So, I have been researching my Great-Grandfather, Charles Bigler. I have learned that he moved to Goodland in 1932 and bought the newspaper there and turned it into a daily newspaper. He was one of 8 children, and it would appear that his mother died when he was very young. He and his wife, Mabel Garrison Bigler, had three children; my Grandfather, Myron Garrison Bigler, and twin daughers, Doris Marie and Dorothy Mae. Doris died in infancy, from complications of pneumonia. In the Goodland Cemetery, she is buried with Charles and Mabel, and her sister Dorothy who passed away in 2004. (See photos on past post)

I discovered that Charles' father was Lewis John Bigler. Lewis was born in 1850 in Ohio, and his parents, John and Mary, were from Switzerland. I found Lewis in the 1880 Census, living in Kansas with a brother and sister. In the 1900 Census, he is listed as head of household with 8 children, but no wife. In another publication I found on Sherman County, KS I know that his wife's first name is Louisa. Upon further research, I found a reference to them in the IGI on the LDS website. IGI is information submitted by members of the Mormon church, so I can't verify the validity of the information, but in it I discovered that her full name may have been Louisa Frances Blair. I also theorized that their date of marriage had to be late 1880, because the 1880 Census was taken in June, and Lewis was listed as living with siblings. Lewis' first child was born in September 1881, per the 1900 Census, so I was figuring that they married November or December 1880. In the IGI it also listed the date of marriage as December 22, 1880 - right in line with what I suspected. Their youngest child was born in November 1897, so I theorize that she died between then (possibly in childbirth?) and June 1900, when the census was taken and she is not mentioned. Another interesting tidbit, from 1881 to 1897, they had a child every two years, except between 1891 & 1895 - could she have been ill?

I did learn that there was an influx of immigrants from Germany and Switzerland to the mid-west and west between about 1820-1870, but many of the people who died during this time were buried in unmarked graves. I may or may not be able to find Louisa. I have an idea of what cemetery she is in if she was buried in a cemetery, but there is not an online index or photographs of the headstones, so a dead end for now.