Description

Henry Augustus Bigelow (b. 1833 – d. 1892) was born April 5, 1833 in Walpole, Massachusetts and died December 16, 1892 in Prescott, Arizona.  He was the son of Reverend Asahel Bigelow (b. 1797 - d. 1877) a Congregational minister and Dorcas Freeman Holmes (b. 1810 - d. 1890).  He attended Williams College but left due to poor health. He spent some years in the south and then came to the Pacific Coast in 1859. He mined in Oregon for several years and then located to San Francisco. At the time of his death, his mother and sister (Mrs. Lucy M. Tuttle) were living in San Francisco.

One of the earliest Arizona pioneers, he came to Arizona from California by the San Bernardino route with seven other men and prospectors in the summer of 1865. Called "Old Big", he was co-owner of a number of mines including the Sumner Mine, the Croesus Mine and the Wild Pigeon Mine. He served in a number of positions including being appointed by Governor Safford as Aid-de-Camp with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel on October 20, 1869, as the Public Administrator of Yavapai County (1873-75) and was Secretary of the Republican Territorial Central Committee for many years. 

He mapped the town of Prescott in 1872.  A June, 1875 Arizona Journal article stated that he was the owner of the Nifty Saloon at 112 S. Montezuma and another article indicated that he sold it in September 1875. He served as the Associate Editor of the Arizona Journal Miner (1876) and also spent a year as editor of the Arizona Democrat (1882), published in Prescott. He was a versatile and vigorous writer and contributed a great deal to the press of the territory.

Written on the back of the photograph is the following: "Bigelow, Henry A 'an old timer' who collected much data of early history in the territory - but which unfortunately has been lost."