HISTORY OF KANE COUNTY.
811
AUGUSTUS M. HERRINGTON (deceased), lawyer, Geneva, Ill., was born at Meadville, Penn., July 27, 1820, and died at Geneva, Ill., Aug. 13, 1883. His education was secured in the schools of Geneva, where his family settled in 1834. He was admitted to the Bar in 1844, and was appointed United States District Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois. In 1873 he became solicitor for the Chicago & Northwestern Railway, with offices in Chicago, and sustained this relation to the company until his death. A strong Democrat, he was Presidential Elector in 1856, and was a delegate to the National Conventions at Baltimore in 1860, and Chicago in 1864. In 1849 he married Miss Emily A. Cook, of St. Charles, a native of New York.
JAMES HERRINGTON, Sr. (deceased), Geneva, one of the earlier pioneer settlers of Kane County, was born in Mercer County, Penn., and located in Chicago in 1833. In 1834 he purchased the land on which the county-seat of Kane County was located in 1837, the same year in which he laid out the town of Geneva. He was chiefly instrumental in bringing about the organization of the county, and suggested the name which was given it in honor of Ellas K. Kane, one of the first United States Senators from Illinois. He died at Geneva in 1839.
JAMES HERRINGTON, Jr. (deceased), legislator, Geneva, Ill., was born in Mercer County, Penn., June 6, 1824, and came with his parents to Kane County, Ill., in 1833. There he grew to manhood and largely received his education. He learned the printing trade in Chicago as an employe of Hon. John Wentworth, proprietor of the "Chicago Democrat." He was elected County Clerk of Kane County in 1849, and filled that position eight years. For seven terms he represented Kane County in the State Legislature, and also served as Mayor of Geneva. He married Mary A. Blodgett, a native of New York. He died in Geneva in 1890.
MASON A. HIGGINS (deceased), merchant, Aurora, Ill., was born in Windham County, Vt., where he received a practical education, and was trained to merchandising. He engaged in business for himself in Washington County, N. Y., where he was a merchant and manufacturer for many years. In 1872 Mr. Higgins came to Aurora and established himself in business as a member of the mercantile firm of Lawrence & Company, Mr. Lawrence having previously been a partner of Mr. Higgins in New York. Mr. Higgins was identified with this firm until 1879, when he retired from active business. His death occurred in Aurora in February, 1893. The surviving members of his family in 1904 are Mrs. Higgins, who still lives in Aurora, and a son and a daughter. An older son died in July, 1903, Mrs. Higgins, nee Nellie E. Campbell, is a native of New York, and was a resident of Vermont before her marriage. She has been associated with many charitable and philanthropic enterprises in Aurora, chief among them, perhaps, being the Aurora Hospital, of which she was one of the founders.
GEORGE HIGGINS (deceased), pioneer physician and surgeon, born at Barton, Orange County, Vt., Dec. 27, 1826; came to Aurora with his parents in 1835; graduated from Rush Medical College (Chicago) in 1850, and passed his entire professional career in Aurora, where he died Sept. 24, 1890. He was married in 1875 to Miss Mary M. Baker, who still survives and lives in Aurora.
FRANK R. HILL, farmer, Batavia Township, Kane County, Ill.; born in Wyoming County, N. Y., June 1, 1849; educated in the common schools of Kane County, Ill., and was trained to farming in boyhood, having followed that occupation to the present time; has been engaged principally in dairy farming and grain raising; married Miss Emma J. Pope, of Aurora.
CHARLES C. HINCKLEY, electrician and inventor, Aurora, Ill., was born in Winsted, Conn., Jan. 1, 1854, and educated in the public schools of Hartford in that State, where he was trained to the watch manufacturing business. After working several years in eastern watch factories, mainly as foreman, he came west, and was one of the organizers of the Rockford Watch Company in 1873. Ten years later he helped organize the Aurora Watch Factory, and thus became associated with the city. Later he organized the Hinckley Manufacturing Company, which secured a very extensive patronage in the making of electrical goods, and watchmakers' tools and machinery. In the financial panic of 1893 Mr. Hinckley was hard hit, and the enterprise met with disaster.
