Margaret Higley

Margaret (Phelps) Higley wears a determined look in this portrait attributed to the renowned itinerate artist Ammi Phillips, (1788-1865). It was painted about 1843, when the subject, who lived in South Canaan, would have been 96 years old. That determination would carry her forward through another six years of life, before she died at the age of 102 years and four months.

Margaret, wife of Simeon Higley, was a remarkably robust woman. Well into her 90s, she walked more than a mile to Sunday services at the South Canaan Meetinghouse.

When the Rev. H. Goodwin preached a service upon the 100th anniversary of her birth, he said, she was “erect as a girl of eighteen and exceedingly active in person … .” She still had her hearing and, with the aid of the glasses she clutched in her hand, could read her Bible and do fine needlework. Her mind had not dimmed and she “expressed her opinion (about) the concerns of the house and farm and the movements of society,” manifesting an interest in both church and public affairs.

Her portrait is now in the collection of the Falls Village-Canaan Historical Society.