Northumberland County PA Archives Biographies.....Higbee, James I. 1856 - living in 1899

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Author: Biographical Publishing Co.



JAMES I. HIGBEE. We introduce to our readers throughout the Seventeenth

Congressional District one of the foremost men of Northumberland County, the

gentleman whose name appears above, a prominent railroad contractor and a large

real estate owner of Watsontown, Pa. He is a son of Philip Higbee and was born

in Tioga Center, Tioga County, N. Y., in 1856. He moved to Northumberland

County, Pa., in 1878. He purchased the Van Fleet farm near Watsontown and for a

couple of years devoted his time entirely to agricultural pursuits.



  During the flood of 1880 Mr. Higbee took the contract from the West Branch

Lumbermen's Exchange of gathering and cutting the logs taken from the flood and

manufacturing them into lumber at the Pardee Mills in Watsontown. In 1886 our

subject began the important and lucrative business of railroad building. He

built sixteen miles of the Central Pennsylvania & Western Railroad from

Watsontown to Orangeville, and in 1893 built the Central Railroad of

Pennsylvania, thirty miles, from Bellefont to Mill Hall, Pa. All the stone and

abutment work to the bridges was entrusted to him and it has proved eminently

satisfactory to all concerned.



  Mr. Higbee was united in marriage with Mary D. Miller of Smithboro, Tioga

County, N. Y. Ira M. Higbee, their only child and son, was given a thorough

education, mastered the profession of a civil engineer, and was graduated from

Lehigh University in 1895. In 1896 he accepted a position with the Venezuelan

government as assistant engineer in constructing water works, in the state of

Miranda, towns of Maraca and Victoria, Venezuela, spending one year on the above

work. Soon after he was married to Mary M. Boon of Williamsport, Pa., and is now

assistant supervisor of the Pennsylvania Railroad at Watsontown.



  After becoming a contractor our subject left his farm and purchased a handsome

modern brick residence on South Main street, in Watsontown. In this comfortable

home he and his estimable wife have since enjoyed life, and they make it

hospitable for their many friends. In politics Mr. Higbee is a Republican, but

has never been prevailed upon to accept office, except in a minor capacity in

the borough.







Additional Comments:

Extracted from:



Book of Biographies of the Seventeenth Congressional District

Published by 

Biographical Publishing Company of Chicago, Ill. and Buffalo, NY (1899)



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