Montezuma Male and Female Institute?

Montezuma, McNairy Co.

Harriet M. Higgin(s) (c.1848-?), whose middle name was likely Maria, was the third child born to Joseph B. Higgin(s) and his wife Elizabeth. Her father was a carpenter, miller, and farmer. The family moved frequently. Between 1844 and 1848 they lived in Kentucky. By 1860 they were in Montezuma, McNairy Co., where Harriet may have made her horse motif sampler at the Montezuma Male and Female Institute. In the 1870 census the Higgins family had moved to Hardeman County. Harriet married John Robinson in Hardeman Co. in 1873. After that she and the rest of her family disappear from census records.

Harriet had a fondness for animals and modes of transportation, since her motif sampler features a bird, three butterflies, a dog, a peacock, a man on horseback riding across grass, and a ship.