The Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Representative Men of Chicago, Milwaukee and the World's Columbian Exposition

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BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
beyond question. In all the relations of life, whether of a business or social nature, his charac¬ ter has been beyond reproach, and his integrity has never been questioned. His loyalty to every interest committed to his care has led him to assume   burdens from which men would shrink»
Charitable at all times and to all people, he is rec¬ ognized as the firm friend and gallant defender of the poor, towards whose needs he has ever gen¬ erously contributed in time and money. It is a life notably worthy of emulation by all who would have it truthfully said of them, " Well donCo"
HON. VAN   MOLLIS  HIGGINS,
CHICAGO,   ILL.
AMONG the successful and distinguished men of Chicago, none deserves a more honorable mention than he whose name heads this biogra¬ phy. A native of Genesee county. New York, he was born February 20, 1821, the son of David and Eunice (Sackett) Higgins. His father was a native of East Haddam, Conn., and a farmer by occupation ; he settled in Cayuga county. New York, in 1814; later removed to Genesee county, but afterwards returned to Cayuga county and died there in 1827. His mother, a native of Ver¬ mont, died in 1847. She was a daughter of Will¬ iam Sackett and sister of the Hon. William A. Sackett, now a resident of Saratoga, and formerly member of Congress from Seneca county. New York. David and Eunice Higgins had eight sons, of whom our subject was the fifth.
He received his primary education in the public schools of Auburn and Seneca Falls, New York, and at the early age of twelve years en¬ gaged in business at the last named place, as a clerk in the store of his eldest brother. Four years later, in 1837, prompted by an am¬ bition for a field of action where his powers might have full and free scope, he removed to Chicago, where his brother, i\, D. Higgins, had established himself in 1835 as proprietor of a general store, and with whom he associated him¬ self as an assistant. Chicago then had less than five thousand inhabitants. After leaving school he persisted in keeping up his studies, devoting all his spare time to that end, and during the win¬ ter of 1837-8 taught a district school in Vermilion county, Illinois, with much success.
Prior to this time his brother had become publisher of the Missouri Argus, a daily paper of St. Louis, Mo., then a prosperous city of some   fifteen  thousand   inhabitants,   and   in   the
spring of 1839 ^^^ subject went thither and spent a year in reportorial work. He after¬ wards engaged in • mercantile business at St. Louis on his own account, and although the venture proved a financial success, he was not satisfied, and yielding to a long cherished desire to enter the legal profession, voluntarily sold out his business and turned his attention to the study of law. In the spring of 1842, being then twenty- one years of age, he went to Iroquois county, Illinois, and there continued his legal studies, and a few months later w^as duly admitted to the bar. He practiced one year at Middleport, and in 1845 removed to Galena, Illinois, where, in the follow¬ ing year, he associated himself with -O. C. Pratt, Esq., afterwards a judge of the Supreme Court of Oregon, and later judge of one of the District Courts at San Francisco, Cal. This partnership continued till 1849. ^^- Higgins continued the practice of law at Galena with constantly increas¬ ing success and popularity till 1852, and during his residence there was for two years City Attor¬ ney. Returning to Chicago, which had grown to be a city of thirty thousand inhabitants, he soon afterwards formed a partnership with Messrs. Corydon Beckwith and B. F. Strother, under the firm name of Higgins, Beckwith and Strother. The firm prospered from the start and soon came to be one of the most prominent in Chicago.
Mr. Higgins had never sought the honors or emoluments of office, although from the beginning of his career as a lawyer he had taken an active interest in political matters. With the more intel¬ ligent class of his fellow-citizens, by whom he w^as naturally looked to as a leader, he was opposed to the repeal of the Missouri Compromise and the extension of slavery, and upon the formation of the Republican party  in   1856, he became  identi-