Susana McMurray Higgs (1794-1877)

Daughter of a Carlisle tavernkeeper, wife of an English iron worker, Aunt to a well-known actress, and benefactress to the poor, Susana McMurray Higgs was born, lived much of her life and died on the same property in Carlisle. She was affectionately known to most of the residents of Carlisle as “Aunty Higgs.”

Susana, her sister Ann, and her brother William McMurray grew up on the corner of Louther and Hanover streets on the property that was bequeathed to their father, Captain Thomas McMurray, by his uncle Thomas McMurray. The senior Thomas McMurray had kept a tavern there during the Revolutionary War, and Captain Thomas McMurray kept the “Sign of the Thirteen Stripes” tavern at the same location from 1809 until 1831.^[1]

Captain Thomas McMurray acquired several additional lots in Carlisle in 1827,^[2] as well as a brick house and a barn on 12 acres of land called “Happy Retreat. He made his will shortly before his death in 1839. He bequeathed his stone house and the log house on Louther and Bedford streets, as well as his clock, to Susana. He left several other properties to his daughter Ann Culin and $900 to his son William.^[3]

Susana had married Englishman Thomas Higgs sometime before 1839, and in 1840, they were living in Carlisle. When Joseph Higgs and several other men established the Shenango Iron Works in Lawrence County, Pennsylvania in 1845, Susana and her husband moved there so that Thomas could work for the company.

The Shenango Iron Works failed in 1859, and Susana and her husband moved back to Carlisle. In 1869, Thomas Higgs was ill, and he made his will. He bequeathed his house and lot in New Castle, Pennsylvania to his wife Susana. He also made bequests to his daughter Sarah Gill and her children Esther Gill and Thomas Higgs Gill.^[4] Esther Gill lived with Susana Higgs, and in gratitude for “her great service to me,” Susana willed her $500, furniture and silver teaspoons.^[5]

Susana died in Carlisle on June 8, 1877. Her lengthy obituary stated that she had been a member of the First Presbyterian Church for sixty years, and although she had an average education, she was “a most thorough Bible scholar.” She was “a benevolent and charitable lady who gave freely to those in indigent circumstances.” She had a wonderful memory and she “retained her faculties unimpaired until the hour of her death.”^[6]

Susana died possessed of considerable property, according to her obituary, “the bulk of which has been bequeathed to her adopted daughter, Mrs. Frank Tannehill, and in the event will go to her children.”^[7]  Susana never had any children, but she adopted her niece Susan McMurray.^[8] Susan married Frank A.Tannehill, an actor, and they both performed throughout the United States and Canada for decades. “In 1857, they were part of the ensemble company at Philadelphia’s Arch Street theatre; the same year that John Wilkes Booth joined the company.”^[9] Carlisle native, James W. Sullivan, wrote about Frank Tannehill in his reminiscences. “Tannehill, a musician and actor, was manager of the Memphis, Tennessee theatre before the (Civil) war. A handsome man, he was a celebrity in the south and south west. I saw him and his wife and little son and daughter in Leavenworth, Kansas in 1867; stage fortunes in the South then at a low ebb financially.”^[10]

The Tannehill’s daughter, Susie, also performed with the family. She had played the role of Eva in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” when the family performed in Carlisle in 1872. She was seven years old when she died of typhoid fever in Toronto, Canada on March 3, 1873. Her remains were brought back to Carlisle, and buried in the Old Graveyard.^[11]

The Tannehill’s son, Frank, Jr., became a well-known actor, playwright and lyricist. His daughter, Frances Tannehill (1923-2013), was a Broadway actress who appeared in plays with Mary Martin, Gene Kelly, Jimmy Durante, Helen Hays, Jessica Tandy and many others.^[12]

Susana McMurray Higgs bequeathed the property on the corner of Louther and Bedford streets to her adopted niece Susan Tannehill. Susan, who went by the stage name of “Nellie” Tannehill, died at her home in New York in April 1914. Her remains were brought to Carlisle and buried in the Old Graveyard.^[13] In 1915, a year after his mother’s death, Frank, Jr., sold the property on the corner of Louther and Bedford that had been in the family since 1778.^[14]

A single stone marker, engraved “Tannehill, McMurray, Higgs,” stands in Carlisle’s Old Graveyard, three blocks south of the old McMurray lot on the corner of Louther and Bedford streets.