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                   http://www.nps.gov/civilwar/customcf/timeline.html (accessed May 9)

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James Higgins (1844-1916)

James, like Henry, was born after the family moved to Brooklyn.  He came into the world on February 5, 1844.[1]  He was the youngest, having four older brothers and one older sister Julia, who was thirteen at the time of his birth.  Julia surely enjoyed helping care for the new baby in the family.  James probably spent much of his childhood running around on the farm in his bare feet helping with the chores.

            Once James turned nine, he had more responsibility, such as arising early to milk the five cows each morning and feed the twenty hogs.  As he matured, his skill and knowledge in farming techniques increased as well.   He continued to live in his childhood home with his parents and farm the land owned by his father.  His brother Jackson lived close by, at the next farm over.  Julia’s two remaining children lived on the other side of his home with their father and stepmother.  John W. and Lucinda’s children were just down the road a bit, giving him opportunities to mingle with his many nieces and nephews.[2] 

            When his mother Sarah died in 1880, James became his father’s  companion until Daniel died in 1892.[3]  Eight year later, at the age of fifty-six, James was living with his brother Jackson, sister-in-law Sarah and his two nephews, William and John, and helping with the farm work.[4]  In 1910, James, age sixty-six, lived with his brother Henry, sister-in-law Sarah and her 78-year-old father, Thomas.  James and Henry were both farming.[5]  James passed away right before Christmas 1916.  He was buried in the Blackburn Cemetery close to his other deceased family members.[6]

            Daniel and Sarah took a leap of faith when they moved their young family 500 miles west.  They left behind family, friends and all that was familiar for the unknown of the American frontier.  By the time Daniel passed away in 1892, his family had lived in Brooklyn for fifty-six years.  The family of six, who arrived in 1838, grew to a family of over seventy-five at the time of Daniel’s death.  Daniel and Sarah had twenty-seven known grandchildren and many great grandchildren.  Daniel and Sarah left a legacy of courage, hard work, religious conviction, civil responsibility and most importantly, the love of family. 

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[1] Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths Index, “James Higgins” ancestry.com (accessed May 15 2013)

[2] Mansberger and Stratton, Archaeological Investigations, 10

[3] Higgins Obituary, Rushville, Illinois, 1896

[4] 1900 Federal Census Brooklynn

[5] 1910 Federal Census Brooklyn, Schuyler, IL “Henry Higgins” ancestry.com (accessed January 15, 2013)

[6] Illinois Find A Grave, “Henry Higgins”, http://www.findagrave.com (accessed January 25, 2013)

Henry Higgins (1842-1924)

Henry was born on the family farm in Brooklyn, May 17, 1842.[1]  He remembers attending Center Ridge School although it was a distance from their farm and a struggle to attend due to family responsibilities.[2]  As already mentioned, he had a deeply religious experience and miraculous recovery from illness at age nineteen.  He waited until he was thirty-one before marrying.  His future wife, Sarah Gossage, was also born and raised in Brooklyn Township,[3] and was thirteen years younger than Henry.  Sarah’s father, Thomas Gossage, was born in Morgan County Ohio, the same year as Henry’s older Sister Julia.  The Gossage family, like the Higgins family, trekked from Morgan County, Ohio to Brooklyn, Illinois.  Their families were in similar circumstances in Brooklyn financially when Henry and Sarah married although Sarah’s father was the same age of her husband’s siblings and he owned a larger farm and had more horses and cattle than Henry’s father had. 

Henry and Sarah had two sons, Charles Thomas Higgins born in Brooklyn in 1875 and Ira Elva Higgins, also born in Brooklyn in 1883.[4]  Five years into their marriage, Henry and Sarah had settled on their Brooklyn farm with their son Charles.  They had a twelve year old servant girl named Ella Osmas living with them.  Ella could read but not write but she did attended school that year.[5]  That same year Henry’s mother, Sarah, died.  She never met her grandson Ira Higgins, who was the second son of Henry and Sarah. 

