Thomas Bigger and Elizabeth Moore
Husband Thomas Bigger 1 2 3 4
AKA: Thomas Biggert 5 Born: 1738 - County Antrim, Ireland 3 Christened: Died: 1829 - ? Robinson Twp, Washington Co, PA 4 Buried:
Father: Matthew Bigger ( - ) 2 3 4 Mother: Martha [Unk] (Abt 1702-1780) 4
Marriage: 1773 - County Antrim, Ireland 2 6
Wife Elizabeth Moore 2 3 6 7
Born: - County Antrim, Ireland Christened: Died: 1836 - Pennsylvania 6 Buried: - Robinson Cemetery
Children
1 M Matthew Bigger 6 7 8
Born: Abt 1773 Christened: Died: Abt 1849 Buried:Spouse: Did Not Marry
2 F Jane Bigger 6 7
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:
3 M John Bigger 6 7 8
Born: Abt 1778 Christened: Died: 1808 6 Buried: - Raccoon Cemetery, Washington Co, PA
4 M James [1] Bigger 7
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:
5 M Thomas Bigger 6 7 8
Born: Abt 1783 Christened: Died: 1870 6 Buried: - Robinson Cemetery, Washington Co, PASpouse: Did Not Marry
6 F Ann Bigger 6 7
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:
7 M James [2] Bigger 2 3 7 8
Born: Abt 1786 Christened: Died: 1861 - Hanover Twp, Beaver Co, PA 6 Buried:Spouse: Mary Biggart ( - ) 2 3 Marr: 1816 6 9
8 M Samuel Bigger 6 8 10
Born: Abt 1789 - Robinson Twp, Washington Co, PA Christened: Died: 1873 6 Buried:Spouse: [Unk] Wills ( - ) 11
9 F Martha Bigger 6 7
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:Spouse: Nathaniel McBride ( - ) 6
10 M Andrew Bigger 6 7 8
Born: 1 Apr 1793 7 Christened: Died: 1869 6 Buried: - Robinson CemeterySpouse: Sarah Campbell (1796- ) 7
11 F Elizabeth "Betsy" Bigger 6 7
Born: Christened: Died: Buried:
General Notes: Husband - Thomas Bigger
He, his wife, mother, and sister emigrated to America from Ireland in 1773. After remaining in the East a short time, they came to what is now Robinson township, Washington County, Pennsylvania, and settled upon land later owned by Matthew Bigger. Here a cabin was built, and improvements commenced, but the Indians were so troublesome that they removed down to the Washington lands, and with twelve others located, being induced to do so by Col. George Croghan, who insisted Washington had no rights there. He lived there until 1784, when he became dispossessed by the success of Washington in the ejectment suits. After being thus summarily turned from the fruits of his eight years' labor, he went back to the first stopping-place, and took out the warrant for a tract, on which he settled, and lived the remainder of his days. This was surveyed to him as "Horse Neck," containing four hundred and twenty-three acres. Other large tracts were purchased later, and by his industry and energy he had accumulated over a thousand acres at the time of his death, which occurred in 1829, at the age of eighty-nine years. His sons added to these lands, and until then were in possession of two thousand five hundred acres of land in the neighborhood of the homestead, and considerable landed property in the West. [HWC 1882, 901]
[In 1882?] Of the property of Thomas Biggert, Matthew Biggert [son of Samuel] now owns the homestead and central portion, Thomas Biggert the upper or southern part, and Thomas M. Biggert [son of Andrew] the northern portion.
Soon after their marriage he and his wife left Ireland for the new world. After landing in America, they came to Pennsylvania and first located on a piece of land near Hickory, Washington County, Pennsylvania, which belonged to George Washington, but was then in court. His rights were soon established, after which Mr. and Mrs. Bigger settled on a farm in Robinson township. [CBRWC, ]
Upon attaining manhood, he fell in love with the daughter of a wealthy man, who objected to their marriage on account of Thomas being a poor man, and a weaver by trade. But notwithstanding the father's objections, the young folks were married, and shortly afterward Thomas induced his mother and two sisters to accompany them to America. They landed at Baltimore, Maryland, October 16, 1773. Thomas, upon learning that land was cheap in the "wild west," journeyed overland to what is now Raccoon township, Washington County, Pennsylvania, and near Raccoon creek he took up a large tract of land. He was of a proud nature, but was a sturdy worker, and the height of his ambition was to become an extensive land owner. In his native country, only the wealthy had large landed possessions, but, by struggling hard against almost overwhelming difficulties, with the aid of his ever-faithful wife, he gratified his heart's desire. He built a log cabin and felled the forest trees, and he lived as only the brave pioneers did; but he prospered, and at the time of his death he was a well-to-do and progressive farmer.
He and his devoted consort reared a family of ten children.
He was educated in his native country, and there learned the weaver's trade, and when thirty-five years of age came to the American colonies. He was accompanied by his wife, his mother, Martha Bigger, his sister, Jane, at that time unmarried, his other sister, Elizabeth, and her husband, John Anderson. After a voyage whose length was broken by no incident worthy of mention, the little group landed in Baltimore, Maryland, October 16, 1773, having been for three months on the ocean. They stored their goods in Baltimore as they began a search for a home, and circumstances made it impossible for them to return to that city until the close of the Revolutionary War, when they found that their belongings had been appropriated. The family spent their first winter at the Forks of the Yough, later proceeding to Beaver County, Pennsylvania, where the family home was established. Here they contended with the dangers, privations and sufferings of pioneer life, hewing a home from the wilderness that surrounded them, and reclaiming a small plot of arable land from the virgin forest. With inadequate implements, farming was difficult, and to add to the discomfort of life under such primitive conditions was the ever-present fear of an Indian attack, the natives of that locality being unfriendly. Even before he had a comfortable house erected he was forced to bring his mother into the region, she protesting against remaining in the east with another son, claiming that she had left Ireland to make her home with her son Thomas, and was unhappy without him. Unable to resist the appeals of maternal love, he journeyed eastward and brought her to his home on horseback, she being so old and feeble that she almost succumbed during the westward trip. So uncertain was her seat upon the horse that when fording a stream he would place her upon his back, lest she fall into the water through her horse's misstep or her own terror. They at length reached the little log cabin in the woods and there she made her home until her death. She was seventy-eight years of age when this occurred, and was buried in the Raccoon Graveyard.
1 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 387, 1014, 1182.
2 —, History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Chicago: A. Warner & Co., Publishers, 1888), Pg 827.
3 —, Book of Biographies, Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (Buffalo, NY: Biographical Publishing Company, 1899), Pg 403.
4 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1914), Pg 847.
5 Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 901.
6 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Co., 1914), Pg 848.
7 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 1014.
8 Boyd Crumrine, History of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA: L. H. Everts & Co., 1882), Pg 902.
9 —, Book of Biographies, Biographical Sketches of Leading Citizens of Beaver County, Pennsylvania (Buffalo, NY: Biographical Publishing Company, 1899), Pg 404.
10 —, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 387.
11
—, Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893), Pg 1185.
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