BIO: Hon. William BIGLER, Clearfield County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja & Sally Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/ NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios: http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/1picts/swoope/swoope.htm _____________________________________________________________ From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr., Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, 337-339. _____________________________________________________________ REPRESENTATIVE CITIZENS 337 HON. WILLIAM BIGLER, deceased, who served the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as its chief executive from 1851 until 1855, later represented his people with distinction in the United States Senate, and for years responded to the call of public duty, often to the detriment of his private interests, which, from early manhood, were important to himself and to those associated with him. His useful life covered the most important years of his country's history and his name is indissolubly connected with its making. Where his fellow citizens at times questioned his judgment but never his integrity, the present day conditions have vindicated many of his thwarted plans and shown his wisdom. William Bigler came of sturdy Pennsylvania German stock. His parents were Jacob and Susan (Dock) Bigler, types of a class of honest, hard-working people, whose mental outlook is apt to be limited and whose ambitions are negligible. One of a large family, William Bigler was born January 13, 1813, at Shermansburg, Cumberland county, Pa., prior to the removal of the family to a pioneer farm in Mercer county. The father died there while the children were young. The home farm was small and the eldest son soon pushed out into the world beyond, and in 1829 he was ready to offer employment to his young brother William, in his printing office at Bellefonte. His name was John Bigler and at that time he was proprietor of the Center Democrat and later attained to gubernatorial honors in California, and left an impress on that state no less indelible than did the younger brother on Pennsylvania. William Bigler was mainly educated in the printing office, his advantages prior to 1829 having been exceedingly limited. He remained with his brother until his apprenticeship was completed and then, with characteristic determination, although practically without funds and at that time with absolutely no influential friends, went to Clearfield and there founded the Clearfield Democrat. He was thus entirely dependent upon the ability with which he could interest an unknown constituency in his efforts to advance the principles of Jacksonian Democracy. At first he was his own complete office force and his initial efforts would have been more or less amusing had they not been tragic. However, it was this spirit of persistency and enterprise that first attracted the public, which later read, admired and bestowed confidence and what was then necessary, gave substantial support to the venture. This newspaper introduced him into public affairs and his manner of handling the grave questions of the day editorially aroused the political leaders and henceforward until his final retirement, he was more or less in the public eye. Although in 1836, Mr. Bigler disposed of his newspaper in order to give his full attention to large lumbering interests with which he became connected in association with his father-in-law, A. B. Reed, he was not permitted to withdraw from public attention and he was more than once offered the nomination for the state legislature. Although he consistently declined these marks of public approval for a time, in 1841 he accepted the nomination to the State Senate and was elected by a very large majority, and in 1844 was re-elected and served two terms and was twice elected speaker. This period was one of great moment to the State of Pennsylvania and the speeches and efforts made by Senator Bigler for the passage of a law of taxation to meet the public indebtedness and pay the interest on the state debt, also for the procuring of the passage of a law for abolishing imprisonment for debt, and also for the passage of the laws regulating questions of internal improvement, all testified to the public spirit, ability, and true conception of public duty, that marked him as a statesman and a sincere friend of the people. In 1848 Senator Bigler's name was presented to the Democratic convention as a candidate for governor, but internal conflicts of personal interests resulted in the election of another candidate. In 1849 he was appointed revenue commissioner, and in 1851 he was nominated by his party for governor, by acclamation, and was triumphantly elected, and this honor came to him before he had reached his thirty-eighth year. It is an interesting episode to record that his election as governor of Pennsylvania was simultaneous with the election of his brother, John Bigler, to the same high office in California. Governor Bigler's administration was just such as the acts of his public life had indicated prior to this. He believed in and advocated the old-time virtues of economy, efficiency, industry and integrity in dealing with public affairs as with private interests and he had the support of all the people with the exception of a class that existed then as now, which sought special privileges and had counted on the executive granting them, and found out their mistake in their estimate of his character. The annals of the state tell how faithfully and fearlessly he faced these private interests and how conscientiously and courageously he carried out the laws according to the constitution. In March, 1854, he was again unanimously nominated for governor, but the strain of public cares had told on him and he made no personal canvass and in the contest was defeated by the Know Nothing party. In January, 1855, he was elected to the United States Senate, where he served with great credit to himself and his state for six years, and it was during this period, in 1857, that, as a member of the committee on commerce, he made an elaborate report concerning the construction of a ship canal across the Isthmus of Panama, a scheme considered then by the country at large as dangerous and entirely visionary. In that, as in many other public projects, Senator Bigler was a man ahead of his times. In 1860 he was a member of the Democratic convention that assembled at Charleston, where he opposed the nomination of Judge Douglas, and he was temporary chairman of the convention at Chicago, in 1864, which nominated George B. McClellan. In 1868 he was a delegate to the National Democratic Convention in New York, which nominated Horatio Seymour. In 1872, he was nominated a delegate-at-large to the convention for the revision of the constitution, but later he voluntarily withdrew his name, but subsequently, for political reasons consented to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of S. H. Raynolds, and took a leading part in the deliberations of that body. He was associated closely with party affairs of large importance up to 1875, after which he withdrew more or less in order to give his attention to local matters beneficial to his county and to his individual interests. On March 23, 1836, William Bigler was married to Maria J. Reed, who was born in Clearfield county, Pa., a lady well qualified to both advance his public prestige and to adorn his home and rear a happy family. Of their children but one survives, a son, Harry F. Bigler, who is president of the Clearfield Steam Company and a director in the Center County National Bank. Distinguished as were his public services, William Bigler's memory is tenderly preserved by those who knew him best for the personal qualities which added to their pride in him and also made him generally beloved. His death occurred at his home on August 9, 1880.