Born 1816 in Angelica, New York to parents descended from Mayflower lines and Revolutionary War Veterans. Was removed to Ohio at a very young age, following a harrowing winter trip on rivers and horseback. A letter telling of this trip from his mother to her in-laws in Bath, NY was reprinted in the June 1937 "Firelands Pioneer", at that time the letter was over 114 years old, this letter today is 178 years old. R.E.Higgins grew up in Norwalk, Huron Co. OHIO, where his father practiced law. He left home to go to school in WI at the Woodstock Institute in 1837 and there are several lost years in my information. In the family Bible I found an Abstinence Pledge signed by him in 1851, but does not give location. About 1852 he married a widow Mrs. Sarah A. Curtis, with young son and their oldest son David Cecil was born 1853 in Indianapolis, Marion Co. IN. They appear on the 1860 census of Shelbyville, Shelby Co. IN, Robert E. is now a Doctor and Surgeon. In 1870 the family is in Franklin, Johnson Co. IN and they lived there until moving back to Indianapolis in about 1879. Robert Emmett Higgins died in Indianapolis 2 July 1886, age 71.

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Short Biography of Sarah Frances (Frankie) Higgins

Born 12 September 1894 in Lewisville, TX was 4th child and 3rd daughter of George Lucius Higgins and Sarah Frances Thomas. The family moved often, George L. was a type setter and sometimes editor on small newspapers around Texas. His children were born in Lewisville, Dallas, Corsicana and Sulphur Springs. They also lived in Hico, Hamilton Co. TX for several years about 1900, then moved to Ballinger, Runnells Co. TX for a few years, then to Quitman, Wood Co, TX, where George L. suffered a stroke in 1915, following which the family moved back to Dallas, where he died in 1916. Sarah Frances Higgins lived with her children, including Sarah Frances (Frankie) until she died in 1959. Frankie married Walter Burrows following the death of her older sister, leaving 2 small children. This marriage did not work out and she moved back with the family in Quitman in 1914, where my Mother was born in 1915. Frankie lived in Dallas for most of her life, the last few were spent in Palo Pinto Co. living with her daughter.