Bigelow went from stagecoaches to telephones

For The Madera Tribune

Long before Friant Dam, pictured here, stretched across the San Joaquin River, Harmon and Jess Bigelow had strung their telephone wires from O’Neals to Friant.

---

I first met the Bigelows while working at Spring Valley School a long time ago. Jess Bigelow was a major patron of the school’s 4-H club and spent a lot of money buying their animals at the Madera and Chowchilla fairs.

Of course it wasn’t long before I found out about the connection between the Bigelow family and the Ponderosa Telephone Company, and that is a history lesson I love to tell. It started more than a century ago, when Harmon Bigelow, Frank Bigelow’s great grandfather, was driving his wagon from his O’Neals home down the hill toward Madera. He only had 35 cents in his pocket, but he had a dream in his head. He intended to capitalize on the need for transportation in Madera County.

Little did he realize that his efforts would take him in an entirely different direction. Little did he know that his plan to start a staging business would result in the creation of the Ponderosa Telephone Company.