Hillsborough County FlArchives Biographies.....Biglow, Silas Leland 1841 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 12, 2008, 9:27 pm Author: B. F. Johnson (1909) Silas Leland Biglow Silas Leland Biglow, of Tampa, is of that stiff necked old Puritan stock which in the past three hundred years has made such an indelible mark upon our national life. The predominant trait in the old Puritans was a stubborn determination to carry through whatever they might undertake, and never to concede themselves defeated. Their descendants are today scattered not only over the United States, but to the remotest corners of the earth, and wherever the blood is met with, the predominant quality is found in greater or less degree. Mr. Biglow was born in Brooklyn, N. Y., December 12, 1841. His parents were John Boynton and Charlotte Haskell (Leland) Biglow. Both parents were natives of Vermont, where his father was born in 1808, and his mother in 1809. The family is of English descent, the first ancestor of the Biglows in America came from England to Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1642, and the Lelands came from England to Sherburn, Mass., in 1652. Young Biglow grew up in Brooklyn, attended the public schools there until the age of fourteen, when he began clerking in a mercantile establishment, which occupation he followed until the breaking out of the war between the States in 1861 when he became a clerk in the Quartermaster's Department of the 18th Army Corps and was stationed for the greater part of the war at Old Point Comfort, Virginia, and Newbern, N. C. In 1865 he went West, and for eighteen years was engaged in transportation work, and in the service of railroad and express companies. In 1884 he came to Tampa and was for three yeas agent of the Southern Express Company, and was also engaged in mercantile business. When the city of Tampa was incorporated in 1886 he became Councilman from the third ward and served until 1891. From 1891 to 1894 he was chief of sanitary department. With the organization of the board of public works in 1895 he became Clerk of the Board and has held the position continuously to date. From 1901 to date he has been Secretary of the Ybor City Building and Loan Association, and from 1902 to date he has been Secretary and Treasurer of the Ybor City Land and Improvement Company. Mr. Biglow has been twice married. In 1872 he married Mary L. Ferguson, daughter of Alexander and Anna Eliza (Gould) Ferguson then of Illinois, to which State the family came from New Hampshire. His first wife died in 1890, and in 1900, Mr. Biglow married Mattie L. Lucas, daughter of Geo. Troup and Sarah Emeline (Edwards) Lucas, of Georgia. Of these marriages six children have been born, three by each wife, all living: Mary Edith, Leland Gould, John Alexander, Troup Lucas, Charlotte Louise, and Edwards Boynton Biglow. Mr. Biglow has found his chief literary recreation in historical and geographical works. He is identified politically with the Democratic party, and is a member of the Tampa County and Yacht Club, and the Tampa Automobile Club. Descended from hardy pioneer stock which in its generations has helped to develop Massachusetts, then Vermont, and then the West, and in the meantime contributed valuable fighting men to the Revolutionary armies, Mr. Biglow has lived up to the traditions. Imbued with energy, business sagacity, enterprise, and public spirited to the core, he has probably during the past twenty years been as valuable a factor in the development of Tampa and its suburban towns as any other one man. Ybor City owes to his companies much of its rapid growth, and prosperity, but while doing so much for Ybor City, he has found time to fill important positions, and to contribute largely with both counsel and work to the betterment of Tampa. That he has won the esteem and confidence of his fellow-townsmen is the logical result of his labors, and that he has become one of the foremost figures in the splendid development work which is making of Tampa a metropolitan city is but a sequence of the application of his great capacity to the public welfare. Additional Comments: Extracted from: FLORIDA EDITION MAKERS OF AMERICA AN HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL WORK BY AN ABLE CORPS OF WRITERS VOL. III. Published under the patronage of The Florida Historical Society, Jacksonville, Florida ADVISORY BOARD: HON. W. D. BLOXHAM COL. FRANK HARRIS HON. R. W. DAVIS SEN. H. H. McCREARY HON. F. P. FLEMING W. F. STOVALL C. A. CHOATE, SECRETARY 1909 A. B. CALDWELL ATLANTA, GA. COPYRIGHT 1909 B. F. JOHNSON File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/fl/hillsborough/bios/biglow77gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/flfiles/ File size: 5.0 Kb