Higginson, AR

Searcy Arkansas is the seat of White County and it is surrounded by several small towns that used to be working towns. Higginson is one of them. It has a railroad track running through it that is still a very busy track. Trains speed through quite often. Perhaps President Obama's plan for fast trains will include passage through Higginson.

My friend Ludean lives there and has supplied several pictures of Higginson which I've blogged in the past. I think she also supplied this one showing railroad workers in Higginson. It has Missouri Pacific Oilers working at depot in Higginson.

Wikipedia says an oiler is a person, or job title of a person, who works at keeping machinery lubricated, such as within the engine compartment of a ship. In this situation we'd change "ship" to "train" and know what they used those long spouted cans for.

My friend Ludean obtained this picture for me to display. She got it from Higginson's Mayor who displays it at City Hall. Higginson is a tiny town just a minute or two from Searcy Arkansas. Ludean pointed out that they have two fire stations in order to be prepared in case of a fire on the opposite side of the tracks and the train is stopped in the middle of town. Now that's good planning!

I've posted three other photos of Higginson but I guess this one is the saddest and tells the worst story. It says the town burned down on Easter Sunday 1924. It appears that the town didn't have any firewalls and all that wood went up in flames probably quickly. It would be nice to know the extent of the burn....did it get houses? Did it expand for several blocks? Perhaps we can get more info from a Higginson resident. Thanks, Ludean, for sharing this photo.

It is so exciting to have friends supplying my blog with these great old photographs. This is one from Higginson AR. Ludean, my friend who lives there, got permission from the mayor to let me borrow the scenes.

Higginson is on the fringe of Searcy and used to be a thriving town as this shows. It now has a post office, a fire department and some hard working council members who are keeping it a nice place to live. New-house construction is going on in the city limits and lots of gas exploration and gas industry buildings are being built in the area. It may be becoming a "boom town" in the near future.