The pictures to the right show Riley in his official photo for the Iowa legislature, and at the bottom is his son George Nathaniel Briggs who became President of Graceland College.
Married: Clarissa E. Greene 21 July 1873 Fremont County, Iowa (another source states 29 July 1870 in Tabor, Iowa)
Children:
- George Nathaniel Briggs (b. 10 May 1874 in Tabor, Iowa, President of Graceland College 1915-1944, d. 26 Dec. 1952; married 1st Carrie Judd 1902, married 2nd Grace M. Kelley, 1912);
- Walter H. Briggs (b. 1876 in Iowa, graduated from State University of Iowa, College of Medicine, Iowa City, 1898, became a doctor in Ewing, Nebraska where his father Riley lived with him in 1920, d. 10 July 1946);
- Clarence N. Briggs (b. 13 Jan. 1878, d. in 17 July 1879);
- Pearl S. Briggs (b. Feb 1887, Iowa, married H. Hays Bullard in 1910 and eventually moved to London, Ontario, Canada).
Riley William first appears with his parents and younger siblings in the 1850 census for Beloit, Rock County Wisconsin. The family had a farm there since 1839. He carried the names of two of his mother's brothers, and we know that Riley Damon visited the family (as noted in the RLDS history written by his brother Edmund C. Briggs). By the time he was born, many in the family had become Mormon, so he must have been influenced by the family's religious experiences from his earliest memories.
Riley was just 18 in 1860 and is found alone with his mother Polly in Iowa as his older siblings have moved on in life and his father Hugh had remarried in Utah. Polly appears on 1 Jan. 1860 when she is listed as a new member of the RLDS branch for Farm Creek in Mills County, Iowa. The branch had been recently organized by her son Edmund Clarke Briggs on 16 Oct. 1859, and perhaps he suggested she join along with other family members who included her children Riley William, and daughter Mary J. with her husband Curtis F. Stiles. The record shows they were all recommended to the Farm Creek branch from the RLDS church at Zarahemla, Wisconsin, the place where Polly had owned property. She and some of her family had made the move to Iowa by 1860, and the new branch recods that she was baptized into the RLDS there on 7 July 1861. Soon her son-in-law C. F. Stiles was reported as being elected clerk for a new RLDS branch called Grand Prairie Branch in Livingston Co., Illinois, so he and Mary must have been on the move trying to spread the word (15 June 1865 edition of the "True Latter-Day Saints' Herald").
Polly's 1860 census record shows her listed as "P. Briggs" in Mud Creek, Mills County, Iowa (dwelling 779, family 721). She is identified as being 64 and born in NY, and with her is 18 year old Wm. R. (Riley William, a.k.a. William Riley) born in Wisconsin. The census taker had mistakenly recoredg Polly as male, which might have confused some researchers, but all the other information fits, and so it is she. Her personal property was worth $600, and nearby is Farm Creek where she attended church. About 25 miles away was another son, Edwin Ruthven with his family in Kane Township, Pottawattamie County.
Riley continued his affiliation with the church as he turned 20 and was ordained an RLDS elder 8 Oct. 1862. In 1863 at a special church conference held in North Star branch, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, 6 June 1863, various missions were appointed for elders of the church, and Riley was selected to go with Br. William Kelley as the two missionaries to Minnesota.
At the Annual Conference that met on 6 April 1864 at Amboy, Lee County, Illinois, Riley was made a member of the Seventy and also delivered a report of his activities for the church.
In May of 1864 he headed back east to New York to attend school and was eventually enrolled in Cazenovia Seminary (a Methodist Institution). The school records listed Denver, Colorado as his home, so it is likely that his father Hugh had some role in supporting his education (and see below a notice that he helped Riley with law school). It seems he finished the seminary in 1865 and returned to Iowa where he attended the University of Iowa and worked on his law degree.
At this time he was also was writing for the RLDS newspaper "The True Latter-Day Saints' Herald." Beginning with Riley's father Hugh who published his anti-Mormon essay in 1857, many of the Briggs family wrote for publication. This includes son Jason W. who was responsible for producing a church newspaper in Salt Lake City in the 1870s and also in England, and he wrote for "The Saint's Herald" as well. Son Edmund C. also contributed to the "Herald" and in 1900 published a history covering the beginning of the RLDS. And even their sister Mary J. (Briggs) Curtis wrote an opinion piece on expanding the role of women in the church. So Riley was part of a Briggs tradition developing at this time by producing religious essaya. One piece of his on "Evening Mediations" was written at Poughkeepsie NY on 12 May 1864 but published in the 15 June 1865 edition (page 183-4). Another essay called "Consciousness Beyond the Grave" was apparently written later since it ends with a reference to a woek published of 15 May 1864, but this piece was published before the one written earlier and appears in the 1 Sept. 1864 edition.
In the 1870 census Polly is no longer living in Iowa with Riley who might have been off to law school at this time. She is found in the home of her daughter Mary J. (age 46), with Curtis F. Stiles (age 47) who is the head of the family in their home in Barton, Holt County, in northwest Missouri on the boarder with Kansas. Polly is listed as age 76 and born in NY, which fits exactly with information for other census records. The reason for her no longer living alone but rather being part of this family is also stated. She is blind. In the home she was surrounded by her grandchildren including Ellen J. (age 19), George E. (16), Mary (12), and Edgar S. (4). There is no indication why the family moved from Iowa, but the RLDS church was reestablishing its center in Independence, Missouri, so perhaps they wanted to be closer to the organization HQ. Or just as likely, there were more opportunities for land as the plains opened up for settlement after the Civil War.
Riley continued his association with the church in the 1870s. He attended the semiannual conference of the RLDS church at Council Bluffs from 15 to 19 Sept 1870 and was named one of the two clerks of the conference. In fact, the memoirs of President Joseph Smith III record that Riley was among those who address those attending. At the Friday afternoon session he read the 90th Psalm and preached from Genesis xxviii 16. He spoke again on the Sunday afternoon session following the address by President Smith. At the end of the conference report Riley made the disclaimer that any error or omission of the clerks in the report was to be attributed to him. On a tour of visits to Iowa branches in the weeks after the conference, President Smith met with Riley on 4 Oct. at Plum Hollow as he had come to see him from Eastport.
