Relatively Speaking

John Crabtree in his shoeshop.

I recently was sent a large shoebox full of Higginson, Crabtree, and Briggs family photos from Cal Bivens. It included this one (a real favorite) of my great-grandfather John Crabtree working in his shoe shop in Lone Pine Nebraska.

As I understand it, Great-Grandpa Crabtree had polio around age 5 or 6 and he needed two different size shoes for his feet. He eventually apprenticed as a shoemaker. He had a number of other skills, but in the latter years of his life he was appreciated for his shoemaking ability in Lone Pine.

I was very surprised to see it has been over 4 years since I last posted photos on my Higginson/Crabtree Branch. After finishing Grandma and Me, I started work on a book about my dad’s parents and ancestors, which I thought would have been completed quite some time ago.

But the Austin book turned into a 3 book series and I just recently completed book 2, so I have not had the time to post photos and information about the Crabtrees and Higginsons like I would have liked.

In the near future, I hope to be able to add some of the photos Cal recently sent me, many of which are in Grandma and Me, but these are originals and many of them are a better quality.

I am excited to tell you that the baby in this photo is 100 today, the 18th of June. A very happy birthday to Mildred!

From the Left: Mary Higginson Shattuck (my great great grandma), Mae Williams Amick holding her daughter Mildred (the birthday girl) and Carrie Higginson Williams. Carrie was my great grandma Ida Hgginson Crabtree’s sister.

Cover of the book about my Grandma Myrtie, “Grandma and Me.” It is now available. See UPDATE for information on how to order it online.

George Shattuck.
George Shattuck married my great great grandma Mary Donaldson Higginson in Nebraska, late in 1890, a couple weeks before her daughter Ida married John Crabtree. Mary’s husband Edward had died of Civil War wounds in 1873. George was also in the Civil War and his wife had died in 1887. Family information I received indicates that the some of the Crabtree families knew George from Illinois days. Thanks to cousin Ron for the photo.

I am excited to tell you that the baby in this photo turns 99 on Sunday the 18th of June. A very happy birthday to Mildred!

Mary Higginson Shattuck (my great great grandma), Mae Williams Amick holding her daughter Mildred (the birthday girl) and Carrie Higginson Williams. Carrie was my great grandma Ida Hgginson Crabtree’s sister.

I had an enjoyable evening last night. Cousin Dan Brady and his wife Catherine from Chicago, Illinois, visited us in our Cave Creek, Arizona home.

Dan Brady and Louise Smith.

Dan’s great great grandmother Sarah Crabtree Gill, and my great great grandmother Rachel Crabtree, were sisters.

Dan and Catherine Brady, Louise Smith

Thanks again for visiting!!

When I visited with some of the Higginson cousins, they gave me this photo from their growing up days. Pretty good looking family, don’t you think?

New photos from a Higginson cousin. Thank you Ron.

“I ran across an old picture that my mother had sent us and she had written on the back of it that this was her mother’s mother and her death certificate. Any how, this is an extracted copy & doctored to look more like an original would have, I do believe.

“If someone has the capabilities to read the writing on that death plaque, we would sure like to know what it says.”

This is an image I (Cal Bivens) have never seen other than in the family album, and the fact that the image is a little soft says to me that it probably isn’t of the postcard types like the soddie and the Indians. I know they added those as representatives of some of their life experiences. My best guess, is that it is an authentic shot of them on the trail. They did come by wagon. The buckboard in the photo does not appear to be the same one in later pictures, but it is difficult to say as Great Grandpa’s [John Crabtree] has the top removed.

There is a photo of a wagon and a buckboard in the old family album and an anecdote of the trip with it. The story tells of an incident one night when the wagons made camp too close to the rairoad track. They seem to have followed the course of the railroad—a sensible thing to do. The horses were unhitched and the seat removed from the wagon so the folks would not have to sit on the ground. Along came a train and the shriek of the locomotive’s whistle spooked the horses which got loose and bolted through the camp, leaping over and narrowly missing a couple of the children.—photo and comment from Cal Bivens

This is a favorite photo of my grandma, but I don’t know when or where it was taken.