Old Missoula

Son of City’s Founder Taken By Death Here

Arthur Higgins, Last of Pioneer Family, Succumbs.

By A. L. Stone.

Arthur Higgins is dead – the word passed quickly along the avenue Monday morning. Along the avenue which bears the name of his famous father, pioneer of pioneers, co-founder of the city whose central thoroughfare was named when the little town was established in 1865 – Higgins avenue.

There are not many of Missoula’s present population to whom the name has any significance other than a word lettered on municipal guideposts. Fewer are they who knew Arthur Higgins and a good many of these understood nothing of the man’s personality.

Ends Long Story.

The death of Arthur Higgins ends the story of two generations which were identified with Montana from days so remote that they antedate the very existence of the territory to the present. It is the last chapter in a saga singularly characteristic of the Northwest and involving in its impressive narrative figures which loom big in every phase of the moving picture of the making of a great state.

Fourth Son.

Arthur Higgins was the fourth son in a family of nine. His father was Captain Christopher P. Higgins. His mother, Julia, daughter of Captain Grant, who settled early in Hell Gate ronde, while Captain Higgins was yet running the old store at Hell Gate town.

Born in Missoula July 10, 1873, he was educated in the local elementary schools and later attended Eastern institutions. He was not 20 years old when he returned to his native town which had been his home until this morning. He had engaged in various occupations. Ranch life consumed a good many years. He dabbled in politics to some extent. There are some older Missoula folks who will recall his service on the Missoula police force – service which he rendered dramatic in instances.

Nicknamed “Bull.”

His somewhat gruff manner won him early the sobriquet “Bull” which he rather enjoyed. Friends who knew him best are earnest in their assertion that his gruffness was assumed. They will relate, to support their assertion, many instances of kindly acts on his part.

Six brothers had Arthur Higgins, three older and three younger. Street signs on the South side, east, bear their names in order of age. Beginning at the base of Mount Sentinel, there is Francis avenue, and coming west from these; George, John, Maurice, Arthur, Helen, Hilda, Ronald, Gerald – there were just enough blocks in Montana addition to make possible this record of vital statistics.

With Stevens Expedition.

Captain Higgins came first to the Missoula valley as wagon boss in the Stevens expedition of 1853, returning with General Stevens in 1855. He spent enough time in the valley on the second visit to bring the decision to come back when his service was over and the expedition disbanded. This he did.

It was 1859 when he came back. This time he was junior partner of the Worden & Company, whose sign was the nucleus about which old Hell Gate developed. The firm moved to the mouth of the Rattlesnake in 1865, utilizing the water power from the little stream to operate the flour mill which gave to the new town the name, Missoula Mills.

Becomes Main Artery.

No need to recount the story of the town which became in time the city of today. It is a story too long and too involved for repetition here. One thing, perhaps. The first feud to develop in the little town was the heated contest which waged nearly a quarter of a century out of a difference of opinion as to which should be the main business street of the town. Fate and railway construction determined this in 1883. So Higgins avenue became the main artery of the city’s life. Front and Main streets are yet tributaries, though they had the better of the argument at the start.

Captain Higgins died in the early nineties [1889]. He left what was then the largest personal fortune in Montana. The Higgins bank, urban and rural real estate, extensive range holdings in Teton county and a great herd of cattle.

Bad Fortune Comes.

The depression of 1893 closed the bank. Came coincidentally the deaths of John and Helen of the children.

Francis died after the Spanish war in which he served as captain of K troop, Griggsby’s Rough Riders. This was the first Rough Rider regiment organized, but the Roosevelt prestige was too great and his regiment received the numeral “One.”

Maurice was shot to death in the excitement of the big fire of 1891. George died here about the turn of the century. Gerald passed at the old homestead at the mouth of Pattee canyon. Hilda became Mrs. Frank Conley of Deer Lodge. Her death was recent. Ronald spent his last years in his home town. And now Arthur’s exit brings the curtain.

The Higgins fortune? It is the old shirtsleeves-to-shirtsleeves story.

The above article appeared in The Daily Missoulian on November 3, 1942.

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The last descendant of the amazing Higgins family, Grant Higgins (son of Francis and Barbara Hayes Higgins) died in Missoula in 1978. He never married.