Heritage Museum Picture of the Month  

Lecture Ticket, May 3, 1931

by Rob Jeffery   

Two Salvation Army generals are buried in Kensico Cemetery in Valhalla, N.Y.: General Evangeline Booth and General Edward J. Higgins. General Higgins (1864–1947), born in Highbridge, England, spent nearly a decade of his officership in the United States. He became the first Salvation Army officer to be elected to serve as General by the High Council in 1929. When he retired in 1934, he moved with his wife, Catherine, back to the United States. They lived out their remaining days in Coral Gables, Fla., and Canada.  

Pictured is a ticket to attend General Higgins’ May 3, 1931, lecture in Mecca Temple Auditorium (which was then owned by the Shriners and is now the New York City Center). The man introducing him was Henry W. Taft, then chairman of the advisory board for The Salvation Army in New York City and an influential New York lawyer, as well as brother to President William Howard Taft.