The Higgins-Mapes Family Historical Association is dedicated to preserving the memory of our ancestry. Our members include descendants of George Higgins & Patience Mapes who settled in Wabash Co., ILÂ
in the early 1800's. Surnames include HIGGINS, MAPES, COUCH, STRONG, BROWN, HARRISON, and many others.
From "A History of Edwards, Lawrence and Wabash Counties, Illinois":
"In the year 1816, some ten or twelve families left Alleghany county,
New York for the wild and uncultivated shores of the Wabash. Among them
was George W. Higgins, John HIggins, Willis Higgins, Edward Brines,
Henry Utter, Lemuel Haskins, David Moss, John Harrison, Benjamin
Harrison, Benjmain Smith, Levi Couch, and their families. They left
their native state in family boats on the Alleghany river, and floated
down its mountain lined course to the Ohio, and there to the site of
Evansville, when, having exchanged their boats for akeel boat, they
proceeded up the Wabash, landing at Palmyra.........Of this little band
of immigrants, Harrison, Couch, Moss, Smith and John Higgins settled in
what is now Lancaster precinct.; Brines, Utter, Haskins and George and
Willis Higgins in Friendsville. Joh Higgins' family consisted of his
wife and six children: William, George, John, Delia, Betsey and Sophia."