Brewster Higley

Brewster Martin Higley VI, MD (November 30, 1823 – December 9, 1911) was an otolaryngologist who became famous for writing "My Western Home". Originally written in 1871 or 1872 and published under the title "My Western Home" in the Smith County Pioneer in the fall of 1873, possibly December, this poem later became the original lyrics for the famous American folk song "Home on the Range". Because Higley wrote "Home on the Range" while living in Smith County, Kansas, and because Kansans felt it described their state very well, the Kansas legislature voted to make "Home on the Range" the official state song on April 8, 1947. Early life and medical career Born in Rutland, Ohio, the grandson of Rutland's founder Brewster Higley IV, Higley VI began studying medicine at La Porte Medical College in La Porte, Indiana at the age of eighteen. After graduating in 1849, he resettled in Pomeroy, Ohio and established his first medical practice. He briefly practiced medicine in Indiana and finally moved to Kansas in 1871 to claim land under the Homestead Act of 1862.