The RLDS semiannual Conference of 12 to 15 Sept 1872 was held at Park Mills just outside Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Elder Riley W. Briggs again addressed the assembly. The Council Bluffs "Herald" reported that Riley W. Briggs was among those leaders who preached to the "immense congregation" on the Sabbath. The paper reported 102 tents, 265 wagons, and a minimum of 6,000 in attendance at the conference.
The local newspaper "The Council Bluffs Nonpariel" stated that this young man "... was the first speaker and his ability is no mean character, if he is to be judged by the effort made on this occasion."
Soon after this conference President Smith again visited branches throughout Iowa and ran into some trouble with crowds at Sidney. He later wrote, "We are also indebted in thanks for the assistance of Bro. Riley W. Briggs upon several occasions, more especially when at Sidney, where the prospect looked dark, he nobly came forward and stood with us in the declaring the word. He proved himself a 'friend in need' upon that occasion." ("The Saints' Herald," vol. 17, p. 658).
Riley delivered the funeral sermon for Mrs. E. F. Kelly, wife of Elder Richard Kelly, at her residence on Mud Creek, Mills County, Iowa on 18 Nov. 1873. She had become a Mormon in 1842 and been rebaptized into the RLDS by Riley's brother Edmund in 1860. The area was clearly known to Riley since he had lived there with his mother in 1860 and must have know Mrs. Kelly since that time.
Riley attended the quarterly conference at Fremont, Iowa on 31 Jan. 1874 where he gave a report about his district. He was appointed by the conference to act as their agent to confer with the railroad and charter a railroad car for the Plano, Conference in April.
The obituary of Riley's father Hugh was printed in the 15 Sept. 1874 edition of "The Saints Herald" published in Plano, Illinois:
"At Denver City, Colorado. June 16th, 1874, of ripe old age, Hugh L. Briggs, in the eighty-second year of his age.
He was the father of Brn. Jason W., E.C. and R.W. Briggs. He has led a long and busy life, and has gone to the sleep that knows no waking till the resurrection."
A notice on 15 July 1874 concerned Riley who is named as being among those voters delinquent in their shares for the "The First United Order of Enoch." The constitution of this organization states its purpose:
"The general business and object of this corporation shall be the associating together of men of capital and those skilled in labor and mechanics,....for the purpose of settling, developing and improving new tracts of land which tracts of land shall be selected and purchased by a committee to be appointed by the Board of Directors ... to take cognizance of the wants of worthy and industrious poor men who shall apply therefore, and provide them with labor and the means for securing homes and a livelihood and to develop energies and resources, of the people who may seek those respective localities for settlement."
The organization, which began in 1870, continued about twenty years, paying ninety per cent in dividends and returning the original stock also.
However, the church records from the semi-annual conference begun on 19 Sept. 1874 at Council Bluffs state that R. W. Brigs would be sent as a missionary to Washington Territory to labor under the President of the Pacific Slope. Perhaps his Oct 1 letter was before he left, or perhaps he did not go at all.
On 1 Oct 1874 the "Saints' Herald" published a letter by Elder Riley W. Briggs of Wheelers Grove concerning the state of the Church in his area:
"General church affairs are in a fair condition. I am doing some little local labor. During the last six months I have traveled over three hundred miles to hold funeral services, for those in and out of the church; have baptized four within a month, and done some little public speaking . . . . We are building a church house here - have it already enclosed."
Riley is listed as a "Farmer & Teacher" in the 1875 business directory for Grove Township in Pottawattamie County. The "teacher" designation might concern his role as a local leader of the RLDS church.
In 1876 Riley was elected a Justice of the Peace in Pottawattamie. He became a lawyer as some point and one would expect it was before he was a JP. A source from 1888 concerning a legal dispute over property in his father Hugh's will back in 1874 states that rent from a property of
Hugh and his second wife Susannah in Denver was used to help put Riley through law school.
Of a tragic note, on 17 July 1879 Riley lost his 1½ year old son Clarence N. Briggs who is buried in the "Mormon Cemetery" in Grove Township, four miles east of Macedonia on County Road G 66/Pioneer Trail. It has been called the Mormon Cemetery and the L.D.S. Cemetery because it is on the Mormon Trail and many of the people buried there belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
In 1880 Polly Briggs, aged 84 and born in NY, was living in the family of Chester S. Dodson in Hampton Township, Rush County, Kansas as recorded on page 10 of the U.S. census. The box for "Widowed / Divorced" was also checked. Dodson was 37 and born in Pennsylvania, and his wife Josephine was 28 and also from Pa (which might be a mistake). It is possible that Josephine is actually granddaughter Ellen J. from the 1870 census (who is now going by her middle name, a very common tradition in the 19th century for country people), but a note by the census taker written after Polly's name reads "Grandmother of the Stiles family on pag. 9." And there on the previous page only a few households away is the Stiles family of Curtis (age 57) and Mary (age 56). Polly's other grandchildren are there as well, and in addition to those not named in 1870 are Lillian (12), Daisy (9), Amy B. (6), and Eugene (3).
If Josephine is not Polly's granddaughter, there is the question of why she lives with neighbors a few doors away. Perhaps it was just a question of room, since Mary J. was clearly middle aged with several young ones still to care for, and looking after her blind mother might have been too much, but she still wanted her close to the family.
The RLDS history states that in a report delivered at the April 1882 annual conference at Independence, Missouri, Riley is listed among those who have dropped out of the "Quorum of Seventy" due to inactivity. There are 15 men on this list including his brother-in-law Curtis F. Stiles. Curtis had been with the RLDS from the very first conference to organize in 1852 with many notable roles, and he had been recommended as a high priest in Sept. 1874, and he had selected a missionary in Missouri when he moved the family there. The reasons for their Riley's and Curtis' lack of activity are not stated, but both men might have felt some antagonism for church leaders who had launched an attack on Riley's brother Jason W. Briggs who was deemed too liberal in 1879. He had actually been tried by an RLDS church tribunal and was found guilt of several transgressions of doctrine. He was eventually reinstated in his positions in 1880 after he made some clarifying statements, but his treatment by the by several key people in the very organization he and other Briggs relatives had formed perhaps was viewed as shabby way to deal someone whom they owed so much.
