Colusa County
Biographies
JOHN and SILAS RIGGS
Throughout Colusa county
the Riggs brothers have a host of intimate and admiring friends among the
people among whom they have lived and labored through many years now gone by. To
depict their lives is to describe the frontier days of California,----weary
journeys across the plains, deprivations and hardships in mines,
discouragements in early agricultural enterprises, but withal the comradeship
of genial, noble men and the enjoyment of a climate unexcelled and a soil
unsurpassed. As the approach of age gives them leisure for reminiscence their
thoughts and conversation often turn to their boyhood days in old Kentucky and
to the ensuing years as frontier farmers in Iowa, thence the tedious journey
over mountains and across desert to the El Dorado of their aspirations, where
now, having visited different parts of California, they insist that Sacramento
valley boasts the most healthful climate of any section of the state.
During the early days of Kentucky’s history
Stephen Riggs, a native of the eastern shore of Maryland and a soldier in the
war of 1812, removed to that state, where he married Elizabeth Riggs, member of
an old Kentucky family and a native of that state. Accompanied by their family
in 1836 they went to Iowa and settled in Des Moines county
near Burlington, where Mr. Riggs devoted a long period to the improvement of a
farm. About 1858 he moved from Iowa intending to locate in California, but his
plans were changed and he stopped in Sullivan county,
Mo. There he remained until his death at ninety-six years. Longevity has been
noticeable in the family history; one of his brothers lived to be one hundred
and four years old. Fraternally he was an ardent Mason. Though of southern
family, he gave his sympathy to the Union at the time of the Civil war and two
of his sons enlisted under the stars and stripes. His wife was eighty-six at
the time of her death. Of their family of ten daughters and four sons only four
daughters and three sons survive. Two of the sons are John born in 1822, and
Silas, born in 1826, both natives of what is now Washington county, Ky. While
they were still quite young the family became established on a frontier farm in
Iowa, in a sparsely settled region, and it was here that they attended the
pioneer subscription schools. They endured many hardships in breaking ground
and bringing the soil under cultivation. Five yoke of cattle were used in
breaking the prairie soil and the work was exceedingly difficult for both men
and beasts, but the brothers had the hopeful spirit of youth, and difficulties
did not daunt them. Another pioneer occupation in which they engaged was that
of making rails.
The discovery of gold turned the
attention of the brothers to a new and unknown region, and they soon arranged
affairs for removal to the west. During 1850 they crossed the pains, walking
almost the entire distance. Like the majority of early comers, they tried their
luck at mining. A return trip was made by John in 1851, this time by Panama,
but in 1853 he again came to the coast, following the Nicaragua route. After a
year at San Jose he returned to the mines. In 1861 he and his brother came to
Grand Island and secured three hundred and twenty acres of government land, to
which they added by the later purchase of swamp land until at one time their
possessions aggregated thirteen hundred acres. By subsequent sales they have
disposed of the larger part of their property, but retain their home place of
four hundred and eighty acres three miles west of Grimes, also residence and a
five- acre lot in Grimes. The raising of grain and stock have been their
specialties, but of recent years they have rented the land, thus freeing themselves from heavy manual labor. To some extent they have
retained stock in mines. Stanch Republicans, both are loyal to their party and
their country, and display a progressive spirit indicative of the highest type
of citizenship.
In Masonry John Riggs has been active
as a member of Nebraska Lodge No. 71, at Michigan Bar. For his age he is
wonderfully well preserved, a fact which he attributes to his abstinence from
tobacco and whisky. In religious views he is a Baptist, and both are deeply
interested in the welfare of the cause of Christianity. There are two ambitions
which the elder brother cherishes and which he hopes to realize ere death
claims him, and these are the building of a Baptist Church and a Masonic Hall
at Grimes, his home town. Having not family to inherit his property he long ago
decided that with his means he could do no greater good than to provide
suitable buildings for organizations as helpful to humanity as are the church
and the fraternity.
Transcribed By: Cecelia M. Setty.
Source: "History of the State of
California and Biographical Record of the Sacramento
Valley, Cal.," J. M. Guinn, Pages
466-469.
The Chapman Publishing Company, Chicago, 1906.
© 2017 Cecelia M. Setty.
Golden Nugget
Library's Colusa County Biographies