|
no known photo available
|
|
PGM Malcijah B. Highsmith
I.O.O.F. Grand Master of Texas in 1873
Texas Ranger
From: Bastrop, Texas
If you have a picture or know of a picture of this I.O.O.F. Past Grand Master please CONTACT US
|
|
From I.O.O.F. of Texas Proceedings Book
|
|
|
Malcijah Highsmith worked with Gorham until 1873, when he posted a letter in the Galveston Tri-Weekly News, which read, “I have this day sold my entire interest in the Carriage and Saddlery business of Gorham & Highsmith to Capt. J. C. Gorham.” He further noted, concerning those who owed the two men debts, that, “He assumes all liabilities and collects all monies due the firm of Gorham & Highsmith.”
Malcijah retired to his home in Bastrop shortly thereafter. The Bastrop Advertiser indicated that Captain Highsmith remained active in the civil affairs of Bastrop, spending time and donating money to his church until his death in 1893. |
|
HIGHSMITH, MALCIJAH BENJAMIN (1827–1893). Malcijah Benjamin (Kige) Highsmith, Texas Ranger and Confederate Army officer, was born on May 17, 1827, at the home of Aylett C. Buckner at Old Caney in what is now Brazoria County. His parents, Teresa (Williams) and Samuel Highsmith, were then refugees from the Comanche raids on their home on the Colorado River in Stephen F. Austin's colony. As a small boy during the Texas Revolution Highsmith participated in the Runaway Scrape, in which his grandfather, Winslow Turner, died. During the Mexican War Highsmith served in his father's company, Company K of Col. William C. Young's Third Regiment, Texas Mounted Volunteers, and was elected to fourth sergeant on July 25, 1846. Late in February 1850 he was commissioned second lieutenant and acting quartermaster and commissary of Capt. John Salmon Ford's company of Texas Rangers. He distinguished himself in a fight with Comanches in June of that year at San Antonio de Viejo, on the Rio Grande. He left ranger service to return to his farm in the fall of 1850 and was replaced by Edward Burleson, Jr. In August 1852 Highsmith ran for sheriff of Bastrop County but was defeated by John Hearn. However, in 1852 he was elected County Tax Assessor & Collector, serving two terms. By 1860 he reported ownership of $1,000 in real estate and an additional $1,000 in personal property. At the outbreak of the Civil War he raised and was elected captain of the "Bastrop Cavalry Company" or the "Bishop Cavalry Company" of Texas State Troops. This company was mustered into Confederate service as Company D of Col. William H. Parsons's Twelfth Texas Cavalry. After the war Highsmith returned for a time to Bastrop before accepting a position as traveling salesman for a Galveston firm - Bernstine and Company. He retired to Bastrop, where he died on May 4, 1893.
|
The above is copied from the TSHA website.
|
|
The Dallas Morning News informed Texans of the death of the Civil War hero with an obituary that read, “Captain M. B. Highsmith more familiarly known as Captain ‘Kige’ Highsmith one of the old soldiers who fought for Texas in the early days of the republic, died at his home in Bastrop Thursday night, May 4. He was 66 years old.”
|
Burial at Fairview Cemetery in Bastrop, Texas.
|
|
|
1973 Historical Event "Buffalo Soldiers" first posted in Texas
Texas Historical Event
|
|
|
|
