Staggs Family History

My ancestors in the United States

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    Ruth Hayford (1768-1854)

    BIRTH: 1768, New Braintree, Massachusetts, USA
    DEATH: 10 AUG 1854, Green, Ohio, USA
    FATHER: Webster Hayford (1736-1819)
    MOTHER: Mary Bonney (1741-1822)
    SPOUSE: Timothy Higgins (1768-1850)

    When Ruth Hayford was born in 1768 in New Braintree, Massachusetts, her father, Webster, was 32, and her mother, Mary, was 27. She married Timothy Higgins on December 16, 1789, in her hometown. They had ten children in 20 years. She died on August 10, 1854, in Greene, Ohio, having lived a long life of 86 years, and was buried there.

    Her story

    Ruth Hayford was born in 1768, during the waning years of colonial New England, in what was then the Province of Massachusetts Bay. Her early childhood unfolded against a backdrop of change and unrest as the American colonies moved toward independence.

    Ruth was a daughter of the Hayford family, one of several in Massachusetts descended from early English settlers. Families like hers were typical of rural New England life in the mid-18th century—close-knit, industrious, and guided by faith and family duty.

    On December 16, 1789, Ruth married Timothy Higgins in New Braintree, Worcester County, Massachusetts. Their union linked two long-established New England families, the Hayfords and the Higginses, both of which traced their roots to the early days of Plymouth Colony. The marriage record from New Braintree marks the beginning of a partnership that would last more than half a century.

    Ruth and Timothy made their home first in Massachusetts, where they began raising a large family—at least sixteen children, according to family records, though some lists vary. Their children included both sons and daughters who would later scatter westward as new territories opened in New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. Like many New England families of the early Republic, the Higginses were part of that great internal migration that followed the Revolution, as land in the old towns grew scarce and opportunities beckoned on the frontier.

    By the early 1800s, Ruth and Timothy had joined this westward movement. They eventually settled in Greene Township, Trumbull County, Ohio, part of the Western Reserve—a region founded largely by families of Massachusetts origin. There, the Higgins family helped build one of the early communities of northeastern Ohio.

    Ruth lived to see the young republic transform into a rapidly expanding nation. She endured the loss of her husband and several of her children, yet remained surrounded by family in her later years. When she died in 1854, at about eighty-six years of age, she left behind a large family of descendants whose lives had stretched far beyond the small New England town where she had been born.

    Buried in Greene, Trumbull County, Ruth Hayford Higgins stands as a quiet symbol of her generation—women who bridged the colonial and pioneer eras, who raised families through hardship and migration, and whose endurance helped shape both New England and the new western settlements that followed.

    Legacy of Ruth Hayford

    Parents

    Father: Webster Hayford (1736-1819)

    Mother: Mary Bonney (1741-1822)

    Married

    Timothy Higgins (1768-1850). Married December 16, 1789, in New Braintree, Massachusetts.

    Children

    • Chloe Higgins (1790-1864) married Sprague Keene (1788-1866)
    • Harden P Higgins (1793-1887) married Mary Northrup (1799-1867)
    • Lydia Higgins (1795-1891) married John Cole (1776-?)
    • Philotha Higgins (1797-1843) married Erastus Sparks Sr (1789-1840)
    • Timothy Higgins Jr (1800-1861) married Julia Ann Perkins (1806-1862)
    • Ruth Higgins (1802-1877) married John Justin Sr (1792-1848)
    • Ebenezer Higgins (1803-1882) married Laura Veumans (1808-1886)
    • Ellias Higgins (1804-1859)
    • Polly Higgins (1805-1850) married John Granger Evens (1802-1864)
    • Harrison Higgins (1810-1882) married Speda Sharp (1821-1896)

    Documents

    • Birth Records
    • Marriage records
      • Massachusetts, U.S., Town Marriage Records, 1620-1850; Name: Ruth HAYFORD; Spouse: Timothy Higgins; Marriage Date: 16 Dec 1789; Marriage Place: Braintree; Source: Vital Records of Braintree; Full text: HAYFORD (see Hefford), Ruth and Timothy Higgins, Dec. 16, 1789.
      • Massachusetts, U.S., Compiled Birth, Marriage, and Death Records, 1700-1850 > New Braintree Marriages > Higgins, Timothy of Worthington, Hampshire Co., and Ruth Hayford, Dec. 16, 1789.
      • Mayflower Families Through Five Generations: Descendants of the Pilgrims who landed at Plymouth, Mass., December 1620. General Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1975-2015. Samson, Henry (Vol. 20, part 2) Page 3 > Ruth Hayford m. 16 Dec 1789 Timothy Higgins
    • Death records
      • Find A Grave Death Date: 10 Aug 1854
      • Burial: South Cemetery, Greene Township, Trumbull County, Ohio, USA
    • Census Records
      • 1850 United States Federal Census > Ohio > Trumbull > Greene > shows Ruth (age 80) and her husband Timothy Higgins Sr living with son Timothy Higgins Jr and family

    Relation of Ruth Hayford to Steven Barry Staggs: 5th great-grandmother

    Page last updated November 25, 2025

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