HISTORY, SHE WROTE
Rosalie Yoakam
Bigger Road in Montgomery County and Polen Farm, a rental facility operated by the city of Kettering Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts Department, both are traces left by an early pioneer family, the Biggers.
According to William H. Bigger, who wrote a family history in 1950, the chronicle begins in Biggar, Scotland. Three brothers from that area moved to Northern Ireland and settled in Belfast. A few years later, the family migration led to Pennsylvania, Ky., and eventually the Northwest Territory.
In the early 1800s, John Bigger Sr., born in Ireland in 1760, came to the part of the Northwest Territory that became Montgomery County.
In 1787, John married his cousin Mary Bigger in Pennsylvania. He had served in the Revolutionary War and, in 1813, was awarded land for this service. His family lived for a time in Kentucky before coming to Montgomery County and claiming his land.
The John Bigger Sr. family helped establish the Sugar Creek Associate Presbyterian Church in Bellbrook. This later became the Sugar Creek Presbyterian Church at Bigger Road and Wilmington Pike in Kettering. Bigger was a ruling elder until his death.
This John Bigger was a cousin of Col. John Bigger, who lived in Warren County and was a ruling elder of the Dick’s Creek Presbyterian Church, near the village of Blue Ball. John Bigger Sr. of Montgomery County died in 1831 and is buried in the Old Pioneer Cemetery in Bellbrook.
Joseph Bigger was John Bigger Sr.’s grandson, the youngest son of John Bigger Jr. and Mary Bradford Bigger. In 1854, he built the house and barn at 5099 Bigger Road, in present-day Kettering and called it White Oak Farm. Joseph married Mary LeFever. They had two daughters, Cora and Anna.
After Joseph Bigger died in 1908 and his wife in 1917, Cora Bigger Walcutt received the property. She kept the house until 1940 when she sold it to Russell V. Polen.
Polen was a General Motors executive and a close associate of Charles F. Kettering. He was instrumental in bringing General Motors Frigidaire to Dayton. Polen made some major changes to the house and repaired the barn.
He also purchased some adjoining land and subdivided it along with part of the farm land. Fifteen acres were kept and then sold, along with the house and barn, to the city of Kettering through a “life estate” in 1975.
In 1979, after his death, the city assumed ownership of the property. A major remodeling was done in 1996.
Regarding the history of Bigger Road, William H. Bigger wrote in his family history, “The Bigger Road, which starts at the Sugar Creek United Presbyterian Church on Wilmington Road below Dayton and runs south to No. 725 passes thru the original tracts of land owned by the family.”
About the Author