Bigelow, Daniel R.

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 practice in Smithfield (now Olympia, WA). 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 R. Bigelow died Sept. 15, 1905 at Olympia, WA. Anne Elizabeth Bigelow died Feb. 8, 1926. The Bigelows had 9 children.