How The Town of Higbee Got Its Name

How The Town Of Higbee Got It's Name

The source of this story is not 100% certain, but it probably came from, "History of Randolph and Macon Counties, Missouri" published in 1884. The book goes on to say the town was started in 1872 and incorporated around 1879.

"At the time the railroads were built, Joseph W. Burton and Edward Owens gave the land for the town where Higbee is, and the right to name the town was given to Joseph W. Burton. One of the men connected with the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railroad wished to have the place named for himself, and to forestall Mr. Burton he named a near-by station Burton. When the day came for naming the new town, Mr. Burton did not name it Elliott, as the railroad man wanted, nor for himself, but chose the name Higbee, giving for his reason that the name was easy to speak and not likely to be duplicated, and that there was not a man in the whole community so well thought of and so much loved by the people as the pioneer Joseph Higbee"