The 1885 "Atlas of Pottawattamie County, Iowa" lists the following Briggs names: C.F. Briggs, E.C. Briggs, E.S. Briggs, G.W. Briggs, J. Briggs, Mrs. A. Briggs, Mrs. J.A. Briggs, R.W. Briggs, W.F. Briggs, and Wm. T. Briggs. The R. W. is Riley, the E.C. is his brother Edmund, and there are others of the family there as well.
By the end of Polly's life in 1890, she had moved to Grove Township, Pottawattamie County, Iowa where she was again with her son Riley William (now about age 48) who had lived there off and on since 1860. His sister Mary J. was in her mid-sixties by this point and might not have been able to care for Polly any longer, so she joined the family of Riley who was younger. The area at Grove had an early RLDS and Briggs presence as noted in "History of Grove Township" (1907) which reports, "Many of these early settlers left Nauvoo intending to go to Utah, but for one reason or another, they paused here and finally concluded to remain and a few, if any, have had cause to regret it. The first to organize a religious body in the township were the Latter Day Saints. E. W. BRIGGS and W. W. BLAIR." This is Polly's son Edwin Ruthven who was baptized in Council Bluff, Iowa in 1860. Unfortunately Polly did not live long enough to enjoy her son's success.
Polly's own passing in 1890 was reported in the RLDS weekly newspaper which stated she was buried in Wheeler Grove Cemetery. As the mother of the founders of RLDS Church and a woman who opened her home to their meetings and early organization, she merited a special place in the Church history.
From Jan. 1892 to Jan. 1894 Riley served as a member of the Iowa State Assembly representing district 31, Pottawattamie County as a democrat. A form completed for the legislature states he was a lawyer for many years in Carson, Iowa, and he was also a missionary. He received his law degree from the University of Iowa, Iowa City.
There are references that could relate to Riley, but the is still need for more research. For example, the names of members of the "Pioneer Association of San Francisco" in 1890 lists R. W. Briggs as a member. He could have been a distant member living elsewhere in the country, and could have been one of the sons who made the trip with his father Hugh for the Gold Rush, but these are yet to be proven. Also, the "L. A. W. Bulletin and Good Roads" which was the "Official Organ of the League of American Wheelmen" for Jan though June of 1897 lists an R. W. Briggs as the local consul for Frankfort, Ohio (page 274, Volume 25). The league was apparently a nation wide bicycle club with the motto "The road is a creation of man and a type of civilized society." The main purposes of the bulletin seems to be advocating for legislation throughout the country for more good roads, discussing bicycle experiences, sharing information about construction and repair, and advertising of bicycle products. It ran hundreds of pages, had a circulation of 71,089 and cost 5 cents. It is not clear if this is the same R. W. Briggs from Iowa, so more research might solve the problem.
In 1897 a report was filed by members of the RLDS Church in Pottawattamie who had been instructed to visit Riley as part of a larger policy to contact scattered members and list them for their branches. The report indicates Riley was surprised by their visit. He was also surprised that he was still considered part of the church and told them clearly his position: "he was not in the faith, and had no desire to remain a member of the church.... The president of the local branch was instructed to strike his name from the records.... It may be stated that Elder Briggs's name had never been on any of the records for the Pottawattamie District."
The 1900 census finds Riley practicing law in Carson, Iowa. The household includes his wife Clara, age 45, Pearl S. who is 13, and son George is listed as a teacher, age 25. They have taken in a boarder, 12 year old Gertrude Smith who attends school. There is no record of how she came to be with them.
In the 1910 census, Riley and family have moved to Columbia Township, Boone Co., Missouri. Riley lived on his "own income" and supports his wife Clara, 56, and Pearl S. is listed as 21. Also in the household is Dorothy Briggs, age 6, a granddaughter born in the U.S. Philippines who came to the United States in 1905. This must be a daughter of son George N. Briggs. On the line for "language spoken," the census taker left it blank. She can not read or write but is in school. Questions raised by this are answered in the next census.
Evidently Riley and the family moved to Columbia, Missouri so daughter Pearl could attend the University of Missouri where she graduated. An article of 9 May 1910 edition of the "University Missourian" notes the marriage of Pearl S. Briggs to H. Hays Bullard, but she then continued her education at Tulane University, so the family moved to Independence, Missouri to be near her family. Her husband H. Hays Bullard received his PhD. at Tulane in 1912.
To honor Riley's family, daughter Pearl changed her middle name to Briggs when she married, and it is under the name Pearl Briggs Bullard that she published her research in the "Amercian Journal of Anatomy," Vol. 14, No. 1., November 1912. The piece was titled "A comparative study of the three principal regions of the spinal cord in a series of mammals." The piece ran from page 73 to 105. So Pearl put her degree to good use, and like so many in the Briggs family starting with Hugh, she was a published author.
Pearl and her husband Hays eventually moved to Baltimore where he is found as a physician at Johns Hopkins as an Associate Instructor in Pathology in 1915. They eventually moved to London, Ontario, Canada in 1920 and are located there at the time of Riley's death in 1927. Bullard was the director of the Department of Pathology at the University of Western Ontario.
By the 1920 census Riley had lost his wife Clara and moved to Nebraska where he lived with his son Walter H. Briggs who was a physician in Ewing Township, Holt Co. Meanwhile his older son George was in Fayette Township, Decatur Co., Iowa with his family which included wife Grace Briggs from Missouri and three daughters born in the "Philippine Islands." There are the twins Ruth M. and Elizabeth C. who are 11 and Dorothy M. (Maud), 16, who was living with her grandfather Riley in the 1910 census (see above). Also in George's family are son George N. who was 6 and born in the District of Columbia, and the youngest two, Mary Katherine, 2, and Roland, 1, both born in Iowa. George lists his occupation as "President" of a "College." The 1930 census also identifies him as the president (of Graceland College), and in fact he had become president there back in 1915). This school was established in 1895 by the RLDS Church, and when the administration building was dedicated on 1 Jan. 1897, the church president, Joseph Smith III, said that the college "should be free to all irrespective of faith or creed." In 1917 Graceland received accreditation by the states of Iowa and Missouri and from the North Central Association of Colleges as it became the first fully accredited junior college in Iowa. The brief biography they have for George states he was in the Philippine Bureau of Education 1910-14, but the births of Dorothy and the twins reveal he was there by 1904. In fact, he seems to have gone there perhaps as early as 1901 and was division superintendent by March 1906 for Suriago, Suriago; Cagayan and Misamis; San Fernando, Pampanga and Bataan.
