James Higgins (Wisconsin politician)

James Higgins (March 25, 1824 - ?) was an American farmer from Shields, Wisconsin who spent a single term, in 1876, as a Reform Party member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from Dodge County.^[1]

Background

Higgins was born in County Sligo, Ireland on March 25, 1824. He received a common school education, and became a farmer. He came to Wisconsin in 1851, and settled in the Town of Shields.

Public office

He had served seven years as chairman of his town, several years as a justice of the peace, and two years (1871-1872) as Dodge County county clerk, when in 1875 he was elected to the Assembly from Dodge County's 6th Assembly district (the Towns of Ashippun, Emmet, Lebanon, and Shields). He received 420 votes as a candidate of the Reform Party (a short-lived coalition of Democrats, reform and Liberal Republicans, and Grangers formed in 1873), against 397 votes for Thomas O'Meara, the regular Democratic nominee (who had run as a "regular Reform" candidate the year before). (Reform incumbent Harman Grube was not a candidate for re-election.) He was assigned to the standing committee on medical societies.^[2]

The Assembly was redistricted for the 1877 session (Dodge County went from six seats to four); the new district which included Shields was taken by Democrat Patrick Roche.

References

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[1] "Members of the Wisconsin Legislature 1848–1999 State of Wisconsin Legislative Bureau; p. 62 Archived 2006-12-09 at the Wayback Machine

[2] Bashford, R. M., ed. The legislative manual of the state of Wisconsin: comprising the constitutions of the United States and of the state of Wisconsin, Jefferson's manual, forms and laws for the regulation of business; also, lists and tables for reference, etc. Fifteenth Annual Edition. Madison: E. B. Bolens, State Printer, 1876; pp. 388, 465, 491

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