By 1900, Henry and Sarah had paid in full their farm mortgage.  Henry’s brother, James, lived with them as well working on the farm with Henry. Their two sons, Charles and Ira, lived at home and helped work the farm as well.[6]  Son, Charles married Orpha Chitwood that year.   Henry and Sarah’s first grandchild, Arthur Ray Higgins, was born the following year in1901.  Artie lived right next door to his grandparents.  

Second son, Ira married Inez Pearl Manlove on April 8, 1903 in Rushville, Illinois.   Inez was the oldest daughter of John J. and Sarah L .T. Manlove.   She was also a descendant of William Manlove, one of the very first Brooklyn pioneers, moving to the area in 1825.[7]  Ira and Inez had 10 children born in the years 1905 – 1929.  They raised their family in Birmingham Township, less than 10 miles away, living in the Manlove family farm originally built by Inez’s grandparents.[8] 

When Henry retired from farming, he and Sarah moved to St Mary’s Township, Hancock, Illinois.  Their nineteen-year-old grandson, Artie, came to live with them while working as a newspaper editor.[9]  Henry passed away January 7, 1924 in Plymouth, Illinois and was buried at the Round Prairie Cemetery, Plymouth, Schuyler, Illinois.  Sarah died February 20, 1931, buried at the Round Prairie Cemetery as well.[10]

The family of Henry Higgins and Sarah W Gossage are:

1.     Charles Thomas Higgins (1875 – 1940)

2.     Ira Elva Higgins (1883 – 1952)

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[1] Illinois, Deaths and Stillbirths Index, 1916-1947 “Henry Higgins”, ancestry.com (accessed Jan 4, 2013)

[2]  Dyson, Historical Encyclopedia, 842

[3] Illinois, Death and Stillbirths Index, 1916 – 1947, ancestry.com (accessed June 10, 2013)

[4] 1900 Federal Census Brooklyn, Schuyler, Illinois “Sarah Higgins” ancestry.com (accessed May 16, 2013)

[5] 1880 Federal Census Brooklyn, Schuyler, Illinois “Henry Higgins” ancestry.com (accessed May 16, 2013)

[6] 1900 Federal Census Brooklyn, Schuyler, Illinois “Henry Higgins” ancestry.com (accessed May 16, 2013)

[7] Museum, History of Schuyler, 695

[8] Museum, Schuyler County, 344

[9] 1920 Federal Census Saint Mary, Hancock, Illinois “Henry Higgins”, Ancestry.com (accessed June 8, 2013)

[10] Illinois Find A Grave “Henry Higgins and Sarah Gossage Higgins”, www.findagrave.com (accessed May 15, 2013)

Christopher Higgins (1835-1887)

Christopher married Margaret Ann (Mary Ann) Mason on July 24, 1857,[1] just nine days after Margaret’s sister Susannah married John Fowler, who was Christopher’s sister Julia Higgins’s widower.  Christopher and Mary Ann’s first baby, Q Isabella, only lived for one year before internment in the Blackburn Cemetery.[2]  A few months later, their second daughter Martha Jane was born in Brooklyn.  Christopher and Mary Ann moved to Nevada sometime between 1860 and 1867 where their third child, Sarah Higgins was born in Nevada.  Isaac and George Mason, Mary Ann’s younger brothers, moved with them to Nevada.[3]   They eventually had six daughters and one son whom they raised in Truckee Meadows[4] and Glendale, Nevada just south of Reno.[5]   Christopher farmed his whole life and passed away in 1887. Mary Ann died in 1895; both were buried in Reno, Nevada.[6]

Daughter, Martha Jane married Michael Kiely, an Irish immigrant.[7]  Martha and Michael had ten children, of which five daughters and three sons lived to adulthood.[8]  They raised their family in Glendale, Nevada where Michael farmed. Martha passed away in 1940 at the age of eighty in Alameda, California.[9]

Daughter, Sarah Higgins never married.  She lived in the San Francisco area in her forties working as a sales clerk in a dry goods store and living in Hotel Gloster on Mason Street. [10] She passed away at the Keitzke Ranch in 1919 at the age of fifty-three.  She was buried in the Mountain View Cemetery, Reno, Nevada.[11]

