Frank E. Higgins

File:Frank E. Higgins portrait.jpg

Frank E. Higgins (19 August 1865 – 4 January 1915) was an American Presbyterian minister and evangelist to logging camps in Minnesota. He was known as the "Lumberjacks' Sky Pilot".{{cite journal |last1=Hagg |first1=Harold T. |title=The Lumberjacks' Sky Pilot |journal=Minnesota History |date=1950 |volume=31 |issue=2 |page=65 |url=http://collections.mnhs.org/MNHistoryMagazine/articles/31/v31i02p065-078.pdf |access-date=18 July 2022}}

Higgins was born in Toronto and grew up in Shelburne, Ontario. He moved to the United States in 1890, and studied at Hamline University in the hopes of becoming a Methodist minister. He did poorly in his studies, however, and dropped out. He started pastoring a Presbyterian church in 1899 and was ordained by the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in 1902.{{cite web |last1=Cartwright |first1=R. L. |title=Higgins, Francis "Frank" E., (1865–1915) |url=https://www.mnopedia.org/person/higgins-francis-frank-e-1865-1915 |website=MNopedia |publisher=Minnesota Historical Society |access-date=18 July 2022}} He preached his first sermon to the lumberjacks in 1895, and was appointed Superintendent of Lumber Camp Work in 1908.{{cite web |title=Parish in the Pines |url=https://www.history.pcusa.org/history-online/exhibits/parish-pines-page-4 |publisher=Presbyterian Historical Society |access-date=18 July 2022}}

Higgins recruited many other evangelists to his work, including Richard T. Ferrell.{{cite book |last1=Daman |first1=Glenn |title=The Forgotten Church: Why Rural Ministry Matters for Every Church in America |date=2018 |publisher=Moody Publishers |page=22 |url=https://www.moodypublishers.com/mpimages/Marketing/WEB%20Resources/PDFs/Study%20Guides%20and%20Leaders%20Guides/ForChuCh1.pdf |access-date=18 July 2022}} He was the subject of three novels by Thomas D. Whittles: The Lumberjack Sky Pilot (1908), The Parish in the Pines (1912), and Frank Higgins, Trail Blazer (1920).

The Book News Monthly described him as "a man of sterling worth – simple, whole-souled, sincere. He possessed a vigorous body, a cool head, a loving heart, and a genuine contempt for hardship".{{cite journal |title=Folks you will like to meet |journal=The Book News Monthly |date=1915 |volume=33 |page=284 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uG1PAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA284 |access-date=18 July 2022}}