Pueblo County CO Archives Biographies.....Higgins, Robert H. 1862 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 December 20, 2008, 9:59 pm

Author: Wilbur Fiske Stone (1918)

HON. ROBERT H. HIGGINS.

    Hon. Robert H. Higgins, state treasurer of Colorado and for many years one
of the builders of Pueblo, is a direct descendant of that Robert Higgins who,
after many voyages as captain, finally settled down on Manhattan island in 1755
and married Miss Van Zandt, the daughter of the owner of the good ship he had
commanded. Robert H. Higgins has in his possession the evidence of direct
descent from this hero of pre-Revolutionary days. This is the parchment,
yellowed with age and given in turn from father to eldest son, by which the
Frederick county (Va.) home of the Higgins family was deeded in 1762 to Robert
Higgins by Thomas Lord Fairfax. But there is much more of value in that huge box
which Treasurer Higgins now keeps in a fireproof vault. There is the original
military warrant granted to Captain Robert Higgins of Revolutionary fame, "four
thousand acres, revolutionary land grant, between the Little Miami and the
Scioto rivers" in Ohio. This is signed by President James Monroe and dated 1817.

    John Joliff Higgins, grandfather of State Treasurer Higgins, was a native of
Ohio and served his county as sheriff for several terms, between the years 1830
and 1840. In 1842 he was elected a major-general of volunteers by the state
legislature and was also a presidential elector on the Martin Van Buren ticket
in 1844.

    Robert H. Higgins was born at Georgetown, Brown county. Ohio, on April 29,
1862. His father was Robert Hetrick Higgins, who was a native of Ohio and passed
away at his home in Georgetown, that state. During the period of the Civil war
he served for three years and seven months as captain of Company D of the
Fifty-ninth Ohio Volunteer Infantry. He took a prominent part in the affairs of
his county, commonwealth and country, serving as county clerk for fifteen years
before and after the Civil war and one term as a member of the lower house of
the state legislature, while later he became assistant adjutant general of Ohio.
The mother of Robert H. Higgins of this review was Matilda Battaile Marshall
Buckner Higgins. In these names her ancestry is fairly well outlined, for she
was a descendant of the Battaile, the Marshall and the Buckner families of
Revolutionary days.

    In 1891 Robert H. Higgins, who had spent six years with the Santa Fe
Railroad system in Kansas, came to Colorado to go into the smelting business. He
was again with the Santa Fe from 1896 until 1900, and from 1900 until 1907 was
active for a second time in the smelting business. From 1908 until 1916, or for
a period of eight years, he was county commissioner of Pueblo county. This
represents the period in which the greatest progress was made in the history of
both the city and county. The new seven hundred thousand dollar courthouse was
built in that time without a bond issue and is all paid for. In 1909 began the
era of road building and Pueblo county today has the finest system of
hard-surfaced roads in the state. It has, moreover, more miles of road than any
other county of the state. In 1916 Mr. Higgins was nominated for state treasurer
by the democrats of Colorado and was elected to the office by a large majority,
a position which he has filled with honor to himself and credit to the
commonwealth.

    On the 4th of February, 1892. Mr. Higgins was married to Miss Laura Alwilda
Prescott. Their living children are Ruth, Robert and Nellie. Robert is now with
the Twenty-eighth Engineers in France. He enlisted at Camp Meade, Maryland,
within a hundred miles of where his ancestor, the original Robert, enlisted for
service in the Revolutionary war.

    Mr. Higgins belongs to the Masonic lodge, being a thirty-second degree
Mason, and is also a member of the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and the
Woodmen of the World. His political, like his business career has been marked by
steady progress and his ability is attested by the demand of his fellow citizens
for his service in office.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

HISTORY OF COLORADO

ILLUSTRATED

VOLUME III

CHICAGO
THE S. J. CLARKE PUBLISHING COMPANY
1918


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