John married eighteen-year-old
Lucinda Burnett on March 9, 1854. Lucinda, born April 18, 1835, was the
daughter of William and Mary (Fowler) Burnett.[1] Nineteen months after their marriage, John,
age twenty-five, purchased two pieces of land in section 11, Brooklyn
Township. The going rate was $1.25 per
acre. They lived right next door to
Lucinda’s parents and siblings. Lucinda gave
birth to her first child, Sarah Higgins, one year before her youngest sibling
Richard Burnett was born. Baby Sarah
passed away in the summer of 1856 at the age of one. John and Lucinda had a total of ten children,
five daughters and five sons. Their
second son and fourth child, George M. Higgins died before his second
birthday.
In 1860, John, who was thirty at the
time, had a farm valued at $1200. Ten years later (1870), he claimed his real
estate was worth $1500 and personal belongings worth $1,228. His four older children James, Julia, Mary
and Emma attended school that year.
John’s farm was sandwiched between two pieces of land owned by his
father-in-law.
John and Lucinda’s oldest living
daughter, Julia A Higgins, married Thomas Hillyer in 1877. Thomas farmed in Brooklyn while Julia kept
house and raised their three children.
The Hillyers were from Pioneer stock as well having moved into the area
about the same time as the Higgins family.
Lucinda died in February 1879 leaving
John with seven children to raise. Their
oldest son, James, married Mary Eudocia Crook on May 29, 1880.[2]
The newlweds moved into John’s home.
Eighteen-year-old Mary passed away that year leaving sixteen-year-old
Emma to keep house and look after the five younger siblings. Sons, Cyrus and John worked on the farm and
attended school in the winter months.[3]
James and Docia worked as schoolteachers.
They eventually had six children of their own and moved to Anderson
County, Kansas.
Two years after Lucinda passed away,
John married Sarah M. E. O’Dell Sellers who helped raise his younger children. His daughter, Rose Higgins married Thomas
Redfield March 25, 1886. They raised
their family in Brooklyn. Two of their
four children grew to adulthood. John
and Lucinda’s son Cyrus married Nellie Adcock on August 12, 1891. No additional information is available on
their remaining children, Emma, John W, Nancy and William D. Higgins. John
passed away April 23, 1902 joining Lucinda in the Blackburn Cemetery.
The family of John Wesley Higgins and
Lucinda Burnett are:
1.
Sarah Higgins
(1855-1856)
2.
James Marion
Higgins (1857-1923)
3.
Julia A Higgins
(1858-1919)
4.
George M Higgins
(1860-1862)
5.
Mary I Higgins
(1862 – 1880)
6.
Emma E Higgins
(1864 - )
7.
Rosetta Higgins
(1866 – 1948)
8.
Cyrus M Higgins (
1868 - )
9.
John W Higgins
(1870 - )
10. Nancy M Higgins (1874 - )
11. William D Higgins (1876 - )
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