Charles H. Bigelow
Born
Charles Henry Bigelow

(1814-07-13)July 13, 1814
Watertown, Massachusetts, U.S.
DiedApril 15, 1862(1862-04-15) (aged 47)
New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.
NationalityAmerican
EducationUnited States Military Academy
Occupations
  • Engineer
  • architect
SpouseHarriet Briggs

Charles Henry Bigelow (July 13, 1814 – April 15, 1862)[1] of Lowell, Massachusetts was a 19th-century engineer and architect. Born in Watertown, Massachusetts,[1] Bigelow was a graduate of West Point, ranking second in the class of 1835.[2] He married Harriet Briggs, daughter of the late Massachusetts Governor George N. Briggs. He died in New Bedford, Massachusetts in 1862 at the age of 47.[3][4] On March 31, 1847, Bigelow was one of a group of influential citizens in Lawrence, Massachusetts that founded and chartered the Franklin Library Association, now the Lawrence Free Library.[5] Bigelow was the Association's first president.[6]

Career

Bigelow served in the United States Army Corps of Engineers until April 25, 1846, working as an assistant engineer during the construction of Fort Warren and Fort Independence at Boston Harbor and leaving active duty as a captain.[1][4]

Bigelow was the chief engineer of the Pemberton Mill,[7] the collapse of which "is likely the worst industrial accident in Massachusetts history"[8] and "one of the worst industrial calamities in American history".[9] According to one account:

Jesse Glover, overseer of repairs testified at the inquest that he had always considered the building weak. John B. Tuttle, superintendent of brick work testified that he had complained to the architect, Bigelow, that he thought the walls were insufficient. Mr. Bigelow in turn blamed the owners. Bigelow said that it was the owners who were responsible for all the purchasing and the approval of the iron castings. [10]

Bigelow also worked as a consultant on the Augusta Canal.[11]

References

Notes
  1. 1 2 3 Hager, Willi H. (November 5, 2015). Hydraulicians in the USA 1800-2000: A biographical dictionary of leaders in hydraulic engineering and fluid mechanics. CRC Press. p. 1828. ISBN 9781315680125. Retrieved 2022-05-23.
  2. ↑ "History of the churches of New Bedford", page 45 (Pacific Church)
  3. ↑ "Genealogy of the Bigelow Family” by Gilman Bigelow Howe (1890)
  4. 1 2 Cullum, George W. (1868). Biographical Register of the Officers and Graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., from Its Establishment, March 16, 1802 to the Army Re-Organization of 1866–67. Vol. I. New York City, New York: D. Van Nostrand. p. 463. Retrieved 2022-05-23.
  5. ↑ "Lawrence Free Library website". Archived from the original on 2018-02-24. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
  6. ↑ "About Us" Archived 2009-04-02 at the Wayback Machine on the Lawrence Free Library website
  7. ↑ "The Disaster at Lawrence; Additional Testimony-Further Subscriptions-Progress in Relieving the Sufferers" The New York Times (January 21, 1860)
  8. ↑ "Pemberton Mill Collapse, 1860" on the Celebrate Boston website
  9. ↑ Oickle, Alvin F. "Disaster in Lawrence: The Fall of the Pemberton Mill" Archived 2012-07-23 at the Wayback Machine on the HistoryPress.net website
  10. ↑ "The Pemberton Mill Disaster of 1860" on the Hobo Philosopher website
  11. ↑ "Historic American Engineering Record of the Heritage Conservation and Recreation Service" Archived July 23, 2008, at the Wayback Machine


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