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Note: name of his wife Nancy, is at this time unknown. My grandfather, Ellis Higgins, always told us we were of the Irish Higgins line. He had even mentioned that at one time our name was O'Higgins,(according to Irish records, the Higgins name was sometimes spelled "Heagen, Hagen, or Hiegen.") I doubt that he would have told us that unless this is what he had heard while growing up himself. The grandmother of a fellow Higgins family researcher spoke of the family line saying that Simeon came to America around the year 1763 with his brother Cornelius and their father (name unknown). They came from Ulster, Ireland. (family history also said that two of Simeon's granddaughters had red hair and green eyes. Some of us in the present generation are blessed with a reddish color to our hair and some even have a sprinkling of freckles.) There was, at the time it is said that Simeon came to America, a migration of some Irish folk to the New Land (there was a famine in Ireland around this time). There are no documents to be found concerning Simeon Higgins, such as birth, marriage or death records. Simeon Higgins was first found, listed with his wife Nancy, in the 1790 census, in Stephentown, Albany Co., New York. Simeon's son, Daniel, married Mary Daggett about 1794 and settled in Rensselaer Co., New York where Mary's family was living. Mary was the daughter of Mayhew Daggett and Esther Atwater.
This family is found in the 1800 Census; 1 male between 26-45 years of age (Daniel) 1 female between 26-45 years of age (Mary) 2 females under 10 (Sally and Hannah) 1 male under 10 (Lewis)
Soon after this census was taken, Daniel and Mary moved close to where his parents lived in Otsego Co., New York. This was a beautiful place with spectacular lakes and rolling hills. (This is the same area that James Fenimore Cooper used for his setting of the "Leatherstocking Tales", one being "The Last of the Mohicans") By 1806, Daniel relocated in Milford, a little village on the edge of the Cherry Valley River, as it flows into the Otsego Lake just six miles south. From this Lake flows the beautiful Susquehana River. Milford was at one time known as Sufferage.
In the 1810 census for Milford is listed D. Higgins and his family: 1 male between 26-45 years of age (Daniel) 1 female between 26-45 years of age (Mary) 1 female age between 16-25 (Sally) 1 female age between 10-16 (Hannah) 1 female under 10 (Catherine) 3 males under 10 (Daniel Jr, Nelson, Charles)
The following text is from "The History of New London"; Sometime around 1816 some of the Higgins family migrated West. "In the 18 months previous to April 1816, 15,000 wagons containing emigrants from New England passed along the road between the Hudson and Pittsburgh. Freight and passengers were carried in great Conestoga Wagons at so much per pound. It is said that the road over the mountains was very crude and rough; wrecks of vehicles and remains of animals being mute testimony to the dangers of the percipitous descent. Transportation by boat down the Ohio was much cheaper; some came up the tributaries to finally locate in Huron County. Another reason New Englanders wanted to leave was the unendurable cold weather during the summer of 1816. A Mr. Jabez Hanford wrote in his Bible: "The year of our Lord 1816 being a remarkable year is worthy of record. The Spring was cold, very backward, with considerable thunder and severe frost. From the 6th to the 10th day of June, very cold; ground frozen to some thickness, wind generally from the north and dry. Snow fell in Canada to a depth of twelve inches June 16th; corn all cut to the ground. The first of August continued cold and dry; corn now very small with little hope of a crop. Frost July 24th, August 27th and 29th. So clothes spread out were e
Note: Simeon Higgins is the first of our Higgins line to come to America. The maiden
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