HIGGINS GAP

NAME: Higgins Gap COUNTY: Lampasas ROADS: 2WD GRID: 3 CLIMATE: cold winters, hot summers. BEST TIME TO VISIT: spring and fall

COMMENTS: Located on Farm Road 1690, five miles east of the Lampasas River and 3-1/2 miles northwest of Franklin Mountain in northern Lampasas County Texas. Ranching area and popular recreational area near several lakes and reservoirs that attract hunters, fishermen and tourists. The town had one gas station and combination post office and community center in the mid-1980s. REMAINS: A few scattered vacant buildings

Higgins Gap was named after an early settler, open range rancher and feudist John Calhoun Pinckney Higgins also known as "The Reluctant Rifleman." During the early years the town was a rough place, subject to Indian raids and feuds among the ranchers. The most infamous feud was the bloody Horrell-Higgins Feud that took place from 1872 until 1877. In 1885 C.J. Dumas built a cotton gin in the community, and that same year E.J,. Healer opened a general store. A post office was established in 1888 in nearby Coryell County and the neame was changed to Izoro, Texas after Izoro Gillam, the daughter of a prominent settler. In 1874, my great grandfather William Ellijay Gilmer moved from Jasper County Georgia and settled in Higgins Gap with his young family near the Lampasas River. He went to work for John C.P. Higgins as teamster and range rider. The severe ten year drought that started in 1885 forced John Higgins to sell his herd to Frank Gholson and my great grandfather went to work for the Gholson Ranch as a teamster, range rider and windmiller. He worked there until he died in 1915 and is buried in the nearby rural Smith Cemetery. Submitted by: Jerry Coffee

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