Josiah H Higgins

Little is concretely known about the life and times of J H Higgins, who was born either in Illinois, Texas, or Kentucky depending on which Census entry you read. Indeed, even his first name is a mystery: In the only concrete documents recording his life -- a marriage certificate issued in Texas in 1876, and a divorce proceeding a decade later -- his first and middle names are just letters ... J and H. By the time of the 1880 Census, four short years after his marriage, Catherine O’Brien is mysteriously described as "widowed," although divorce records from 1886 suggest otherwise

The name J H Higgins doesn't turn up again until his daughter Lizzie Speer's death, 55 years later.

Meanwhile, the Higgins name is all over Denton, Texas. Was JH one of them? What happened to him? Where did he come from? A mystery remains -- and likely ties into two names: John Lofton Hagans and Lewis Tiffin Higgins, Sr..

An 1850 census from Denton details the family of John Lofton, including a 5 year-old Josiah H Higgins. The 1860 census has JL remarried to a woman named Tabitha nad living with her children in the next county over; Josiah and his sister, Catherine, are nowhere to be found.

Meanwhile: LT Higgins was a wealthy landowner and family man in the Denton area, where he had lived since at least 1850. Did JL move to the area to join his brother or uncle?
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More details: https://www.familysearch.org/tree/person/details/LCXL-T1N