This article was written by the Benalla Family Research Group, which is submitting monthly articles on some interesting characters from Benalla's past.
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The steady clip clop of horses' hooves was a familiar sound to the people of Benalla in the 1880s when they were the main means of transport.
Saddlers who hand-made and repaired saddles and harnesses were an essential part of any town and so was Christopher Higgins.
A saddler by trade, he was no doubt a valuable addition to Benalla when he arrived to set up his business in the early 1880s.
Christopher was born in 1844 in Queanbeyan, NSW, one of six children born to Christopher Higgins Snr and Ann Daly.
His father arrived in the colonies in 1827 as a convict, charged and convicted for desertion from the army and sentenced to transportation for 14 years to NSW.
Christopher Higgins Snr, a a saddler and coachman by trade, lived and married in NSW and had six children.
In 1853 he moved his family to the Beechworth area and later several of his adult children settled in Benalla
In 1874, Christopher Higgins Jnr married Mary Ann Payne and they had three children, Frederick, Christopher Higgins III (who died as an infant) and William.
At first he worked in the Albury and Beechworth area, but by 1882 he had moved with his family to Benalla to run his saddlery business on Commercial Rd.
In 1888 he bought some land in Carrier St and built a two-story house and shop. Work was completed by late November 1889.
An advertisement in the Benalla Standard newspaper in November 1889 announced:
“SADDLERY SADDLERY Notice of Removal. C. HIGGINS, Begs to notify his numerous Customers and the Public generally that he has REMOVED from COMMERCIAL ROAD to NEW and COMMODIOUS PREMISES IN CARRIER STREET (NEAR THE RAILWAY STATION) …”
Not long after this building was completed, in 1890, Christopher’s wife Mary Ann died of consumption; she was only 39.
It must have been a difficult time for Christopher with two young children and a business to run.
Christopher subsequently married Mary Ann Hernan, the eldest daughter of John Hernan and Mary Redmond of Winton, in November 1892.
Tragically it was only nine months after they married, that Mary Ann died of blood poisoning. She was only 37.
Five years later Christopher met and married his third wife, Johanna Josephine Sheridan.
The marriage took place in 1897 in Wangaratta and was announced in the Ovens and Murray Advertiser on October 9.
Christopher, their only child, was born in 1901 in Benalla.
Christopher Higgins, saddler, who had been ill for some time, died in 1913 in Benalla aged 68.
An obituary in the North Eastern Ensign on Friday, June 27, 1913, stated that:
“He was a man of remarkable industry and possessed social qualities of the highest order …”
Christopher’s third wife, Johanna, died in 1918 in Wangaratta aged 57.
The two-storey saddlers’ shop and house in Benalla was put up for auction in 1920, as the Estate of Christopher Higgins.
Like many other buildings in Benalla, this building stands today as a wonderful reminder of past lives lived and especially of the people who first lived there - the Higgins family.
Have you read this week's Coo-ee - A look at Benalla's past?
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