The subject of this personal review represents a family which was founded in Montague county in the early ’70s, and one which has done a modest, yet positive part, in the material development of the county. All its efforts have been rural ones and its individual activities have been confined purely to the domain of agriculture. The reward due the toil of years has visited them and H. F. Biggar, the head of the family today, occupies the position of one of the leading farmers and prominent citizens of his county.
Robert T. Biggar, our subject’s father, was the leader of this family into Montague county and his father was its founder in Texas. They came hither from Missouri, where Robert T. Biggar was born, and settled in Shelby county, Texas. Grandfather Biggar was the father of Richard, who died at Tyler during the war, leaving a family; Robert T.; William Garrison, who left a family in Cooke county at his death; Polly, wife of James Wagstaff, passed her life in Shelby county, and George W., who left a family in Shelby county at his death.
Robert T. Biggar was ten years of age when brought to the Lone Star state by his father and his youthful surroundings were those of the early-day Texas plantation. He acquired little knowledge from school and was married in Shelby county. He left his family to providential care when the Rebellion broke out, and early centered the Confederate army, serving through the war. About 1867, he severed his connection with the farm in Shelby county and located at Boggy Depot, in the Choctaw Nation, with which locality as a farmer he was identified until his advent to Montague county, Texas, in 1874. Here he selected a location on Denton creek and finished his life-work here. His wife died in 1882 and he survived her eighteen years, dying in 1900. Robert T. Biggar was the father of Mary, George L., H. Franklin, our subject; Robert G., Julia, and Delila J.
Henry Franklin Biggar was born in Shelby county, Texas, March 26, 1863, and had just entered his ‘teens when his parents removed to the Choctaw Nation. In the Nation he completed the years of his minority, made a slight acquaintance with the program of the country school there and in Shelby county. July 22, 1875, he married, having returned to the Nation from Montague for that year. Returning to Montague county he purchased fifty acres of land adjacent to Denton creek, the nucleus of his present farm, and started his career in earnest. Clearing, improving and building a comfortable home where his declining years may be passed has occupied himself and his wife, and their farm of two hundred and forty acres is one of the fertile and attractive places along the creek.
For his wife Mr. Biggar chose Mrs. Dicy E. Womack, a daughter of Philip Blevins, from Meigs county, Tennessee, where Mrs. Biggar was born. December 12, 1846, was the latter’s birthday and by her first husband, James Womack, she has a daughter, Melissa J., wife of J. H. Bell, of Montague county. Mrs. Bell’s children are: Daisy, Donnie, Bessie, Grady, Troy, Ressie, Ruth, Frank, and Fay. Walter Franklin Biggar is our subject’s only child. He resides near his parents, is married to Lizzie Daniels and has issue, Joe, William and Roy.
In politics the Biggars have manifested little interest, but have ever allied themselves with Democracy and in church matters they are Methodists. Industry and upright dealing have been our subject’s chief traits of character and he has not only been the architect and builder of a good home but he has proved himself a sterling citizen, a good neighbor and a sincere friend.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, p. 361.