Riley also had the pleasure of see two other grandchildren enter the world. These were the Pearl's children Jim Briggs Bullard and Eugenia Ellen Bullard, who seems to be the woman of this name who graduated in 1942 with a bachelor of arts from Flora Stone Mather College of Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She received the Hippolyte Gruener prize for merit in chemistry.
Riley survived his wife Clarissa by 13 years, and after leading such an eventful life, he died as a pedestrian in an vehicular accident in 1927. His obituary states that his sons were at his bedside when he passed away.
Death Certificate #19440:
Accidental Multiple Injuries - Street Car - Walked in Front of Car - Walnut & Lexington.
Residence: 108 S Fuller, Independence, MO
Informant: George Nathan Briggs, Lamoni, Iowa
Perhaps this biography should not end with Riley's death but with what he bequeathed to his children and later generations. Following in the footsteps of his father Hugh and brothers Jason and Edmund, sister Mary, and brother-in-law Curtis Stiles, he was a published author, and coupled with his own college education, he urged his children to pursue learning as well. Thus Walter became a doctor, George the president of college, and Pearl a medical researcher. And this continued on to a later generations as George's daughter Dorothy Maud Briggs married Charles H. Sandage, and their son, the great-grandson of Riley, was the astronomer Allan Rex Sandage (1926-2010). To quote from his online biography:
"Allan R. Sandage was an observational astronomer who was happiest at a telescope. On Hubble's sudden death, Allan inherited the programs using the world's largest optical telescope at Palomar to determine the distances and number counts of galaxies. Over many years he greatly revised the distance scale and, on reworking Hubble's analysis, discovered the error that led Hubble to doubt the interpretation of galaxies' redshifts as an expansion of the universe. Sandage showed there was a consistent age of Creation for the stars, the elements, and the Cosmos. Through work with Baade and Schwarzschild he discovered the key to the interpretation of the colour magnitude diagrams of star clusters in terms of stellar evolution. With others he founded Galactic Archaeology, interpreting the motions and elemental abundances of the oldest stars in terms of a model for the Galaxy's formation."
Sandage's mother Dorothy always encouraged his intellectual pursuits, and they remained close to the end of her life. When she died of cancer in 1970, "he smoked his last cigarette." Perhaps Dorothy was aware that Allan received the President's National Medal of Science in 1970, and three decades later his fame was such that he was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 2001.
If there is a heaven, Hugh, Riley and Pearl must have been pleased that the intellectual tradition of the Briggs family had reached to the stars.
Married: Clarissa E. Greene 21 July 1873 Fremont County, Iowa (another source states 29 July 1870 in Tabor, Iowa)
Children:
- George Nathaniel Briggs (b. 10 May 1874 in Tabor, Iowa, President of Graceland College 1915-1944, d. 26 Dec. 1952; married 1st Carrie Judd 1902, married 2nd Grace M. Kelley, 1912);
- Walter H. Briggs (b. 1876 in Iowa, graduated from State University of Iowa, College of Medicine, Iowa City, 1898, became a doctor in Ewing, Nebraska where his father Riley lived with him in 1920, d. 10 July 1946);
- Clarence N. Briggs (b. 13 Jan. 1878, d. in 17 July 1879);
- Pearl S. Briggs (b. Feb 1887, Iowa, married H. Hays Bullard in 1910 and eventually moved to London, Ontario, Canada).
Riley William first appears with his parents and younger siblings in the 1850 census for Beloit, Rock County Wisconsin. The family had a farm there since 1839. He carried the names of two of his mother's brothers, and we know that Riley Damon visited the family (as noted in the RLDS history written by his brother Edmund C. Briggs). By the time he was born, many in the family had become Mormon, so he must have been influenced by the family's religious experiences from his earliest memories.
Riley was just 18 in 1860 and is found alone with his mother Polly in Iowa as his older siblings have moved on in life and his father Hugh had remarried in Utah. Polly appears on 1 Jan. 1860 when she is listed as a new member of the RLDS branch for Farm Creek in Mills County, Iowa. The branch had been recently organized by her son Edmund Clarke Briggs on 16 Oct. 1859, and perhaps he suggested she join along with other family members who included her children Riley William, and daughter Mary J. with her husband Curtis F. Stiles. The record shows they were all recommended to the Farm Creek branch from the RLDS church at Zarahemla, Wisconsin, the place where Polly had owned property. She and some of her family had made the move to Iowa by 1860, and the new branch recods that she was baptized into the RLDS there on 7 July 1861. Soon her son-in-law C. F. Stiles was reported as being elected clerk for a new RLDS branch called Grand Prairie Branch in Livingston Co., Illinois, so he and Mary must have been on the move trying to spread the word (15 June 1865 edition of the "True Latter-Day Saints' Herald").
Polly's 1860 census record shows her listed as "P. Briggs" in Mud Creek, Mills County, Iowa (dwelling 779, family 721). She is identified as being 64 and born in NY, and with her is 18 year old Wm. R. (Riley William, a.k.a. William Riley) born in Wisconsin. The census taker had mistakenly recoredg Polly as male, which might have confused some researchers, but all the other information fits, and so it is she. Her personal property was worth $600, and nearby is Farm Creek where she attended church. About 25 miles away was another son, Edwin Ruthven with his family in Kane Township, Pottawattamie County.
Riley continued his affiliation with the church as he turned 20 and was ordained an RLDS elder 8 Oct. 1862. In 1863 at a special church conference held in North Star branch, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, 6 June 1863, various missions were appointed for elders of the church, and Riley was selected to go with Br. William Kelley as the two missionaries to Minnesota.
At the Annual Conference that met on 6 April 1864 at Amboy, Lee County, Illinois, Riley was made a member of the Seventy and also delivered a report of his activities for the church.
In May of 1864 he headed back east to New York to attend school and was eventually enrolled in Cazenovia Seminary (a Methodist Institution). The school records listed Denver, Colorado as his home, so it is likely that his father Hugh had some role in supporting his education (and see below a notice that he helped Riley with law school). It seems he finished the seminary in 1865 and returned to Iowa where he attended the University of Iowa and worked on his law degree.
At this time he was also was writing for the RLDS newspaper "The True Latter-Day Saints' Herald." Beginning with Riley's father Hugh who published his anti-Mormon essay in 1857, many of the Briggs family wrote for publication. This includes son Jason W. who was responsible for producing a church newspaper in Salt Lake City in the 1870s and also in England, and he wrote for "The Saint's Herald" as well. Son Edmund C. also contributed to the "Herald" and in 1900 published a history covering the beginning of the RLDS. And even their sister Mary J. (Briggs) Curtis wrote an opinion piece on expanding the role of women in the church. So Riley was part of a Briggs tradition developing at this time by producing religious essaya. One piece of his on "Evening Mediations" was written at Poughkeepsie NY on 12 May 1864 but published in the 15 June 1865 edition (page 183-4). Another essay called "Consciousness Beyond the Grave" was apparently written later since it ends with a reference to a woek published of 15 May 1864, but this piece was published before the one written earlier and appears in the 1 Sept. 1864 edition.
In the 1870 census Polly is no longer living in Iowa with Riley who might have been off to law school at this time. She is found in the home of her daughter Mary J. (age 46), with Curtis F. Stiles (age 47) who is the head of the family in their home in Barton, Holt County, in northwest Missouri on the boarder with Kansas. Polly is listed as age 76 and born in NY, which fits exactly with information for other census records. The reason for her no longer living alone but rather being part of this family is also stated. She is blind. In the home she was surrounded by her grandchildren including Ellen J. (age 19), George E. (16), Mary (12), and Edgar S. (4). There is no indication why the family moved from Iowa, but the RLDS church was reestablishing its center in Independence, Missouri, so perhaps they wanted to be closer to the organization HQ. Or just as likely, there were more opportunities for land as the plains opened up for settlement after the Civil War.
Riley continued his association with the church in the 1870s. He attended the semiannual conference of the RLDS church at Council Bluffs from 15 to 19 Sept 1870 and was named one of the two clerks of the conference. In fact, the memoirs of President Joseph Smith III record that Riley was among those who address those attending. At the Friday afternoon session he read the 90th Psalm and preached from Genesis xxviii 16. He spoke again on the Sunday afternoon session following the address by President Smith. At the end of the conference report Riley made the disclaimer that any error or omission of the clerks in the report was to be attributed to him. On a tour of visits to Iowa branches in the weeks after the conference, President Smith met with Riley on 4 Oct. at Plum Hollow as he had come to see him from Eastport.
The RLDS semiannual Conference of 12 to 15 Sept 1872 was held at Park Mills just outside Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Elder Riley W. Briggs again addressed the assembly. The Council Bluffs "Herald" reported that Riley W. Briggs was among those leaders who preached to the "immense congregation" on the Sabbath. The paper reported 102 tents, 265 wagons, and a minimum of 6,000 in attendance at the conference.
The local newspaper "The Council Bluffs Nonpariel" stated that this young man "... was the first speaker and his ability is no mean character, if he is to be judged by the effort made on this occasion."
Soon after this conference President Smith again visited branches throughout Iowa and ran into some trouble with crowds at Sidney. He later wrote, "We are also indebted in thanks for the assistance of Bro. Riley W. Briggs upon several occasions, more especially when at Sidney, where the prospect looked dark, he nobly came forward and stood with us in the declaring the word. He proved himself a 'friend in need' upon that occasion." ("The Saints' Herald," vol. 17, p. 658).
Riley delivered the funeral sermon for Mrs. E. F. Kelly, wife of Elder Richard Kelly, at her residence on Mud Creek, Mills County, Iowa on 18 Nov. 1873. She had become a Mormon in 1842 and been rebaptized into the RLDS by Riley's brother Edmund in 1860. The area was clearly known to Riley since he had lived there with his mother in 1860 and must have know Mrs. Kelly since that time.
Riley attended the quarterly conference at Fremont, Iowa on 31 Jan. 1874 where he gave a report about his district. He was appointed by the conference to act as their agent to confer with the railroad and charter a railroad car for the Plano, Conference in April.
The obituary of Riley's father Hugh was printed in the 15 Sept. 1874 edition of "The Saints Herald" published in Plano, Illinois:
"At Denver City, Colorado. June 16th, 1874, of ripe old age, Hugh L. Briggs, in the eighty-second year of his age.
He was the father of Brn. Jason W., E.C. and R.W. Briggs. He has led a long and busy life, and has gone to the sleep that knows no waking till the resurrection."
A notice on 15 July 1874 concerned Riley who is named as being among those voters delinquent in their shares for the "The First United Order of Enoch." The constitution of this organization states its purpose:
"The general business and object of this corporation shall be the associating together of men of capital and those skilled in labor and mechanics,....for the purpose of settling, developing and improving new tracts of land which tracts of land shall be selected and purchased by a committee to be appointed by the Board of Directors ... to take cognizance of the wants of worthy and industrious poor men who shall apply therefore, and provide them with labor and the means for securing homes and a livelihood and to develop energies and resources, of the people who may seek those respective localities for settlement."
The organization, which began in 1870, continued about twenty years, paying ninety per cent in dividends and returning the original stock also.
However, the church records from the semi-annual conference begun on 19 Sept. 1874 at Council Bluffs state that R. W. Brigs would be sent as a missionary to Washington Territory to labor under the President of the Pacific Slope. Perhaps his Oct 1 letter was before he left, or perhaps he did not go at all.
On 1 Oct 1874 the "Saints' Herald" published a letter by Elder Riley W. Briggs of Wheelers Grove concerning the state of the Church in his area:
"General church affairs are in a fair condition. I am doing some little local labor. During the last six months I have traveled over three hundred miles to hold funeral services, for those in and out of the church; have baptized four within a month, and done some little public speaking . . . . We are building a church house here - have it already enclosed."
