Charlotte Higbee's Cousins

Charlotte was born in 1872 to Eliza Watson Clark and her husband Henry Higbee, the third of their children and the only one to survive infancy. When her widowed mother died in 1897 Charlotte, deemed an "incompetent person", relocated from NYC to Binghamton, NY where her maternal uncle Henry Clark, his wife and daughter sheltered her for the remaining 16 years of her life. Charlotte had been bequeathed income as support and had a residual estate at the time of her death. She had been granted a generous inheritance by her wealthy paternal aunt Charlotte of Cincinnati who, with her husband Judge Ezekiel S Haines, had no children of their own.

Newspapers published legal notices to known cousins, listed as:

            Arthur W. Clark

            Sidney T. Clark

            Arthur W. Clark

            Egbert Clark

            children of the deceased George W. Clark

            children of the deceased Mrs Coursen, aunt of Charlotte, first name unknown

Yes, two of her first cousins were named Arthur W. Clark, one born to her maternal Uncle Wheeler and the other born to her maternal Uncle Henry. Interestingly, Charlotte had additional first cousins who were not named. At first I was unsure of who Mrs Coursen might be.

Charlotte's mother, Eliza Clark, was the 5th of 7 children born to Dr Adam Clark and Harriet Watson in Albany County, NY.  By the time of her death in 1897 Eliza's only surviving sibling was her older brother Henry. However, there were 11 living nieces and nephews on her side of the family and 10 among her husband Henry Higbee's family. Henry was the 11th of 12 children born to Rev Charles Higbee and Charlotte Townsend of Trenton, NJ.

The surviving Clark cousins were:

            children of George W Clark  1821-1877   

                        Adam Clark

                        Henry Clark

                        Mary "Molly" Clark Griswold

                        John W Clark

                        Eunice Clark Acker

            children of Wheeler W Clark  1829-1882

                        Egbert A Clark

                        Arthur W Clark (b 1879)

            children of Egbert A Clark  1823-1887

                        Sidney T Clark

                        Clara Louise Clark Lillie

            children of Henry A Clark 1831-1905

                        Frances "Fanny" Clark Sears

                        Arthur W Clark (b 1856)

The surviving Higbee cousins were:

            children of Charles Higbee, MD  1808-1844

                        George H Higbee

                        Rev Charles Higbee

            children of Elizabeth Higbee Kilgour  1809-1863

                        Charles H Kilgour

                        John C Kilgour

                        Elizabeth Kilgour Anderson

            children of Frances Higbee Beasley  1817-1852

                        Charlotte Beasley Green

                        Frances Beasley Gummere

            children of Caroline Higbee Coursen  1822-1883

                        George H Cousen Jr

                        Charlotte Coursen

                        Robert L Coursen

           

I always try to identify cousins .... some good links and stories can result. In the case of Charlotte Higbee's estate, it is unclear if the unnamed cousins received anything from her estate.