We have another tragic anniversary today. On this day 85 years ago, Orland George Higginbotham, my fifth cousin three times removed, died, aged 26. He was the son of George Henry and Dolly (Taylor) Higginbotham and the grandson of William Riley and Lovey Marvel (Davis) Higginbotham. He was born 11 September 1912 in Gold Hill, Oregon. He appears in the 1920 census in Lane County, Oregon, along with his parents and his older brother John. George Higginbotham is listed as a laborer in a sawmill. In 1930 George (still working in a sawmill), Dolly, and Orland appear in Cottage Grove, Lane County, Oregon.
On 23 August 1932, Orland married Versie McCoy in Lane County, Oregon. Orland was 19 and Versie was 16. Versie was born in Kamiah County, Idaho. Orland and Versie had one child, also named Orland George. He would also marry young; he was 18 and his bride, Donna Mae Miller, was 15 when they married in Medford, Oregon.
By that time Orland, Sr., had been dead for 11 years. The Eugene [Oregon] Guard from 15 July 1939 explains what happened. Orland and two other passengers were riding in a car driven by George R. Kerr when it plunged off the Drain-Reedsport Highway, down a 20-foot bank, and into the Umpqua River east of Reedsport, Oregon. George Kerr was able to assist the other two passengers to escape the automobile. Meanwhile Orland was attempting to escape from the other side of the car when it rolled over, preventing his escape. The car would eventually sink in about seven feet of water. Orland, Sr., was buried at Eugene Pioneer Cemetery in Eugene, Oregon.
15 July 1939
Orland’s widow would remarry in 1959, to Lloyd Terrill in Lewis County, Washington. She later worked as an antiques dealer in Kelso, Washington, passing away in June 1978 in Longview, Washington. She is buried at Fir Grove Cemetery in Cottage Grove, Oregon.