Henry William Bigler

Born in Harrison County, Virginia (now West Virginia); baptized in 1837; called as missionary to Ohio and western Virginia in 1839 and 1843; served in Mormon Battalion, 1846–47; remained in California following discharge; present at Sutter’s Mill in January 1848 when gold was discovered; went to Utah in 1848; returned to California the following year in company with GQC, having been outfitted as a miner by John Smith in return for a share of the profits; one of those with GQC at Slap Jack Bar; called on mission to Hawai‘i in September 1850; after spending time on Maui, labored primarily on Oah‘u; released from Hawaiian mission in July 1854 along with GQC; returned to Utah the following year; married Cynthia Jane Whipple in 1855 and settled in Farmington, Utah; served second mission to Hawai‘i, 1857–58; following Cynthia’s death in 1874 moved to St. George in 1877; married Eleanor Parthenia Emett while living in St. George. (See Jenson, BE, 3:599; Bigler, diaries and autobiographies; Bishop, Henry William Bigler; Landon, To California in ’49, 181; MMH, biographical sketches; Gudde, Bigler’s Chronicle of the West; Bishop, “Henry William Bigler”; Bishop, “A Great Little Saint”; Ricketts, Mormon Battalion, 358; Lyman, Payne, and Ellsworth, No Place to Call Home, 390; Davies, Mormon Gold, 399; Owens, Gold Rush Saints, 385–86; GQC journal, frequent references, Sept. 1850–Sept. 1854.)