Durham, N. N.  "Spokane and the Inland Empire; History of the City of Spokane
and Spokane County Washington."  Vol. 3.  S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1912.  
p. 247
 
MILES M. HIGLEY

     Developing business conditions have made commercial training a necessity.
In this age when everything is done with a rush and where rapid and accurate
results must be obtained in order to meet competition each individual should be
thoroughly qualified for the duties which devolve upon him, and to meet the need
for thoroughly trained help the commercial college has been established. Today
the Northwestern Business College of Spokane is regarded as one of the foremost
educational institutions of the northwest and as its president Mr. Higley has
given to this section of the country a school of particular merit. He has lived
in Washington for fourteen years, having come to Spokane in 1897. He was then a
young man of about thirty years of age, his birth having occurred in St.
Charles, Minnesota, November 24, 1867. His parents were Francis M. and Maria E.
(Chamberlain) Higley, of that city, where his father conducted business as a
hardware merchant save that at the period of the Civil war he responded to the
country's call for aid and served at the front with Brackett's Battalion of the
Fifth Iowa Cavalry. He passed away many years ago, but the mother of our subject
is still living.
     As a public-school student of Minnesota, Miles M. Higley passed through
consecutive grades until he became a high-school student and later he attended
the Gem City Business College of Quincy, Illinois. Recognizing the need for
business training among the young people of the country, he went to Marinette,
Wisconsin, where he opened a commercial school, which he conducted with
gratifying success from 1889 until 1897. In the latter year he sold out and came
to Spokane, thinking to find a still broader field of labor in this rapidly
growing section of the country. He purchased the Northwestern Business College
from its founder, E. H. Thompson, and immediately began to reorganize and build
up what is uniformly conceded today to be the best business college in the
northwest. In 1899 the company was incorporated with Mr. Higley as president and
general manager and Clinton P. Brewer as secretary. The faculty now numbers ten
instructors, day and evening classes are maintained and there are three distinct
courses of study. Their attendance numbers about seven hundred pupils each year,
coming to them from the Dakotas, Montana, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Oklahoma
and British Columbia. It is estimated that the college is the means of bringing
from one hundred and fifty thousand to one hundred and seventy-five thousand
dollars to Spokane each year. The system of instruction is most thorough and
graduates are qualified to take up responsible positions in the business world.
Already many of their students are making for themselves creditable names and
positions as factors in the commercial life of this and other cities.
     On the 19th of April, 1897, Mr. Higley was married to Miss Mae F. Shields,
of Marinette, Wisconsin, a daughter of Charles E. and Josephine (Wilson)
Shields, of that city. They were pioneer residents of the Badger state, where
Mr. Shields was engaged in the lumber trade. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Higley have been
born a daughter and a son, Florence Lucille and Warren, who are with their
parents in a beautiful suburban home which stands on a block of fourteen acres
at Glenrose. Its hospitality is proverbial and its good cheer is enjoyed by
their many friends. Mr. Higley is greatly interested in the welfare of Spokane,
proof of which is found in his earnest cooperation with the various projects and
plans of the Chamber of Commerce for the upbuilding of the city. He belongs to
the Rotary Club and to Imperial Lodge, No. 134, I. O. O. F., but is perhaps best
known outside of his college connections in the Masonic fraternity, his
membership being with Spokane Lodge, No. 34, A. F. & A. M.; Spokane Chapter, No.
2, R. A. M.; Spokane Council, No. 4, E. & S. M.; Cataract Commandery, No. 3, K.
T.; Oriental Consistory, No. 2, A. A. S. R.; and El Katif Temple, A. A. O. N. M.
S. He has ever held to high ideals in the conduct of the college and has the
ability to inspire pupils and teachers with much of his own zeal and interest in
the work.

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Submitted to the Washington Biographies Project in April 2010 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.