Stanislaus
County
Biographies
JAMES RUSSELL BRIGGS
That fruitful and healthful
Scotch-English ancestry which has done so much to populate the United States
worthily and which has carried success to every state in the Union produced
James Russell Briggs, of Modesto, California, one of the best known and most
prominent retired farmers of Stanislaus County.
Mr. Briggs was born in Pennsylvania, April 26, 1827, a son of John and
Mary (Coulter) Briggs. His
great-grandfather Briggs came from England to Pennsylvania at an early date and
there Mr. Briggs’s father and grandfather Samuel were born. Samuel Briggs was a soldier of the
Revolutionary War and was with General Washington at Valley Forge. His mother was of Scotch descent and his
father was a successful farmer and for some years a class leader in the
Methodist Episcopal Church. He died when
in his forty-first year, and his widow survived him to the ripe old age of
ninety-eight years. They were the
parents of ten children, of whom only three survive.
James Russell Briggs, the eldest
surviving member of his family, received his early education in the public
schools of Pennsylvania and was later a student in public schools in Marion
County, Ohio, where his father removed with his family in 1834, when the boy
was seven years old. He had begun life on
his own account as a farmer when the Civil War began, and, inspired by the
example of his father, who was a veteran of the War of 1812, he enlisted in
Company D, Sixteenth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, which was commanded by “Dick”
Yates, afterward the celebrated war governor of Illinois, and was elected its
first lieutenant. He fought under
General Sherman in several minor engagements in Mississippi and Tennessee and
participated in the five day fight at Vicksburg. While encamped with his regiment on the bank
of the Yazoo River, he contracted an incurable kidney disease and was honorably
discharged from the service by reason of disability; and, he was injured also
by a fragment of a shell which exploded near him. He has never recovered from the chronic
ailment mentioned and in consequence of it he is to this day in a sense an
invalid. He had volunteered for three
years and had served gallantly for about nine months, and he deeply regretted
his inability to fight longer for the preservation of the Union. After he had partially regained his health,
his physician advised him to go to California, in whose glorious climate it was
hoped he would fully recover, and in 1864 he joined a large party of California
emigrants and crossed the plains with a mule team. They chose the northern route, which while it
was more dangerous on account of Indians, afforded more and better feed for
their stock than the southern route, and made the journey without serious
adventure, and Mr. Briggs and his wife and five children pushed on to San
Joaquin County, where they found a temporary home at Captain Weber’s place.
Mr. Briggs began farming on one
hundred and sixty acres of land and as he prospered he bought more land until
he owned six hundred acres adjoining the town of Modesto, which increased in
value rapidly as Modesto grew in wealth and population. The building of the railroad was also an aid
to Mr. Briggs in a financial way, and he eventually sold some of his land, at
one hundred dollars an acre, and more of it at sixty dollars an acre, and was
enabled to retire on a competency to pass his declining years in a pleasant
home at Modesto. He is well known as a
member of the Masonic fraternity, belonging to Santa Cruz Lodge, No. 38, Santa
Cruz, California, and has been an unswerving Republican since the organization
of that party. He has never sought or
accepted any political office. His
career as a citizen and as a soldier has shown him to be a patriotic lover of
his country, who in his life and works has done it honor.
Mr. Briggs was married March 29,
1849, in Crawford County, Ohio, to Miss Elizabeth Bush, and of their children
we make the following observations: Mary
Jane is the wife of Reuben Pixley, of San Joaquin County. Abraham is a resident of Modesto. John lives at Santa Cruz. Katie is the wife
of Charles Rice, of Modesto. Ora married
James Sample, of Santa Rosa. Albert is a
member of his father’s household in Modesto.
After a happy married life of forty-seven years, Mr. Briggs was bereft
of his wife by death November 28, 1896.
His loss is an irreparable one and he refers to her as having been one
of the best of women, such a woman as is “God’s best gift to man.”
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 380-382. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.