Riley is listed as a "Farmer & Teacher" in the 1875 business directory for Grove Township in Pottawattamie County. The "teacher" designation might concern his role as a local leader of the RLDS church.
In 1876 Riley was elected a Justice of the Peace in Pottawattamie. He became a lawyer as some point and one would expect it was before he was a JP. A source from 1888 concerning a legal dispute over property in his father Hugh's will back in 1874 states that rent from a property of
Hugh and his second wife Susannah in Denver was used to help put Riley through law school.
Of a tragic note, on 17 July 1879 Riley lost his 1½ year old son Clarence N. Briggs who is buried in the "Mormon Cemetery" in Grove Township, four miles east of Macedonia on County Road G 66/Pioneer Trail. It has been called the Mormon Cemetery and the L.D.S. Cemetery because it is on the Mormon Trail and many of the people buried there belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
In 1880 Polly Briggs, aged 84 and born in NY, was living in the family of Chester S. Dodson in Hampton Township, Rush County, Kansas as recorded on page 10 of the U.S. census. The box for "Widowed / Divorced" was also checked. Dodson was 37 and born in Pennsylvania, and his wife Josephine was 28 and also from Pa (which might be a mistake). It is possible that Josephine is actually granddaughter Ellen J. from the 1870 census (who is now going by her middle name, a very common tradition in the 19th century for country people), but a note by the census taker written after Polly's name reads "Grandmother of the Stiles family on pag. 9." And there on the previous page only a few households away is the Stiles family of Curtis (age 57) and Mary (age 56). Polly's other grandchildren are there as well, and in addition to those not named in 1870 are Lillian (12), Daisy (9), Amy B. (6), and Eugene (3).
If Josephine is not Polly's granddaughter, there is the question of why she lives with neighbors a few doors away. Perhaps it was just a question of room, since Mary J. was clearly middle aged with several young ones still to care for, and looking after her blind mother might have been too much, but she still wanted her close to the family.
The RLDS history states that in a report delivered at the April 1882 annual conference at Independence, Missouri, Riley is listed among those who have dropped out of the "Quorum of Seventy" due to inactivity. There are 15 men on this list including his brother-in-law Curtis F. Stiles. Curtis had been with the RLDS from the very first conference to organize in 1852 with many notable roles, and he had been recommended as a high priest in Sept. 1874, and he had selected a missionary in Missouri when he moved the family there. The reasons for their Riley's and Curtis' lack of activity are not stated, but both men might have felt some antagonism for church leaders who had launched an attack on Riley's brother Jason W. Briggs who was deemed too liberal in 1879. He had actually been tried by an RLDS church tribunal and was found guilt of several transgressions of doctrine. He was eventually reinstated in his positions in 1880 after he made some clarifying statements, but his treatment by the by several key people in the very organization he and other Briggs relatives had formed perhaps was viewed as shabby way to deal someone whom they owed so much.
The 1885 "Atlas of Pottawattamie County, Iowa" lists the following Briggs names: C.F. Briggs, E.C. Briggs, E.S. Briggs, G.W. Briggs, J. Briggs, Mrs. A. Briggs, Mrs. J.A. Briggs, R.W. Briggs, W.F. Briggs, and Wm. T. Briggs. The R. W. is Riley, the E.C. is his brother Edmund, and there are others of the family there as well.
By the end of Polly's life in 1890, she had moved to Grove Township, Pottawattamie County, Iowa where she was again with her son Riley William (now about age 48) who had lived there off and on since 1860. His sister Mary J. was in her mid-sixties by this point and might not have been able to care for Polly any longer, so she joined the family of Riley who was younger. The area at Grove had an early RLDS and Briggs presence as noted in "History of Grove Township" (1907) which reports, "Many of these early settlers left Nauvoo intending to go to Utah, but for one reason or another, they paused here and finally concluded to remain and a few, if any, have had cause to regret it. The first to organize a religious body in the township were the Latter Day Saints. E. W. BRIGGS and W. W. BLAIR." This is Polly's son Edwin Ruthven who was baptized in Council Bluff, Iowa in 1860. Unfortunately Polly did not live long enough to enjoy her son's success.
Polly's own passing in 1890 was reported in the RLDS weekly newspaper which stated she was buried in Wheeler Grove Cemetery. As the mother of the founders of RLDS Church and a woman who opened her home to their meetings and early organization, she merited a special place in the Church history.
From Jan. 1892 to Jan. 1894 Riley served as a member of the Iowa State Assembly representing district 31, Pottawattamie County as a democrat. A form completed for the legislature states he was a lawyer for many years in Carson, Iowa, and he was also a missionary. He received his law degree from the University of Iowa, Iowa City.
There are references that could relate to Riley, but the is still need for more research. For example, the names of members of the "Pioneer Association of San Francisco" in 1890 lists R. W. Briggs as a member. He could have been a distant member living elsewhere in the country, and could have been one of the sons who made the trip with his father Hugh for the Gold Rush, but these are yet to be proven. Also, the "L. A. W. Bulletin and Good Roads" which was the "Official Organ of the League of American Wheelmen" for Jan though June of 1897 lists an R. W. Briggs as the local consul for Frankfort, Ohio (page 274, Volume 25). The league was apparently a nation wide bicycle club with the motto "The road is a creation of man and a type of civilized society." The main purposes of the bulletin seems to be advocating for legislation throughout the country for more good roads, discussing bicycle experiences, sharing information about construction and repair, and advertising of bicycle products. It ran hundreds of pages, had a circulation of 71,089 and cost 5 cents. It is not clear if this is the same R. W. Briggs from Iowa, so more research might solve the problem.
In 1897 a report was filed by members of the RLDS Church in Pottawattamie who had been instructed to visit Riley as part of a larger policy to contact scattered members and list them for their branches. The report indicates Riley was surprised by their visit. He was also surprised that he was still considered part of the church and told them clearly his position: "he was not in the faith, and had no desire to remain a member of the church.... The president of the local branch was instructed to strike his name from the records.... It may be stated that Elder Briggs's name had never been on any of the records for the Pottawattamie District."
The 1900 census finds Riley practicing law in Carson, Iowa. The household includes his wife Clara, age 45, Pearl S. who is 13, and son George is listed as a teacher, age 25. They have taken in a boarder, 12 year old Gertrude Smith who attends school. There is no record of how she came to be with them.
