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

              BIOGRAPHICAL DICTIONARY AND PORTRAIT GALLERY.
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fied with it, and two years later was elected to the General Assembly of Illinois on the Republican ticket. In the legislature he held a commanding position, and became known as a high-minded, patriotic and impartial legislator, and at the close of his term he was elected judge of the Superior Court of Chicago by an overw^helming majority.
During the period of the civil war. Judge Higgins was conspicuous for his zeal in the cause of the Union. He was a warm personal friend and staunch supporter of President Lincoln, and in word and deed lent himself to the support of the measures inaugurated by those who were in accord with the President in his work of saving the Union. He early saw the necessity of organi¬ zation among Union men, and was largely instru¬ mental in forming the Union Defense Committee of Chicago, which may justly be classed with the Union League and other leading organizations that rendered such efficient service and contributed so largely to the success of the Union cause. Judge Higgins w^as prominent as a member of the exec¬ utive committee of this organization, and by his counsels and work rendered services in raising and equipping recruits, furnishing supplies and cloth¬ ing, helping the sick and wounded and comforting the bereaved, that gained for him a high place in the esteem of his fellows-citizens, as a patriot and philanthropist.
In the fall of 1865, Judge Higgins resigned from the bench, and forming a partnership with the Hon. Leonard Swett and Col. David Quigg, under the firm name of Higgins, Swett and Quigg, resumed the practice of law. This relation¬ ship continued until 1872, when he withdrew from the firm to accept the presidency of the Babcock Manufacturing Company. P'our years later, on January ist, 1876, he withdrew from active parti¬ cipation in the affairs of this company, and took charge of the financial department of the Charter Oak Life Insurance Co. for the Western States. Judge Higgins, as proprietor of Rose Hill Ceme¬ tery Co., has been at the head of that organization since 1872, and since 1880 has been president of the National Life Insurance Company of the United States, the only life insurance company in existence chartered by Congress. He is also president of the Fidelity Safe Deposit Company of Chicago; is a member of the Chicago Bar Association, of the American Bar Association and
of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, and was one of the charter members of the Chicago Historical Society. He is a man of genial, sunny nature and social qualities of a high order, and finds time to indulge his social tastes, being a member of the Kenwood Club, the Wash¬ ington Park Club, the Union League Club, and president of the Hyde Park Suburban Club. Throughout his busy life. Judge Higgins has been an enthusiastic lover of mechanical arts and has devoted much time to mechanical pursuits, and in gratifying his tastes in. this direction has invented and patented a number of important mechanical appliances. In forming an estimate of the char¬ acter of Judge Higgins, one cannot but be im¬ pressed with 'his varied talents and qualities. The late Emery A. Storrs speaking of him, said, " He is a man of great public spirit, and is in feeling and character a t3/pical Western man. From the beginning, Judge Higgins has seen with a vision clearer than most men,, not only the probabilities but also the possibilities of the West; and what a quarter of a century and more ago he so clearly saw, and what he so confidently prophesied, he has diligently worked to realize." Throughout his life he has been a diligent student, and, especially in the line of his profession, has given to his intel¬ lectual tastes the fullest scope. Endowed by nature with a legal and judicial mind, he engaged in his professional work with a zeal and love that could not but lead to the highest attainments and win for him an honorable name. He was especially noted for his pains-taking in the prepa¬ ration of his cases, and by reason of his thorough knowledge of the law, performed his professional work with an ease and naturalness that marked him as a master and leader. Possessed of a pro¬ digious memory, he was enabled to recall de¬ cisions and precedents at will, so that on the bench he was able to dispatch the business of his court with rapidity; and so thorough was his comprehension of legal principles, and such his conscientious regard for the duties of his high office, that he made few mistakes of judgment and his decisions were rarely reversed. As a judge he dealt with law not merely in the abstract, but applied its principles with discretion and justice, in which he was greatly aided by his thorough acquaintance with business and business methods.    In judicial manner he was a model;