Higdon Family

Portrait of a lovely African American family identified as the Higdons. Photographed circa 1898 by Joseph J Pennell in Junction City, Kansas.

Patriarch, Edward "Ned" Higdon was a Buffalo Soldier at Fort Riley--a career soldier with fifteen years active duty in the US Army. At the time of the picture he was a Saddler Sergeant., D Troop, 9th Cavalry. In the picture, standing, from left to right: William, Harry, Mrs. Harriet Ann (Woodard) Higdon; sitting, from left to right, Gertrude, Sgt. Higdon, and finally Mary Ellen. The Higdons later separated, but never divorced; when the Sergeant died in the 1920s, his widow received his pension. The two boys fought in World War I; Harry worked at the main post office in Chicago, while William lived and worked in Leavenworth, Kansas.

Sources: Pennell Photography Collection/Kansas Collection, Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas