Although modest and shy, Mrs. Higinbotham was a strong personality. She cared little for social life, never seeking conspicuous position, her home and children being always uppermost in her thoughts. Her sense of duty, and her thrift when a young matron, aided her husband to attain an influential position in the community. She exerted a strong influence, and during their life together was companion, adviser, and assistant in large business undertakings and in philanthropic work. Like him, she was always kind, and always mindful of those in need. During the World’s Fair, her gracious hospitality made their home the centre of Chicago’s social life. Their house on Michigan Avenue, designed in early French renaissance by F. Meredith Whitehouse, was a charming setting for the many entertainments given for distinguished visitors. We now return to Mr. Higinbotham’s narrative: “At the time of the Chicago fire on October ninth, 1871, Higinbotham was in charge of the Insurance and Accounting Department of the business of Field, Leiter & Co., and was only an employe of the firm. Without waiting for instructions, he went to their barns and called out all the drivers with their teams; and he and they went at once to the store and commenced carting away the most valuable goods to a point south of the fire limit or belt. They continued this all night, and at the same time, by changing blankets in the windows and keeping them wet, they kept off the fire until it had passed them on the opposite side of State Street, gone north a mile or more and burned the city waterworks. This occurred at about seven in the morning of October tenth, Higinbotham’s thirty-third birthday. “With their water supply thus cut off, they were helpless and had to abandon the store and its contents to the fire that slowly backed up from the north and drove them out. A later inventory showed that they had saved a little over six hundred thousand dollars’ worth of goods, their proofs of loss showed that a little over two million and a half had been burned, and their insurance amounted to nineteen hundred thousand dollars. This would indicate a loss of six hundred thousand dollars. It was, however, much greater for the reason that many of the insurance companies were unable to pay their obligations, a number not more than ten cents on the dollar. A portion of the saved goods were in the car barns at Twentieth and State Streets, some in a wooden church at Thirty-second Street and South Park Avenue. Higinbotham’s home was then on Prairie Avenue near Twenty-seventh Street.