Mortimer A. Higley

BY W. R. BOYD

I HAVE been asked to write a brief sketch of the life of Major Mortimer A. Higley for the January number of the Historical Record. It is altogether fitting and proper that some little word concerning the life and work of a man like Mr. Higley should be written in the pages of a magazine professedly devoted to those who have helped to make our State what it is.

In our world, the great names, from a universal standpoint, are few. Posterity cannot be burdened with those who do not do a world work. But as we narrow the sphere of influence, we find that each community has its cherished names. Relatively they are far more numerous than the great names of the world. They are cherished in memory because the work they did was of lasting benefit to that particular community. No city or town ever became really fit to live in that did not possess a few men unselfish enough to give a portion of their time to the advancement of the general welfare. As a rule, the men who do this are what are known as "men of affairs." They are diligent in business, and successful in enterprise. The man who cannot successfully do his own particular work, seldom does better when he seeks to direct and influence public policies.

Mortimer A. Higley's memory will be cherished by the citizens of Cedar Rapids now and always, because he was one of the comparatively few who gave a measure of their ability as business men for the promotion of the general good in the community. But for such effort as he and a few others put forth, Cedar Rapids would not be what it is today. We speak thus from a local standpoint, because Major Higley's work was largely local. Later in life, he was called to wider fields, and though he took up this latter work in feeble health, he was able to render such valuable service as to make it certain that had his life been spared, his effort in this field would have commanded the same appreciation it has won and will long hold in this community.

Mortimer A. Higley was born at Hartford, Connecticut, April 18th, 1838. He came with his parents to Linn county, Iowa, in 1842. He was educated in the common schools, and when yet a very young man, entered the employ of his elder brothers who were in the mercantile business in Cedar Rapids. He afterwards went to Waverly and remained two years, being employed as a clerk in a general store. From Waverly he went to Woodson county, Kansas, and remained there until 1858. In that year, he returned to Cedar Rapids, and entered the employ of W. B. Mack, a wholesale grocer, and continued with Mr. Mack, until the breaking out of the Civil War.

Mr. Higley's military service may be summed up as follows: In September, 1861, he received a commission to raise a company of infantry for the war. He recruited about forty men, and took them to Lyons, Iowa, and consolidated them with a company being recruited there. In this he enlisted September 17, 1861. It was assigned by the governor as Company A, Fifteenth, Iowa Volunteer Infantry. Mr. Higley was promoted to the first lieutenancy of his company on the 28th of the following October, and in February, 1862, was promoted to the position of quartermaster of his regiment, and in August, 1862, was assigned to the staff of General E. O. C. Ord, commanding the district of Corinth, as acting commissary of subsistence. He was assigned to the staff of General McKean, as quartermaster of the Sixth Division of the Army of the Tennessee, November i, 1862. He was promoted commissary of subsistence, with the rank of captain, and assigned to the staff of General J. B. McPherson as chief commissary of subsistence of the Seventeenth Army Corps, Army of the Tennessee, November 26, 1863. In January, 1863, an officer of the subsistence department of higher rank was assigned to the Seventeenth Corps, and Captain Higley was assigned to the staff of General J. M. Tuttle, as depot commissary of subsistence, at Cairo, Ill., until the following April, when he was ordered to report to General C. C. Washburne, at Memphis, Tenn. He was to have made the raid through the confederacy with General Washburne, which afterward was made by General Benjamin H. Grierson; serious illness prevented General Washburne from making this raid, and Captain Higley was assigned as depot commissary of subsistence at Memphis, supplying all the troops with commissary stores, from Memphis to Corinth, Miss. He participated in the battle of Shiloh, and the siege and battle of Corinth.

After leaving the army, Major Higley returned to Cedar Rapids and engaged in the hardware business, being associated with P. W. Ziegler. Two years later Mr. Ziegler sold his interest in the business to Mr. W. W. Higley, a brother of Mortimer. The firm of Higley Brothers flourished for many years. The business done by this firm was large, and it was conducted in a manner which won the respect of everyone who came within the sphere of its influence. In 1885 he was elected President of the Merchants' National Bank, and continued in this position almost up to the time of his death.

In 1863 Mr. Higley was married to Miss Lucy L. Sheets, of Pennsylvania. Four children were born to them, three of whom, Mrs. Matschke of Minneapolis, Mrs. McIntosh of Seattle, Wash., and Mrs. Draper of Boston, survive him. His only son Mortimer A. died before reaching manhood. Mrs. Higley died in the early '90's. In 1898 Mr. Higley married Mrs. Mary Bock who survives him.

From the very beginning of his public career Major Higley took an interest in public affairs. He did well many of the things that need most to be done well in any American community. For a score of years he faithfully discharged the duties of a member of the Board of Education, giving without recompense, a considerable portion of his time during all this period of preferment to the conscientious discharge of the duties of this most important office. It was this conscientious work on the Cedar Rapids Board of Education that caused him to be thought of in connection with University management. He was chosen by the Twenty-sixth General Assembly as a member of the Board of Regents of the State University, his name having been presented for this office by the alumni of the University, of his own city. He was almost immediately made a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Regents, and as chairman of the Building Committee, had supervision of the construction of the new Liberal Arts Building, up to the time of his death. The interest he took in this work, in spite of his feeble health, was almost pathetic. Had he lived, he would have been of great service to the University.

Major Higley's career in the army brought him the friendship of many distinguished men, and the associations of this period, and those which later grew out of them, were especially dear to him. He was a prominent figure in the Loyal Legion, and other patriotic organizations. One of the last labors of love that he performed in this connection, was as chairman of the committee to provide a suitable monument for General Belknap, in the national cemetery at Arlington. Socially. Major Higley was a most admirable companion and friend. Though diligent in business, he had taken time to cultivate the social side of his nature. Loyalty in everything, was one of his chief characteristics. For many years prior to his breaking down in health, he gave a great deal of his time to the work of the Associated Charities, a relief society in which he was especially interested.

Mortimer A. Higley was a splendid representative of the sturdy pioneer business men who have placed the credit of this State above reproach. He belonged to the pioneer period. It was not rich in educational advantages, but the experiences of those days made for strength and integrity. Major Higley never shirked a responsibility of any kind. He believed that it was every man's duty, under a government such as ours, to attend faithfully to every civic duty. He was an exemplar of our best citizenship.

SOURCE:  Iowa Historical Record, Vol. 17, No. 1, January, 1901, p. 209-13