Statistics of the Big Pigeon Branch Residential Area

Big Pigeon Tithing Book

A tithing record was kept from July 1848 until about July 1852. There were six names recorded that were not listed on the Branch Records. In addition, the name of Wilkinson Merrett was corrected to Wilkinson Huett, Abisha Wayne was corrected to Abishai Wayre (Wyre) and John Turfer was corrected to John Turpin.

Pottawattamie County Marriage Records 1848-1880

The Pottawattamie County Marriage Records provided the names of those that were residing in Big Pigeon and applied for a marriage license. Included in this section are the names of those not already covered in another section.

1850 U. S. Census Pottawattamie County, Iowa

It is difficult to place those residing in Big Pigeon using the 1850 U. S. Census alone. Pottawattamie County was listed as District #21 and the settlements were not listed. However, if a name was enumerated near a family that was from Big Pigeon as proven by a previous source, those enumerated names are included here. It appears that Luke Johnson enumerated most of Big Pigeon on October 5, 1850. Forty-two families were added from the Census records.

Big Pigeon Cemetery

Undoubtedly there were deaths among the families living in Big Pigeon. Many settlements established their own cemeteries. This is probably true of Big Pigeon. Preliminary dowsing was done in October of 2018 on property where family tradition thought it might exist.

From the biographies, it was determined that twenty-four persons may have died during the time Big Pigeon was occupied. The names of those possibly buried there are: