David Higbee, p. 438

DAVID HIGBEE. The earliest ancestors of the Higbee family in America were two brothers, who left England about 1680, accompanied by an aged father who died on the passage. The brothers, with their families, settled on Long Island. They had left England on account of religious persecution, and they belonged to the class called Puritans or Nonconformists. Two sons of one of these brothers settled in New Jersey, one, named Peter, near New Brunswick, and the other, whose name was Abijah, near Princeton.

Peter Higbee was born about 1690, and married about 1721. He had seven sons and one daughter, of whom five sons died early; the surviving sons were named Obadiah and Abijah. Obadiah was born in 1732, and was married to Anna Brown November 13, 1762. He settled in New Jersey, and, as also his father, was a farmer. He had no son old enough to do military duty during the continuance of the Revolutionary war, but two young men raised by him entered the army and did good service, while he acted at times as a courier for the Continental armies. In 1784 he sold his farm in New Jersey, and moved to Washington county, Penn. Wishing to look around before purchasing, he rented from Henry Magner a farm near what is now called Finleyville, formerly Rogue Alley. He had accepted, in a large measure, Continental currency for his New Jersey farm, and this became worthless before he purchased, entailing a very serious loss, and making it necessary for him to rent for some years. Nothing daunted, he persevered, and in about ten years was able to buy a farm in Allegheny county, near Castle Shannon.

Obadiah and Anna Higbee had eleven children, six sons and five daughters, their names and dates of birth being as follows: Mary, December 1, 1764; Sarah, February 12, 1767; Abigail, July 1, 1769; Stephen, July 5, 1771; Joseph, November 25, 1773; Benjamin, April 11, 1776; Rhoda, January 4, 1779; William, January 7, 1781; Obadiah, February 11, 1782; Anna, June 1, 1786; Samuel, March 29, 1791. Of this family all lived to have families of their own, except William, who died in his first year. Mary and Sarah remained in New Jersey at their grandfather's (Mary married Edward Riggs, and moved to Allegheny county, Penn., near Library; Sarah married Abijah Applegate, and lived near Heightstown, N. J., where numerous descendants are still to be found); Abigail married Major Edward Wright, and settled in Lawrence county, Penn., near Mt. Jackson; Stephen settled near Warren, Trumbull Co., Ohio; Joseph remained on the old homestead, which is still owned by his son James; Benjamin settled near Finleyville, Washington Co., Penn., where he died at an advanced age, leaving a numerous family (some of his descendants occupy a part of his old farm yet); Rhoda married a Mr. Hull, and settled on the Shenango river in Mercer county, Penn.; Anna married Mr. Fletcher, and settled in southern Ohio; Samuel settled in southern Ohio.

Obadiah Higbee, son of Obadiah and Anna Higbee, married Sarah Phillips, daughter of Joseph Phillips Esq., who came from Wales. They settled in Upper St. Clair township, Allegheny Co., Penn., eight miles from Pittsburgh, and they had eleven children, five sons and six daughters: (1) Jesse, the oldest son, born August 18, 1808, and still living in Iowa, had eight children six living and two dead; three live in Iowa, one in Missouri and two in Kansas. (2) John, born February 4, 1810, died in 1832 leaving no family. (3) Joseph P., born May 23, 1812, settled on a part of his father's farm, which he occupied until his death, September 25, 1892; he had four children one son and three daughters; his son John is an active partner of the firm of Bryce, Higbee & Co., largely engaged in glass manufacturing, Pittsburgh, Penn.; two daughters also survive him: Mrs. Kelso and Mrs. Lesnett. (4) Anne Higbee, born August 18, 1814, married Samuel Blackmore, grandson of Samuel Blackmore, one of the pioneer settlers of Washington county; one daughter survives them, Mrs. Galley. (5) Mary, born August 25, 1816, married Josiah Phillips, a grandson of Rev. David Phillips, the first pastor of Peters Creek Baptist Church; Josiah's death occurred about one year after their marriage; one daughter survives him; about eight years later the widow married James Boyer, a son of one of the pioneers of Washington county. (6) Obadiah, born December 21, 1818, married Eliza Riggs, and after a short stay in Pennsylvania settled on a farm in Iowa, near Iowa City, where he lived up to within three or four years of his death, when he moved into Iowa City, remaining there until his death, which occurred March 11, 1890, he had five children: Caroline, D. Webster, Sarah, Obadiah F. and Lizzie, all living but Caroline. (D. Webster is a prominent lawyer of Iowa; Obadiah F. is a physician of more than ordinary ability residing at Shireoaks, Union township, Washington Co., Penn.); (7) Sarah, born December 10, 1823, married Richard Phillips, and they had seven children, viz.: Obadiah H. and Alexander C., preachers of the Gospel in the Church of Christ; three daughters married, viz.: Mary E. Phillips, Sarah A. Wood and Abigail Lightcap and two children deceased, Ettie and . (8) Abigail, born May 28, 1827, married N. S. Gay, of New York, and they live on a plantation in eastern Virginia, near Spottsylvania C. H.; they have three children living and married, viz.: Amy E. Pendleton, Sarah H. Wilson and Mary B. Smith; two sons are deceased Obadiah and George. (9) Elizabeth, born August 12, 1830, married Hilery T. King, of Illinois, near Moro, where they lived for some time on a farm, thence removing to Davis county, Iowa, where she died October 30, 1886, leaving three sons: Obadiah H., Ulyssus Grant and William, the two former being preachers of the Gospel. (10) Susannah was born December 20, 1833, and died in 1835.

(11) David Higbee was born October 1, 1821. His schooling commenced in a log school- house furnished with slab benches, and boards resting on pins driven into the wall served as writing desks; teachers were paid by subscription and boarded around among the patrons. He attended public school after that system was introduced, also Bethel Academy for a time. After teaching school a short time, he took charge of his father's farm. He lived with and took care of his parents up to the time of their death, his mother dying January 17, 1865, and his father June 6, 1866. He was married November 13, 1851, to Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel and Mary Boyer, and they had four children: Mary, Sarah, Anna Elizabeth and Obadiah Carson. Of these, Sarah (now Mrs. Scholes) and Obadiah Carson are living, the others being dead. The mother of these children died July 23, 1862, and on August 30, 1865, Mr. Higbee was married to Lucinda B. Boyer, and removed to Peters township, Washington Co., Penn., March 6, 1867, where he still lives. By his second wife he had six children, all still living, their names in the order of their birth being: Elizabeth B., John Newton, Della L., Ella Dora, Amy V. and David. A small part of the early portion of this history is traditional, but as Mary Higbee alias Mary Riggs, with whom the writer was intimately acquainted, lived for some years in the family of her grandfather, Peter Higbee, who was a son of one of the brothers who came to this country from England, it will be seen that the mediums of communication are few and direct. The Higbees, especially the earlier generations, were tall, active and long lived. Their occupation generally was farming, and the majority of them were Baptists.

The business of the subject of this sketch has been farming and stockraising (principally sheep). In politics he was first a Whig and Anti-Mason. He was a deeply interested observer of the formation of the Republican party, attended as a spectator its first National Convention, approved its principles, has given the party his support, and is proud of its general record. At the age of seventeen he united with an infant Church of Christ (Disciples), now known as the Peters Creek Church of Christ, which church had been organized two years previous (1836). With six members it met in a private house until the fall of 1839, when the Church commenced worshiping in a brick meetinghouse just completed by it. It became necessary to rebuild in 1858. With this Church he worshiped about fifty years, during about forty years of which time he was an elder. From 1882 to 1888 a most determined effort was made to introduce into this Church what were usually termed; "progressive views and practices." The effort was only too successful. Many were leavened with the new doctrines. Those opposed to these innovations, as subversive of the faith and practice of the Church, became objects of abuse and slander. Strife ensued. The subject of this sketch being an elder, and unyielding in his opposition to a new order of things, was particularly the subject of these attacks, which resulted in an effort to remove him from the eldership and finally led to the withdrawal of himself and family and a number of others from the Church. He claims for himself to be open to conviction on every important subject coming before him, but nothing but convincing evidence will satisfy him. Fidelity to principle, and a conscientious discharge of duty these have been, in an eminent degree, the characteristics of his ancestors, running through five generations up to our Puritan ancestry. May we not claim it as the potent effect of their transmitted blood?

If the Higbee family, among the pioneer families of this county, with their descendants, have contributed in any measure in bringing in the present advanced, enlightened, civilized and religious state of society of which this biographical history is to be a record, it is because of deep convictions of right, and a courage "to do their duty as they saw it." This is the legacy they would leave behind them and commend to those coming after.

[Mr. Higbee has furnished his portrait and biographical sketch for insertion in this work on the assurance of the biographer that he was selected as one among the representative men of Peters township. ]

Text taken from page 438 of:
Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893).

Transcribed June 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project.
Published June 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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