Person:David Higgins (13)

Sketch of the Life of Rev. David Higgins

"198. David6 ⁶Higgins (Cornelius⁵, Ebenezer⁴, Ichabod³, Benjamin², Richard¹), born Aug. 6, 1761, at Haddam, Conn.; died June 19, 1842, at Norwalk, Ohio; married Jan. 17, 1788, at Second Church, New Haven, Conn., Eunice Gilbert, born May 12, 1762, at New Haven; died Oct. 2. 1843, at Norwalk, Ohio; a lineal descendant of Hon. Matthew Gilbert, an original settler of New Haven, Conn.

David Higgins was educated at Dartmouth and Yale, graduating from Yale in 1785. Served as a private in Revolutionary War. Pastor at North Lyme, now Hamburg, Conn. Missionary to new settlements in New Hampshire and Vermont in 1794, and to new settlements in New York State, going as far as the Genesee River in 1801. After the close of his mission, he preached for several months at Onondaga Hollow, near the present city of Syracuse, and at East Bloomfield and Aurelius, from each of which places he had a call, and finally settled at Aurelius (now Auburn), removing his family from Connecticut in July, 1802. In 1808, pastoral relations were dissolved, but he remained four years longer. In 1812, he received a call from the Presbyterian church at Bath, and in January following removed there with his family. He resided at Bath till 1835, when he removed to Norwalk, Ohio. When he died, he had no church in Ohio, but supplied pulpits at Norwalk, Milan, Huron, Branson, Monroeville, Peru and Paris, preaching only occasionally during the last two years. (Hotchkins' Western New York.)

Onondaga County, of which Syracuse is the geographical center, as near as possible, and county seat, originally included five or six times as much territory as now, taking in the present county of Cayuga, in which the city of Auburn is situated. The settlement at Auburn in the town of Aurelius had no distinctive name. Missionaries were sent out to the settlements in New York State by the 'Connecticut Association,' among whom were Seth Williston and David Higgins.

The 'First Presbyterian Society of Onondaga' was formed on the Hill (Onondaga Hill, four miles from center of present city of Syracuse, which was not settled until about 1815, and received its name Syracuse about 1824) at the log tavern, kept by Daniel Earll. Rev. David Higgins preached for a time, followed by a Mr. Haly, the only ministers before 1S06. Rev. Dirk C. Lansing was ordained and settled in 1807. Their church edifice was erected in 1819. (Clark's History of Onondaga, vol. 2, p. 134.)

Rev. Seth Williston, in a letter giving an account of revivals occurring in this field under date of April 29, 1799, writes: 'I have lately heard from Aurelius in Onondaga county, that the spirit of God is poured out upon one part of the town.'

We have now come to the date of the formation of the first church within the present limits of Auburn and Aurelius. It was one of the lights kindled in the great revival of 1799. For some two or three years the church was dependent upon the casual labor of the passing missionary, until 1801, when Rev. David Higgins from North Lyme, Conn., visited it in his brief service of the Connecticut Association, and accepted a call as its pastor, with the understanding that he would return the following year for permanent settlement. It took corporate form and title as the First Congregational Society of Aurelius, May 21, 1802, at a meeting held at the public house of Henry Moore, situated about a mile from the Half Acre, on the road to Union Springs. Mr. Higgins returned, according to the arrangement, and was installed Oct. 9, 1802. He remained with the congregation here until February, 1813, when he was released from his pastoral relations with the church of Aurelius, to take charge of the church at Bath, Steuben Co. (From the History of First Presbyterian Church, Auburn, N. Y, by Rev. Charles Hawley, D. D., many years its pastor.)"^[1]

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 1.8} 198. David⁶ Higgins, in Higgins, Katharine Elizabeth Chapin. Richard Higgins, a Resident and Pioneer Settler at Plymouth and Eastham, Massachusetts and at Piscataway, New Jersey, and His Descendants. (Worcester, Mass.: Privately Printed for the Author, 1918)
   239-41.
2. ↑ Haddam Vital Records [NEHGS], in Connecticut, United States. The Barbour Collection of Connecticut Town Vital Records
   46.

   "Higgins, … David, s. Lieut. Cornelius, b. Aug. 6, 1761 [LR6:10]"

3. ↑ Rev David Higgins, in Find A Grave.