Background
Frank Wayland Higgins was born on August 18, 1856 in the village of Rushford, New York, United States. He was christened Francis Wayland.
His parents, Orrin Thrall Higgins and Lucia Cornelia Hapgood, were of English forebears who came to New England in the seventeenth century. His father, a businessman of ability, was the owner of extensive tracts in Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Oregon, and Washington, and of iron ore lands in Minnesota. He also built up and operated a chain of grocery stores in Olean, New York, and in the neighboring oil regions of Pennsylvania.
His mother, a woman of charm and culture, died while he was still a child but before her death stimulated and developed his taste for music and art.