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Bigelo PETA, TINIAN eh 42 - PORT PERRY STAR - Tuesday, October 1, 1991 125th ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE e ed, but that hey were actuated wholly and solely by the desire, first to secure the road, and then to secure themselves, and we don't blame them forit." Bigelow's withdrawal ena- bled him to devote himself to furthering the prosperity of the village he had just provided with transportation. The first council of Port Perry in 1872 had as its Reeve, Mr. Joseph Bigelow. He held the office through 1873 and 1874 during which years the Town Hall at Queen and Lilla Streets was constructed, and more important, the Union Public and High School which for many years had an enviable reputation as an educational institution. Mr. Bigelow be- came a Justice of the Peace in 1877 and in 1881 he ran as a Reform candidate for the Onta- rio Legislature, failing by three votes to gain election. After his withdrawal from the Presidency of the railway, Mr. Bigelow joined Thomas Paxton in the flour-milling business which Paxton was op- erating in the mill on Water Street. This was an association of nearly twenty years, the lat- er years with a third partner, Mr. WJ. Trounce. Trounce bought the others out in 1887, the year which marks Mr . Big- elow's 'retirement' from busi- ness in Port Perry. Mr. Trounce's business failed the next year, 1888 and was taken over by James Carnegie who in- stalled new machinery as the flour produced by the old stone grinding equipment had been inferior. Also with Thomas Pax- ton, Mr. Bigelow owned the Perry Street foundry operated by Paxton, Tate & Co. The foun- dry manufactured agricultural equipment and mill machinery, and was sold before 1887 to Madison Williams. This foun- dry was on the site of the present Port Perry Bottling Works. In retirement, as in busi- ness, Joseph Bigelow was still watching for an opportunity to promote the well-being of Port Perry, whose prosperity he had CEI BN, fi hw AO FE or Sba PRESRAOR Ciao Fara vg ) v '8 nurtured for thirty-five years.» "+ In 1890, one of his most impor- tant pieces of work was done, the building of the 'Cartwright 201 north st. J Bere port parry printing limited port perry, ont. eo LIL 187 OFFICE SUPPLIES + RUBBER STAMPS WEDDING INVITATIONS « INSTANTPRINITING COMPUTER AND BUSINESS FORMS CREATIVE DESIGN AND LAYOUT QUALITY PROCESS AND COLOUR PRINTING 0856-97565 (= NPAT : Medi pai Pe bridge.' He was able tobuild the bridge, despite opposition by the County, for the council members remembered only too well the trouble and expense in- curred in its previous experi- ence with a Scugog bridge. The Cartwright bridge was built by a private consortium supported by the Grand Trunk Railway, the town and local township councils, the Government, local businessmen, and begrudging- ly by the Counties of Ontario and Durham-Northumberland. Even after the road was com- pleted, there was considerable difficulty in inducing the County Councils to assume the new roadway. After the completion of the Cartwright bridge, Mr. Bigelow seems to have turned his atten- tion eastward. In 1898, the To- ronto Board of Trade was at- tempting to persuade the Government to abandon the still incomplete Trent Canal system, Joseph Bigelow carried on his own campaign in a series of well-written letters to vari- ous newspapers throughout Ontario, denouncing the Toron- to Board of Trade as being op- posed to any scheme that would be beneficial to any part of the country except Toronto. The To- ronto papers refused to publish his letters but his campaign was not in vain for the Trent system was completed to Tren- ton, although the northern por- tion was never finished, and Western grain never used the front system on its way to mar- et. During the campaign for completion of the Trent system, Mr. Bigelow was actually living in Trenton. With his two sons, he had purchased a bankrupt dry goods store there and oper- ated it until about 1907. While there, he observed the commer- cial process of evaporation used to dry apples to preserve them for shipment abroad. So it was that at the age of 80, on giving up business in Trenton, he es- tablished an evaporator in an old woollen mill on the corner of Lilla and Perry Streets, just north of the present Scout Hall. This business he continued to operate until his death in 1917 at the age of 89. The evaporator was sold to a Trenton firm who abandoned it about a year later. Mr. Bigelow was always in- B16 ELOW ESQ,MERCHANT, PORT PERRY,ONT. terested in real estate in addi- tion to his many other enter- prises. In the five years 1888 - 1893, after retiring from busi- ness in Port Perry, and while involved in the construction of the Cartwright bridge, he bought, divided and sold sever- al acres in downtown Spring- field, Missouri, U.S.A. More im- portani to Port Perry, in 1868 e registered a plan for fifty acres of land on the north side of Queen Street between Lilla and Rosa Streets, including Bigelow and Cochrane. He was accused later of profiteering in this venture by none other than Caleb Crandell who had at the time planned the south side of Queen Street between Lilla and Ella Streets including Crandell and Caleb. Since Crandell had sold the land to Mr. Bigelow in the first place, and since Cran- dell's portion turned out to be somewhat swampy, there would seem to be an element of 'sour grapes' in the charges. This was typical of the criticism that was to hound Mr. Bigelow throughout his career, especial- ly with regard to his part in the building of the railway. Since the railway marked the end of Prince Albert as a commercial centre, it is not surprising to find in an editorial in the Prince Albert Observer, December 18, 1871, the following: "{The report of the speech- esin Ireland's Hall at the nomi- nation meeting}...will be found interesting and not a little in- structive, showing as it does the depths of villainy and de- ception to which dishonest knaves will descend in order to forward their own a bominably selfish ends, while it also af- fords a key to the solution of the otherwise difficult problem how so many small-hearted, ig- norant numskulls make rich; how the ranks of our codfish aristocracy are recruited, and men who have not brains enough to stick together man- age to accumulate wealth." Mr. Bigelow was a man able to give as well as receive on -the debating floor, as it seems from this report of part of his speech at the above-mentioned meeting. (Mr. Allison was op- posing him for Reeve for 1872)" - Mr. Bigelow went on to state that having purchased 50 acres of land from Mr. Crandell, he laid it out in village lots, and making the erection of build- ings an indispensable condition of purchase. What had he {Bigelow) not done for the vil- lage; he had spent his means wrought night and day for the securing of the railway, and while his opponent was snooz- ing in bed with his arms around his....he {Bigelow} was driving through mud and mire at mid- night hours. - He said he would leave the matter in the hands of the people for the present and would only say to the electors Please Turn to page 44 Interesting facts about Post Office A search through micro- filmed issues of the Star has re- vealed these facts. * Construction began on the current Post Office in April 1912. * Boxes were started to be allotted on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 1913. * The front doors of the Post Office were opened for business on Friday morning, January 2, 1914. * There has been postal ser- vice in Port Perry since 1852. JOSEPH BIGELOW, MANUFACTURER AND DEALER In Sawed Lumber, Sawed Shingles, Flour Barrel Heading and Flour Barrel Staves. A LARGE STOCK ON HANDS AT ALL TIMES! . Also Proprieror of Port Perry Sash and Door Factory. Face planing, Matching, Scroll Sawing, Turning, Moulding, ete, eto., done on the shc:test notice Port Perry ugust, 10th, 1866. 1-y