Christopher P. Higgins
|
Capt. Christopher Powers Higgins |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Born |
March 16, 1830 Ireland |
| Died | October 14, 1889 (aged 59) Missoula, Montana |
| Occupation | Army Captain, Businessman, County commissioner, Territory legislator |
| Known for | Founder of Hellgate Trading Post and Missoula, Montana |
| Spouse(s) | Juliet P. Grant |
| Children | 7 Mayor Frank Higgins |
Capt. Christopher Powers Higgins (March 16, 1830 – October 14, 1889) was an American Army captain and later businessman who with Frank Worden founded the Hellgate Trading Post and the nearby city of Missoula, Montana. He erected one of the first lumber and flouring mills on the Clark Fork River near present Downtown Missoula as well as many of Missoula's first buildings and establishments. He was one of the original county commissioners, member of first legislature of the Montana Territory, and incorporator of The Montana Historical Society. Higgins Avenue and bridge as well as the Higgins block in Downtown Missoula are named after him. He is buried in Missoula Cemetery.
Christopher P. Higgins was born in Ireland March 16, 1830. He immigrated to the United States in 1848, immediately moved to the western frontier and joined the army. In 1853 in joined newly designated Washington Territory Governor Isaac Stevens and Lieut. John Mullan as wagon master for the Stevens survey of the Bitterroot and Missoula Valleys, done for the planned construction of a railroad through to region to connect the Mississippi River with the Pacific Ocean. Governor Stevens, also acting as Superintendent of Indian Affairs, signed the Hellgate treaty to which Higgins was a witness with the Bitterroot Salish, Pend d'Oreille, and the Kootenai tribes that guaranteed passage.
In 1860 Higgins partnered with Frank Worden, a general merchandise store owner in Washington to set up the Hellgate Trading Post in the Missoula Valley along the Mullan Road, which had only just reached the area that summer. On March 30, 1863, Higgins married Juliet P Grant, the daughter of another Missoula pioneer Richard Grant (for whom Grant Creek is named). Hellgate would never grow very large because the water supply was unsuitable to power the lumber and flour mills Higgins and Worden wanted to construct. The settlement was moved four miles east to the location of today's Downtown Missoula in 1865 and renamed Missoula Mills. In 1873, Higgins organized the Missoula National Bank as one of the first banks in Montana Territory and located it next to his and Worden's store built two years earlier and now called the Worden & Company Store. The store itself had, in fact, been built on the location of Higgins' former log home before he constructed a larger home several blocks east. In 1888, Higgins began construction of the Higgins Block but died before its opening in 1889. The building is now on the National Register of Historic Places.
...
Wikipedia