Fourteen-year-old daughter, Mary Hattie lived at home in 1880.  No later records have been located to indicate the course of her life.  Son, James Higgins, age twenty-two, married Minnie Emma Berry on July 2, 1892.[12]  They had one daughter, Nevada Lyle or Neva.  James Higgins and Minnie divorced.  Neva lived with her mother and stepfather, Orin Hatch, taking the last name of Hatch for herself.  James married for the second time to Agnes Duncan.[13]  James and Agnes had three children, Lester, Evelyn and Melvin raising their family in Washoe, Nevada.[14]

Twenty-one year old daughter, Emma married Albert Kietzke, a German immigrant.  Together they had 10 children.[15]  Most likely Emma’s sister Sarah died in Emma’s home since her place of death was the Kietzke Ranch.

Bessie Higgins’s life course is currently unknown.  A Bessie Higgins married an Albert Stiner in 1901.[16]  By 1910 Albert was widowed with two young sons ages six and seven.  If this Bessie Higgins was the daughter of Christopher and Mary Ann, she died before 1910.

The family of Christopher Higgins and Margaret Ann Mason are:

1.     Q Isabel Higgins (1858 – 1859)

2.     Martha Jane Higgins (1859 – 1940)

3.     Sarah C Higgins (1865 – 1919)

4.     Mary Hattie Higgins (1866 - )

5.     James M Higgins (1869 - )

6.     Emma D Higgins (1874 - )

7.     Bessie Higgins (1879 - )

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[1] Museum, Schuyler County, 309

[2] National Archives and Records Administration, “U.S Federal Census Mortality Schedule, 1850 – 1885”,

[3] Museum, Schuyler County, 309

[4] 1870 Federal Census Truckee Meadows, Washoe, Nevada “C Higgins” ancestry.com (accessed Jan 15, 2013)

[5] 1880 Federal Census Glendale, Washoe, Nevada “Christopher Higgins” ancestry.com (accessed Jan 15, 2013)

[6] Ancestry.com “Frager Family Tree” ancestry.com (accessed June 8, 2013)

[7] BYU Idaho “Western States Marriage Index for Martha J Higgins” http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/westernStates/westernStatesRecordDetail.cfm?recordID=265075 (accessed June 12)

[8] 1900 Federal Census Glendale, Washoe, Nevada “Martha J Kiely”, ancestry.com (accessed June 8, 2013)

[9] California, Death Index, 1940-1997 “Martha Jane Keily”, ancestry.com (accessed June 11, 2013)

[10] 1910 Federal Census San Francisco, San Francisco, CA “Sara Higgins” ancestry.com (accessed June 11, 2013)

[11] Ross-Burke Funeral Records, Reno, Nevada, 1904-1919 “ Sarah C Higgins” ancestry.com (accessed June 11, 2013)

[12] BYU Idaho “Western States Marriage Index for James Higgins” http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/westernStates/westernStatesRecordDetail.cfm?recordID=264506 (accessed June 11, 2013)

[13] Ancestry.com “Reece Family Tree” trees.ancestry.com (accessed June 9, 2013)

[14] 1920 Federal Census Reno, Washoe, Nevada “James Higgins” ancestry.com (accessed June 9, 2013)

[15] 1910 Federal Census Reno, Washoe, Nevada “Emma D Higgins” ancestry.com (accessed June 9, 2013)

[16] BYU Idaho “Western States Marriage Index for Bessie Higgins” http://abish.byui.edu/specialCollections/westernStates/westernStatesRecordDetail.cfm?recordID=264506 (accessed June 11, 2013)

Jackson Higgins (1832-1921)

