J.H. Higdon

James Hilary Higdon Sr, known generally as J.H. Higdon, was an early inhabitant and community figure in El Paso, Texas. He moved from Kentucky to New Mexico in 1906 for a short period, and then lived the remainder of his life in El Paso. His occupation was as a realtor.
Early Life
James Hilary Higdon was born in a frontier area in Grayson Springs, Kentucky in 1883 , but spent most of his life in the southwestern part of the United States. As a youth, he left home and joined his uncle James Hilary White in Oklahoma shortly after the Oklahoma Land Rush of 1889. He was living near Coffeyville, Kansas about the time of the Dalton Gang robbery, and was photographed by C.G Glass , who had taken the historic pictures of the Dalton Gang dead.
He returned to his family home in Grayson Springs, Kentucky to complete his early education. His younger sister Ruth Agnes Higdon became ill with tuberculosis in 1906 , and James Hilary and his mother Martha Jane White traveled with her to a tuberculosis sanitarium in Deming, New Mexico. James began work at a railroad switching yard and roundhouse in Deming. After his sister died in 1907, James took employment at the Santa Rita del Cobre School in Santa Rita, New Mexico as principal, located at the mining operation just east of Silver City, New Mexico. Shortly after he moved to El Paso, Texas for the first time.
El Paso
Over the next five years, business pursuits took him to various areas of southern New Mexico and the southwest before he finally returned to El Paso in 1915. In September 1916 he married Martha Genevieve Morrison , whose father Jonas Joseph Morrison had been a native of Prince Edward Island and an early inhabitant of San Francisco before moving to New Mexico in 1896, and to El Paso in 1902. After their marriage, they bought their first home at 3110 Bisbee Street in El Paso. In 1924 they began the construction of a home in which he and his family would live for the coming five decades. The home was at 1305 Los Angeles Street , and matched the style and elegance of the other homes in the Sunset Heights district of El Paso.
His real estate career began as James Hilary first came to El Paso in 1915, the J.H. Higdon City and Valley Real Estate. Mr. Higdon would own and manage this business for the next 40 years.
James and his wife had six children between 1917 and 1927, first three daughters and then three sons . Mr. Higdon was deeply involved with his Catholic faith in the Roman Catholic Diocese of El Paso. He also took a strong interest and involvement in civil affairs, running for City Tax Assessor in the 1934 election , which he lost. He was a contributor to charitable causes, and worked on many committees and boards to support United States war efforts in both wars and other causes within El Paso.
As part of his business, he invested in parcels in Texas and New Mexico , and bought into partnerships in the exploration for oil and natural gas in the region. He became prominent in the community.
El Paso changed greatly during the period of 1910 to 1960. It included the arrival of early settlers, the adjoining Mexican Revolution in nearby Ciudad Juarez during the 1910's, the border settlement between Texas and New Mexico in the late 1920s., the Great Depression beginning in the 1930's,
the growth of Ft. Bliss and World War II into the 1940's, the accompanying burst of growth in the 1950's, and the evolution of El Paso into a major American city.
Many changes came to El Paso during these years. As with all the early citizens, adapting to the social, political and commercial changes was essential to continue to flourish in the community.
Late in his career in the mid-1950's, James Hilary Higdon suffered a stroke which left him active, but led to his retirement from his business. He died in 1964 at age 81 and is buried at Mt. Carmel Cemetery in El Paso, Texas

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