In the 1910 census, Riley and family have moved to Columbia Township, Boone Co., Missouri. Riley lived on his "own income" and supports his wife Clara, 56, and Pearl S. is listed as 21. Also in the household is Dorothy Briggs, age 6, a granddaughter born in the U.S. Philippines who came to the United States in 1905. This must be a daughter of son George N. Briggs. On the line for "language spoken," the census taker left it blank. She can not read or write but is in school. Questions raised by this are answered in the next census.
Evidently Riley and the family moved to Columbia, Missouri so daughter Pearl could attend the University of Missouri where she graduated. An article of 9 May 1910 edition of the "University Missourian" notes the marriage of Pearl S. Briggs to H. Hays Bullard, but she then continued her education at Tulane University, so the family moved to Independence, Missouri to be near her family. Her husband H. Hays Bullard received his PhD. at Tulane in 1912.
To honor Riley's family, daughter Pearl changed her middle name to Briggs when she married, and it is under the name Pearl Briggs Bullard that she published her research in the "Amercian Journal of Anatomy," Vol. 14, No. 1., November 1912. The piece was titled "A comparative study of the three principal regions of the spinal cord in a series of mammals." The piece ran from page 73 to 105. So Pearl put her degree to good use, and like so many in the Briggs family starting with Hugh, she was a published author.
Pearl and her husband Hays eventually moved to Baltimore where he is found as a physician at Johns Hopkins as an Associate Instructor in Pathology in 1915. They eventually moved to London, Ontario, Canada in 1920 and are located there at the time of Riley's death in 1927. Bullard was the director of the Department of Pathology at the University of Western Ontario.
By the 1920 census Riley had lost his wife Clara and moved to Nebraska where he lived with his son Walter H. Briggs who was a physician in Ewing Township, Holt Co. Meanwhile his older son George was in Fayette Township, Decatur Co., Iowa with his family which included wife Grace Briggs from Missouri and three daughters born in the "Philippine Islands." There are the twins Ruth M. and Elizabeth C. who are 11 and Dorothy M. (Maud), 16, who was living with her grandfather Riley in the 1910 census (see above). Also in George's family are son George N. who was 6 and born in the District of Columbia, and the youngest two, Mary Katherine, 2, and Roland, 1, both born in Iowa. George lists his occupation as "President" of a "College." The 1930 census also identifies him as the president (of Graceland College), and in fact he had become president there back in 1915). This school was established in 1895 by the RLDS Church, and when the administration building was dedicated on 1 Jan. 1897, the church president, Joseph Smith III, said that the college "should be free to all irrespective of faith or creed." In 1917 Graceland received accreditation by the states of Iowa and Missouri and from the North Central Association of Colleges as it became the first fully accredited junior college in Iowa. The brief biography they have for George states he was in the Philippine Bureau of Education 1910-14, but the births of Dorothy and the twins reveal he was there by 1904. In fact, he seems to have gone there perhaps as early as 1901 and was division superintendent by March 1906 for Suriago, Suriago; Cagayan and Misamis; San Fernando, Pampanga and Bataan.
Riley also had the pleasure of see two other grandchildren enter the world. These were the Pearl's children Jim Briggs Bullard and Eugenia Ellen Bullard, who seems to be the woman of this name who graduated in 1942 with a bachelor of arts from Flora Stone Mather College of Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She received the Hippolyte Gruener prize for merit in chemistry.
Riley survived his wife Clarissa by 13 years, and after leading such an eventful life, he died as a pedestrian in an vehicular accident in 1927. His obituary states that his sons were at his bedside when he passed away.
Death Certificate #19440:
Accidental Multiple Injuries - Street Car - Walked in Front of Car - Walnut & Lexington.
Residence: 108 S Fuller, Independence, MO
Informant: George Nathan Briggs, Lamoni, Iowa
Perhaps this biography should not end with Riley's death but with what he bequeathed to his children and later generations. Following in the footsteps of his father Hugh and brothers Jason and Edmund, sister Mary, and brother-in-law Curtis Stiles, he was a published author, and coupled with his own college education, he urged his children to pursue learning as well. Thus Walter became a doctor, George the president of college, and Pearl a medical researcher. And this continued on to a later generations as George's daughter Dorothy Maud Briggs married Charles H. Sandage, and their son, the great-grandson of Riley, was the astronomer Allan Rex Sandage (1926-2010). To quote from his online biography:
"Allan R. Sandage was an observational astronomer who was happiest at a telescope. On Hubble's sudden death, Allan inherited the programs using the world's largest optical telescope at Palomar to determine the distances and number counts of galaxies. Over many years he greatly revised the distance scale and, on reworking Hubble's analysis, discovered the error that led Hubble to doubt the interpretation of galaxies' redshifts as an expansion of the universe. Sandage showed there was a consistent age of Creation for the stars, the elements, and the Cosmos. Through work with Baade and Schwarzschild he discovered the key to the interpretation of the colour magnitude diagrams of star clusters in terms of stellar evolution. With others he founded Galactic Archaeology, interpreting the motions and elemental abundances of the oldest stars in terms of a model for the Galaxy's formation."
Sandage's mother Dorothy always encouraged his intellectual pursuits, and they remained close to the end of her life. When she died of cancer in 1970, "he smoked his last cigarette." Perhaps Dorothy was aware that Allan received the President's National Medal of Science in 1970, and three decades later his fame was such that he was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 2001.
If there is a heaven, Hugh, Riley and Pearl must have been pleased that the intellectual tradition of the Briggs family had reached to the stars.
The pictures to the right show Riley in his official photo for the Iowa legislature, and at the bottom is his son George Nathaniel Briggs who became President of Graceland College.
Married: Clarissa E. Greene 21 July 1873 Fremont County, Iowa (another source states 29 July 1870 in Tabor, Iowa)
Children:
- George Nathaniel Briggs (b. 10 May 1874 in Tabor, Iowa, President of Graceland College 1915-1944, d. 26 Dec. 1952; married 1st Carrie Judd 1902, married 2nd Grace M. Kelley, 1912);
- Walter H. Briggs (b. 1876 in Iowa, graduated from State University of Iowa, College of Medicine, Iowa City, 1898, became a doctor in Ewing, Nebraska where his father Riley lived with him in 1920, d. 10 July 1946);
- Clarence N. Briggs (b. 13 Jan. 1878, d. in 17 July 1879);
- Pearl S. Briggs (b. Feb 1887, Iowa, married H. Hays Bullard in 1910 and eventually moved to London, Ontario, Canada).