Jackson married a local girl, twenty-three year old Sarah Burnett, who was five years his junior on October 31, 1858.[1]  Sarah was born and raised in the neighboring town, Woodstock.  She was the daughter of William and Mary (Fowler) Burnett who had eight children, four girls and four sons.  Sarah was the second oldest in the family.  Her father was a farmer.  Sarah’s older sister Lucinda had married Jackson’s older brother John W. Higgins just three and half years previously, making them sister-in-laws as well as blood sisters.[2]   Their first son, William Harrison Higgins was born Sept 1, 1859 in Brooklyn.[3]  A second son followed six years later on February 10, 1864, John Richmond Higgins.  It is possible they had a daughter as well.  Oct 1, 1880 the Rushville Times obituary section reported, “A grown daughter of Jackson Higgins of Brooklyn Township died suddenly Thursday of last week, while visiting at Mr. Thomas Fowler’s three miles north of this place”.[4]  However, the 1900 Census reports Jackson and Sarah had two children with two still living.  Jackson’s eighteen-year-old niece, Mary Higgins did pass away in 1880 so perhaps the paper misprinted the father’s name recording Jackson instead of John W. Higgins.

Farming was Jackson’s life occupation.  He started with forty acres, which grew to 227 acres by 1892.  His land was completely fenced with more than half under the plow.  It included some timberlands and large pasturage.  Jackson served his community in the capacity of a Justice of the Peace for four years and served as Road Commissioner as well.  Politically, he was a Democrat and he attended the Methodist Church.

Jackson’s son, William Harrison Higgins, married Eurilla Lucrecia Crook November 4, 1884 in McComb, McDonough, Illinois.  Eurilla, raised in Stark County Illinois, had six younger siblings and one older sister.  Her father, Charles Nelson Crook, farmed while her mother, Helen Rosaltha Goodrich kept house.[5]  Eurilla’s older sister, Mary Eudocia, had married William Harrison’s first cousin, James Marion Higgins, four years previously.  Jackson and Sarah’s first grandchild, Lillie Elizabeth Higgins was born August 19, 1885 to William and Rilla.  They had four more daughters with one son sandwiched between all the girls.

William and Rilla packed up their family and moved to Shawnee County, Kansas sometime between 1891, after Carl was born in Illinois and 1894, before Nellie Bessie was born in Kansas.  Perhaps they followed Rilla’s family who moved to Kansas in the early 1880’s.  They tried their luck farming in Morgan County, Colorado for a short while around 1910[6] but returned to Shawnee, Kansas later that year.  Rilla died in Kansas in 1918.[7] William lived almost another 20 years before passing away in 1937 in Topeka, Kansas.[8]

Jackson and Sarah’s second son, John R. married Dora M. Fowler on April 3, 1887 in Brooklyn.[9]  Dora, a Brooklyn native, was born on April 3, 1887.  Dora’s parents were John Fowler and Susannah Mason Fowler.  John R’s new father-in-law was also his uncle through John’s first wife Julia Higgins.  John and Dora had four children; Claucia, Ward, Twila and Harley.  They raised their children in Lower Center Ridge (Brooklyn).[10]  John and Dora were Methodist and are both buried in the Blackburn Cemetery. [11]

The family of Jackson Higgins and Sarah Burnett are:

1.     William Harrison Higgins (1859 – 1937)

2.     John Richmond Higgins (1864 – 1935)

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[1] Museum, Schuyler County, 343,

[2] Ibid

[3] Ibid

[4] “Higgins, ___, Obituary,” The Rushville Times,1 Oct 1880

[5] 1880 Federal Census Brooklyn Illinois “Eurilla L. Crook” ancestry.com (accessed Jan 10, 2013)

[6] 1910 Federal Census  Fort Morgan, Morgan, CO “William H Higgins” ancestry.com (accessed Jan 10, 2013)

[7] Kansas Find A Grave “Eurilla Lucrecia Crook” http://www.findagrave.com (accessed January 18, 2013)

[8] Kansas Find A Grave “William Harrison Higgins” http://www.findagrave.com (accessed January 18, 2013)

[9] Illinois Gen Web Project, “Register of Marriages”, http://schuyler.illinoisgenweb.org/MarriageRecords/marriages6.html (accessed on June12)

[10] Museum, Schuyler County, 343-4

[11] Illinois, Find A Grave, “John R Higgins and Dora M. Fowler Higgins”, http://www.findagrave.com (accessed January 25, 2013)