working museum in a lovely wooded site is a great example of water-powered history.

August 30

Jump into Washington’s lakes – we’ve got great ones – try Soap Lake, Lake Crescent, Moses Lake, or Lake Chelan. Read all about them in the classic reference book, Lakes of Washington.

August 31

Summer’s going by – is it time to go back to school? Consider taking a class at your local library, community college, or online. School days were different not-so-long ago: Early Schools of Washington Territory and The Wooden Bench: Inkwells, Slates, and Coping Saws both tell it like it was.

Have you been following  the Paddle to Nisqually ? The Tribal Canoe Journeys  happen every summer on the waters of the Pacific Northwest? Each year a different tribe hosts the celebration which follows the final landing of all the canoes, many of which have traveled great distances.  This is a special year for the Nisqually Tribe as the journey ends with them.

Indigenous peoples have made this canoe journey up and down the coastal waterways for thousands of years, but by 1989 the tradition of long distance canoe travel had all but disappeared.  That year, as part of Washington’s centennial celebration, tribal leaders from around Puget Sound revived the practice, calling it “Paddle to Seattle”.  Some tribes carved their first canoe in nearly a century in order to participate in the journey (Oldham).  The journey became an annual event after the Heiltsuk Nation issued a challenge to the Puget Sound tribes and  Canoe Families to come up to Bella Bella in 1993.  This year close to 100 canoes and their pullers, from the Coast Salish peoples of Alaska, Canada and the Pacific Northwest are scheduled to arrive in the Olympia Area on July 30th.  Since 1994 the Nisqually Tribe has participated in the Canoe Journeys and have used the journeys to strengthen its culture, its community, and its families.  Allen Frazier, a Northern California Native and long time Nisqually community member, has photo-documented the event since it began.   In 2013 the Nisqually Tribal Library received a Washington Rural Heritage grant from the Washington State Library to digitize and make available a portion of these photographs.  The result is a rich and ever evolving set of pictures which documents the Nisqually Tribe’s participation in canoe journeys from 1995 forward.   The collection, known as “The Canoe Journeys – A Nisqually Perspective”  includes photos and maps of the routes taken each year.

Approximately 120 canoes representing over 50 tribes are due to land at the Port of Olympia on July 30^th. The Nisqually Tribe has been preparing for the celebration for months.  The Landing Day events will be held at NorthPoint at the tip of the Port of Olympia’s peninsula.  The tribe is expecting as many as 18,000 people to attend (Port of Olympia).  The celebrations and protocols will continue until August 6^th.    Even if you can’t attend the landing, thanks to the work of the Nisqually tribe you can virtually attend the event through the pictures they provide online.

References

Oldham, Kit. “Northwest Indian canoes return to site of Point Elliott Treaty on July 26, 2007.” Historylink.org. N.p., 26 Aug. Web. 26 July 2007.

“Port of Olympia and City of Olympia team with Nisqually Indian Tribe for Canoe Journey Landing in July.” Port of Olympia. N.p., 10 May 2016. Web. 26 July 2016.

From the desk of Shawn Schollmeyer

The latest “news” on the newspaper collections is the merging of two existing collections into a new one called “Washington Digital Newspapers,” (WDN) which will give the public easier, full-text search access to these historic newspapers (move over, Google!). You can now browse titles, view by calendar date or pick a location from a map to search the issues here. The collection currently includes more than 45 titles and over 306,000 newspaper pages. Now it’s also mobile friendly so you can research with your smart phone or tablet device!

The website will also feature some more recent issues of the Eatonville Dispatch (1916-2010), our current digitization project due to be included this fall. Most of the newspapers will be pre-1923, which are considered “public domain” available for students and teachers to download for school research projects without worrying about requesting copyright permissions for use. We’ll be rolling in our earliest pioneer & territorial titles from the Historic Online Newspapers collection, which is currently indexed by subject and proper names, so it too will be full-text searchable over the next couple years.

A recent addition to the collection is the Tacoma Evening Telegraph (1886-1887). More additions by the end of this year include the Centralia Daily Hub (1914-1916), Spokane’s Danske Kronike (Danish/English, 1916-1917), and Dat Moi (Vietnamese/English, 1974-1987). Washington State Library staff will add at least 40,000 pages of new content by end of this year, content that hasn’t appeared in any of the library’s earlier digital collections or on Chronicling America. Just this month the Anacortes Museum signed on to help us digitize the Anacortes American in 2017!

The Washington State Library is a rich resource of information for students, genealogists, researchers and history enthusiasts as one of the best `go-to’ places to find Washington newspapers. We have the largest selection of Washington newspapers on microfilm and we’re excited to be a new associate member of the Washington Newspaper Publishers’ Association. This fall we will be meeting with newspaper publishers and editors to help ensure that our history and culture will be best preserved in  newspapers from print, microfilm and into the born-digital world of current news media!

From the desk of Jeff Martin

The State Archives and the State Library hold extensive map collections dealing with the Washington State and the surrounding region. This new blog post shows two more examples. The first map shows military stations occupied and abandoned as of January 1881; railroads existing and projected; wagon roads, and lighthouses. The map has been reduced in size for presentation.

