Dr. William M. Higgins, pharmacist on Central avenue, Anaheim, was born in Monmouth County, New Jersey, June 18, 1826. He was educated at Princeton College, at which he was graduated in 1845, with the degree of A. B. He read medicine for a period of two years, and February 22, 1849, started for California on the bark St. Mary. He remained in Rio Janeiro ten months, then went aboard the ship William Brandt, bound for San Francisco, at which place he arrived in July, 1850, having been ship’s doctor during the voyage.
After his arrival in San Francisco he was appointed apothecary and book-keeper in the City Hospital, after which he engaged in mining for a few years. Then in 1869 he moved to Anaheim and established the drug store on the corner of Center and Lemon streets, and has ever since given his attention to the drug business. In December, 1870, he was appointed Postmaster, which office he filled with great acceptability for a continuous term of thirteen years. He has been connected with the educational interests of the city for a number of years, having been clerk of the district for six years, and is now chairman of the school board.
He is a charter member of the Masonic lodge, which was organized in 1869. He is also a member of the I. O. O. F. fraternity, Anaheim Lodge, No. 199. He was a charter member of the Abou Ben Adhem Lodge in San Francisco, which lodge he had the honor of naming in 1863.
In 1858 he was married in San Francisco to Miss Alice Boyle, a native of Lowell, Massachusetts, the daughter of Michael Boyle, an Irishman and a pioneer to this coast of ’49. Miss Alice Boyle was the first graduate of the Cooper Medical College. She then practiced medicine four years, and subsequently took a course at Philadelphia in the Women’s Medical College, and was elected an honorary member of the alumni. She was a woman of more than ordinary ability, and had made an enviable reputation as a physician. Four years ago she became paralyzed and has since been almost helpless. Dr. and Mrs. Higgins have three children, two daughters at home, and a son, Charles C., a graduate of the California College of Pharmacy, now a prominent druggist in San Franisco.