Thomas Wentworth Cleveland
(1823 - 1911)
Page 1066, # 3174
Colonel THOMAS WENTWORTH HIGGINSON graduated from Harvard University, 1841 ; Harvard Theological School, 1847. He was minister of the First Congregational church of Newburyport, Mass., 1847-50, and of a Free Church at Worcester, Mass., 1852-8. He was born December 22, 1823 and was the grandson of Stephen Higginson and Susanna Cleveland. In 1858 he retired from the ministry.
He took an active part in the anti-slavery agitation of this period, was wounded in the Anthony Burns affair, indicted with Parker, Phillips, et al., but discharged from a flaw in the indictment. Aided in organization of free state emigrants to Kansas, 1856 ; was brigadier-general on Gen. James Henry Lane’s staff, free state forces, and was cognizant of Capt. John Brown’s movements.
At breaking out of the civil war he nobly devoted himself to the service of his country, and was soon promoted to colonel of First South Carolina Vols., colored, 1862, the first regiment of slaves mustered into U. S. service. Among his achievements he took Jacksonville, Fla. Was wounded in battle on Edisto river, July 10, 1863, resigned from disability Oct., 1864.
Resided at Newport, R. I., to 1878, and since always in Cambridge (1895). He was a member of Mass. Legislature from 1st Cambridge Dist, 1880 and 1881. Since the war he has engaged in literary pursuits — the distinguished author, see Bibliography, Chap. IV. Orator of the day at 250th anniversary of settlement of Cambridge, Dec. 28, 1880. In 1886 he addressed the Nineteenth Century Club of N. Y. on literature, upon which event an editorial commented :
No man is better qualified to treat this subject in an entertaining and instructive manner, and New Yorkers seldom have an opportunity of hearing an author whose delivery is as good as his essays. Col. Higginson is interested in every advanced literary undertaking, and his heartiness is an element of success in whatever he advocates.
Represented New Hampshire, Mass., R. I., and Conn, at the Cowpens Centennial, the unveiling of monument to Gen. Daniel Morgan at Spartanburg, Spartanburg co., S. C, May 11, 1881.
In 1884 he was a leader in the Liberal Republican movement, and a supporter of Grover Cleveland for President. Col. Higginson is president of the Browning Club and of the Round Table of Boston, and of the Reform Club of Cambridge, ex-president of the Appalachian Mountain Club, of the American Woman’s Suffrage Association, of the Mass. Bicycle Club ; vice-president and 1892 president of the Associated Branches of the Phi Beta Kappa ; vice-pres. of Free Religious Assoc. ; Director of American Social Science Assoc. ; member of : American Antiquarian Society, Am. Oriental Soc, Am. Historical Soc, American Philological Soc, Mass. Historical Soc, N. E. Historic-Genealogical Soc, Am. Soc. for Psychical Research, Papyrus Club, and Naturalists’ Club. Col.
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