The next map shows an emigrant wagon road to California in addition to selected features of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho.

As we enter, what will no doubt be, another intense fire season in Washington State, it is comforting to know that technology and modern methods are in place to spot and stop wildfires quickly.  But it also brings to mind a reflection on how fires were managed in the early 20^th century.  One answer was a chain of fire lookout stations, many built by the CCC in the 1930’s.  “Back in the 1930s the still-growing lookout system seemed like a stable part of the fire protection program of the forests of Washington. “ (Spring and Fish, pg. 11).  “They were placed, wherever possible, so at least two stations could overlap surveillance of the same territory and thus accurately pinpoint the location of a fire.” (pg. 14).  In 1953 the U.S. claimed 5,060 “permanent” fire lookouts (pg. 22) with 685 in Washington.

As keepers of our state’s history the Washington State Library has a variety of resources that help us remember this piece of our past.  One such resource is the wonderful Washington Rural Heritage collection.  This is an ever growing collection of images pulled from personal collections and small historic museums.  Part of the collection includes pictures of fire lookout towers from around the state as well as panoramic images taken from lookout towers.  Pulling images from the Rural Heritage collection and our digital photo collection we decided to create an interactive storymap to keep the history alive.

In addition to the historic images we have several books in our collections about fire lookouts.  So if you are interested in the history, the legends or the modern practicality of how to visit or even cook at a lookout station remember that much of our collection can be requested through ILL.

Doty, Thomas. Trek to Table Mountain: Seasons of Stories. Ashland, OR: Upriver Downriver Productions, 2003. Print.

Kresek, Ray. Fire Lookouts of the Northwest. Fairfield, Wash: Ye Galleon Press, 1998. Print.

Langston, Libby. Lookout Cookbook: A Collection of Recipes by Forest Fire Lookouts Throughout the United States. Coeur d’Alene, Idaho: Museum of North Idaho, 2005. Print.

McFadden, Tish, and Tom Foley. How to Rent a Fire Lookout in the Pacific Northwest: A Guide to Renting Fire Lookouts, Guard Stations, Ranger Cabins, Warming Shelters and Bunkhouses in the National Forests of Oregon and Washington. Berkeley, CA: Wilderness Press, 2005. Internet resource.

Rideout, Ham. Fire Watch: A Summer to Be Remembered at the Steliko Point and Badger Mountain Lookouts : Memoirs of a Jr. Forest Guard and so Much More! Steilacoom Wash.: N.p., 2006. Print.

Luckily for Washington many lookout stations still exist. Today there are eighty-seven lookouts which remain standing. (Abegg) So, if you’re up for a hike or perhaps the chance to spend a night in a piece of history why not venture out and visit one yourself.

References
Abegg, Steff. “Fire Lookout Structures.” www.sTePhaBeGg.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 7 July 2016.

Spring, Ira, and Byron Fish. Lookouts: Firewatchers of the Cascades and Olympics. Seattle: The Mountaineers, 1981. Print.

From the Desk of Jeff Martin 

The Bigelow Family mementos are a marvelous collection of memorabilia of an early Thurston County family.   The collection consists of a hand written journal (and transcription), photos, newspaper clippings, and birth, death and marriage records.

Written by

Daniel R. Bigelow

Digitized version of the unpublished diary

[Daniel R. Bigelow diary, 1848-1853] (118, [7] p.) — [Transcription of] the Daniel R. Bigelow diary, 1848-1853 / transcribed by Roger Easton — Reminiscences of the last survivor of the First Territorial Legislature of Washington / Alice Palmer Henderson (The State, [1899?], p. 295-299) — Through many perils : Mrs. [William] White’s journey across the continent to meet her husband … / (account by Margaret Margaret McCallen Stewart White Ruddell, mother of Anne Elizabeth White Bigelow) (Weekly ledger (Tacoma, Wash.), [189-?], p. 12+)

Collection appears courtesy of George Bigelow (grandson of Daniel R. Bigelow); Some pages in this collection are not searchable because they are handwritten.

Daniel Richardson Bigelow was born March 21, 1824 in Belleville, New York. He joined a wagon-train and headed west on the Oregon Trail to Portland, then sailed up the coast in the schooner Exact to Puget Sound in Nov. 1851. He established a law office in Smithfield (now called Olympia). On June 18, 1854, he married Ann Elizabeth White, the first school teacher in the area. Ann was born Nov. 3, 1836 in Illinois and arrived in Olympia with her family in late 1851. Daniel was Treasurer of Thurston County, a member of the first legislature of Washington Territory, Superintendent of the Olympia School, and President of the Board of Trustees of Puget Sound Wesleyan Institute (forerunner of the University of Puget Sound). He was one of three commissioners who completely rewrote the laws of Oregon Territory at Salem during the summer of 1853. Their recommendations were accepted by the Legislative Assembly and enacted into law, creating the new Territory of Washington. Daniel Bigelow died Sept. 15, 1905 at Olympia. Ann Elizabeth Bigelow died Feb. 8, 1926. The Bigelows had 9 children.