Nimrod Higdon and Lou Gaston
The woman, just outside of the original Higdon’s Store in Fannin County, Georgia, is Linnie Higdon Hodges, daughter of Nimrod Higdon who was the firstborn son of Leonard Higdon and Mary Ann McClure, according to the Higdon Family Newsletter, Number 38, February 1975, from which this photograph is reprinted; the year was 1913.
Nimrod Higdon, born July 24, 1854, Fannin County, Georgia; died January 26,1926, Quinlan, Texas; married (1) Eliza Ellison, April 13, 1880 (2) Louise Safronia Gaston, July 16, 1882.
Linnie Higdon Hodges, daughter of Nimrod, wrote the following account based on her recollections of her father:
"Nimrod Higdon: first child, was born in Blue Ridge, Ga. on a farm (Higdon’s Store to be exact) about 15 miles N. West from Blue Ridge, July 24, 1854. He grew up on the farm. Plowed the fields, looked after the stock and helped his mother carry on while grandfather went to war. He told me what hardships he went through. He said he dug up dirt in the old smoke house to get salt. They boiled it out. He was the only protector grandmother had. He told of how Indians would steal their cattle, sheep, chickens.
He was 14 years old when grandpa went to war and did not get much schooling as he had to walk so far to school and had so much work to do. After the war, grandpa taught him at home for about three or four years. He had such a hard life during this adolescent age he could not learn much. He was a very high tempered man and suffered with rheumatism.
He went to Texas when about 20 years of age to visit Jasper Higdon. He married Eliza Ellison April 13, 1880. She died February 28, 1881. She fainted and fell in the fire and was burned while dad was out after cattle. He never got over this great shook [shock]. His whole life was a tragedy.
He bought Jasper Higdon's small 2 room pine house with a rock chimney 2 miles east of Quinlan, Texas, and 50 acres of land, and it was in this house that most of his children were born. He married Louie Sofronia Gaston July 16, 1882 and to this union were born nine children: Esta, Emma, Linnie, Leonard IV, Sadie, Era, Roy, Nimrod, one baby died in infancy and was not named."1
"...Nimrod Higdon, my father, died 1926. He owned 1,000 acres of Texas black land, and grew cattle and did general farming and was worth about $100,000, when he died. The land and stock was equally divided (out of court by friends of father) among the eight children without a lawsuit, or any bad feelings..."2
Linnie says that her mother died in 1919. Both her parents are buried at the Louhan
graveyard near Quinlan, Texas.3
Contained elsewhere on this website is a biography of Linnie Higdon Hodges, genealogical information about Linnie Higdon Hodges’ grandparents: Leonard Dean Higdon (b.1828) and Mary Ann McClure
The children4 of Nimrod Higdon and Lou Gaston are:
- Mary Esta Higdon, born July 5, 1883, Quinlan, Texas; died February 19, 1967.
- Linnie Jane Higdon, born April 1, 1885, Quinlan, Texas; married C. N. Hodges of Quinlan, Texas; died May 23, 1957, Iloilo, Philippines. Her husband died December 25, 1962 in Iloilo. No children
- Emma Bell Higdon, born February 1, 1887, Quinlan, Texas; married Dr. O. C. Howell; died September 12, 1966.
- Leonard Higdon, born November 1, 1888, Quinlan, Texas; married Mildred McBride; killed in auto accident about 1972; son James Leonard Higdon, b. December 16, 1916, Quinlan, Texas.
- Sade Virginia Higdon, born March 23, 1891; married Thurman Vance Roscoe. No children.
- Era Alice Higdon, born March 6, 1895, Quinlan, Texas; married Oscar R. Boman. No children.
- Roy Higdon, born August 8, 1897, Quinlan, Texas; married Aline Traylor; died March 13, 1956; son David Traylor Higdon, born March 22, 1931, Greenville, Texas.
- Nimrod Higdon, born August 1, 1905, Quinlan, Texas; died September 21, 1967.
1Linnie Higdon Hodges, "A Brief History of One Branch of the Higdon Family,” written about 1936, as it appears in Higdon-Whitaker, Volume I, p. 11, compiled by Bettina Higdon.
2Hodges, p. 12
3Hodges, p. 13
4Jo Ann Smith, Higdon Family Newsletter, #75, March 1978
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