Joseph Eugene "Joe" Higgins is the youngest son and child of Elisha Eugene and Mary Louise Herrmann Higgins. He was born in Sandusky, Erie, OH on 26 Dec 1880 to a storied Irish family.

On 23 Nov 1900, in Elyria, Lorain, OH, Joe became the husband of Miss Melissa Eliza Huxley, the baby of her family. He and Melissa would eventually have ten children, three of which died in infancy, or at birth.

According to family records, in 1904 and 1905 Joe worked at the Tower Grove House, the former country home of Henry Shaw of Shaw's Garden in St. Louis, MO, now known as Missouri Botanical Garden. No one was allowed in the Shaw home without removing their shoes. Joe refused to do this, and was still welcome in the home at any time.

According to an article in the Sandusky Register on 21 Oct 1954, relatives of Joe Higgins, then deceased, relayed to the paper that Joe was a caretaker for the Gallup Estate on Wayne Street in 1907. In 1907, Mozart Gallup lived at 532 Wayne Street, Sandusky, OH. He had purchased the home, the former George March House, in 1904. It was built in 1868. According to a separate article in the Sandusky Register on 28 Feb 1959, Mozart Gallup was the third owner of the George March House. It is now on the National Register of Historic Places.

On 3 Oct 1908, Joe bought a home in North Montier, Shannon, MO, this time from his wife Melissa's Aunt, Rebecca T Seibert, and the family was on the move back to Montier again.

Around 1912 they moved on one more time to Kansas City, Jackson, MO. When living in Kansas City, and at the time of his death, Joe owned and operated a carpet shop near 12th and Benton. He was a carpenter and a rug weaver by trade. His carpet shop lot was later purchased by Sears Roebuck and Company for their 12th Street store parking lot, now a U.S. Post Office building.

In 1918, he ran a "Confectionery" at 2432 Jackson, in Kansas City, Jackson, MO. Their children attended Ashland School, now gone.