California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


HENRY C. HIGBEE was born in Chittenden county, Vt., May 25. 1828, and comes of a family 
which for many years had been established in the eastern colonies. His paternal grandfather, 
Elisha Higbee. was born in Connecticut, served in the Revolutionary war, and died in Vermont, 
to which he had removed several years before. His paternal grandmother, Nancy Higbee, had 
a somewhat tempestuous youth, having been captured by the Indians when ten years of age, and 
held by them for a period of five years. Lewis Higbee, the father of Henry C, was born in Ver- 
mont, and had a firm character, which partook of the nature of the granite hills among which his 
youth was passed. Strong and resolute, and knowing no compromise as far as right and 
wrong were concerned, he was an ardent supporter of education, was a voluminous reader, 
and an able legislator when representing his district in the state assembly. About 1855 he re- 
moved to Beaverdam, Wis., and there engaged in farming for the balance of his life. In his effort 
to live a wise and consistent life he was ably seconded by his wife, who was formerly Sarah 
Baker, of New York, and a relative of Ethan Allen, of Revolutionary fame. Mrs. Higbee was 
a woman of dignity of manner, aristocratic bearing, and unbounded influence in her home and 
immediate circle of friends. She was greatly beloved for her rare good nature, and for the wis- 
dom and thoroughness with which she reared her eight sons and two daughters, of whom Henry C. 
is next to the youngest. A reflection of the mother's patience and the father's strength 
would seem to have been found in the youngest son of the family, who was state superintendent 
of public institutions of Pennsylvania for nine years, and who was a scholar of remarkable 
breadth and erudition. Elnathan Elisha Higbee, D.D., LL.D., was a man of ideal character, and 
according to a memorial of his life, a righteous man, the friend of humanity ; as a youth fore- 
most in athletics and sports, and as a man, a scholar, wise counsellor and orator. He was 
modest withal, and at his death was the most widely beloved man in the state of Pennsylvania. 
As a boy Henry C. Higbee had a longing for the west, a desire which he was able to gratify 
in 1850, when he moved to Ohio, and the following year to Kentucky. In the spring of 1852 be 
started across the plains from Cincinnati, Ohio, which was then the center of great excitement 
over the favorable reports of gold which came from the coast. Coming by way of the Ohio, 
Mississippi and Missouri rivers to Leavenworth, he proceeded by way of the Platte river, arriving 
at Volcano, Cal., August 15, 1852. For thirteen years he engaged in mining in different parts of 
the state, spending the last few years in Amador and Calaveras counties, in the latter county in- 
vesting heavily in copper mines, and eventually losing practically all that he had in the world. 
With a company of men he started for Arizona in the spring of 1867, but turned back to Los 
Angeles, and went to the Kern county mines, in the fall of 1867 coming to Visalia, where he made 
arrangements to purchase four hundred acres of land and engage in the stock business. He now 
has two hundred and forty acres, twenty of which are under fruit, eighty acres under alfalfa, and 
the balance under pasture. His home is located three miles south of Visalia, on the Santa Fe 
Railroad, and has numerous advantages of soil, situation and productiveness. Interest has been 
shown in the comfortable, pleasant as well as prosperous side of ranching, and the prevailing 
atmosphere of the home is one of good cheer, hospitality and unbounded good will. Mr. Hig- 
bee has been twice married, his first wife having been Martha A. Miles, of Minnesota, who died 
in California. The present Mrs. Higbee was Catherine Christie, of Schleswig-Holstein, Ger- 
many ; by this marriage one daughter. Elna C, has been born. Politically Mr. Higbee is a 
Socialist.