Riley William first appears with his parents and younger siblings in the 1850 census for Beloit, Rock County Wisconsin. The family had a farm there since 1839. He carried the names of two of his mother's brothers, and we know that Riley Damon visited the family (as noted in the RLDS history written by his brother Edmund C. Briggs). By the time he was born, many in the family had become Mormon, so he must have been influenced by the family's religious experiences from his earliest memories.
Riley was just 18 in 1860 and is found alone with his mother Polly in Iowa as his older siblings have moved on in life and his father Hugh had remarried in Utah. Polly appears on 1 Jan. 1860 when she is listed as a new member of the RLDS branch for Farm Creek in Mills County, Iowa. The branch had been recently organized by her son Edmund Clarke Briggs on 16 Oct. 1859, and perhaps he suggested she join along with other family members who included her children Riley William, and daughter Mary J. with her husband Curtis F. Stiles. The record shows they were all recommended to the Farm Creek branch from the RLDS church at Zarahemla, Wisconsin, the place where Polly had owned property. She and some of her family had made the move to Iowa by 1860, and the new branch recods that she was baptized into the RLDS there on 7 July 1861. Soon her son-in-law C. F. Stiles was reported as being elected clerk for a new RLDS branch called Grand Prairie Branch in Livingston Co., Illinois, so he and Mary must have been on the move trying to spread the word (15 June 1865 edition of the "True Latter-Day Saints' Herald").
Polly's 1860 census record shows her listed as "P. Briggs" in Mud Creek, Mills County, Iowa (dwelling 779, family 721). She is identified as being 64 and born in NY, and with her is 18 year old Wm. R. (Riley William, a.k.a. William Riley) born in Wisconsin. The census taker had mistakenly recoredg Polly as male, which might have confused some researchers, but all the other information fits, and so it is she. Her personal property was worth $600, and nearby is Farm Creek where she attended church. About 25 miles away was another son, Edwin Ruthven with his family in Kane Township, Pottawattamie County.
Riley continued his affiliation with the church as he turned 20 and was ordained an RLDS elder 8 Oct. 1862. In 1863 at a special church conference held in North Star branch, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, 6 June 1863, various missions were appointed for elders of the church, and Riley was selected to go with Br. William Kelley as the two missionaries to Minnesota.
At the Annual Conference that met on 6 April 1864 at Amboy, Lee County, Illinois, Riley was made a member of the Seventy and also delivered a report of his activities for the church.
In May of 1864 he headed back east to New York to attend school and was eventually enrolled in Cazenovia Seminary (a Methodist Institution). The school records listed Denver, Colorado as his home, so it is likely that his father Hugh had some role in supporting his education (and see below a notice that he helped Riley with law school). It seems he finished the seminary in 1865 and returned to Iowa where he attended the University of Iowa and worked on his law degree.
At this time he was also was writing for the RLDS newspaper "The True Latter-Day Saints' Herald." Beginning with Riley's father Hugh who published his anti-Mormon essay in 1857, many of the Briggs family wrote for publication. This includes son Jason W. who was responsible for producing a church newspaper in Salt Lake City in the 1870s and also in England, and he wrote for "The Saint's Herald" as well. Son Edmund C. also contributed to the "Herald" and in 1900 published a history covering the beginning of the RLDS. And even their sister Mary J. (Briggs) Curtis wrote an opinion piece on expanding the role of women in the church. So Riley was part of a Briggs tradition developing at this time by producing religious essaya. One piece of his on "Evening Mediations" was written at Poughkeepsie NY on 12 May 1864 but published in the 15 June 1865 edition (page 183-4). Another essay called "Consciousness Beyond the Grave" was apparently written later since it ends with a reference to a woek published of 15 May 1864, but this piece was published before the one written earlier and appears in the 1 Sept. 1864 edition.
In the 1870 census Polly is no longer living in Iowa with Riley who might have been off to law school at this time. She is found in the home of her daughter Mary J. (age 46), with Curtis F. Stiles (age 47) who is the head of the family in their home in Barton, Holt County, in northwest Missouri on the boarder with Kansas. Polly is listed as age 76 and born in NY, which fits exactly with information for other census records. The reason for her no longer living alone but rather being part of this family is also stated. She is blind. In the home she was surrounded by her grandchildren including Ellen J. (age 19), George E. (16), Mary (12), and Edgar S. (4). There is no indication why the family moved from Iowa, but the RLDS church was reestablishing its center in Independence, Missouri, so perhaps they wanted to be closer to the organization HQ. Or just as likely, there were more opportunities for land as the plains opened up for settlement after the Civil War.
Riley continued his association with the church in the 1870s. He attended the semiannual conference of the RLDS church at Council Bluffs from 15 to 19 Sept 1870 and was named one of the two clerks of the conference. In fact, the memoirs of President Joseph Smith III record that Riley was among those who address those attending. At the Friday afternoon session he read the 90th Psalm and preached from Genesis xxviii 16. He spoke again on the Sunday afternoon session following the address by President Smith. At the end of the conference report Riley made the disclaimer that any error or omission of the clerks in the report was to be attributed to him. On a tour of visits to Iowa branches in the weeks after the conference, President Smith met with Riley on 4 Oct. at Plum Hollow as he had come to see him from Eastport.
The RLDS semiannual Conference of 12 to 15 Sept 1872 was held at Park Mills just outside Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Elder Riley W. Briggs again addressed the assembly. The Council Bluffs "Herald" reported that Riley W. Briggs was among those leaders who preached to the "immense congregation" on the Sabbath. The paper reported 102 tents, 265 wagons, and a minimum of 6,000 in attendance at the conference.
The local newspaper "The Council Bluffs Nonpariel" stated that this young man "... was the first speaker and his ability is no mean character, if he is to be judged by the effort made on this occasion."
Soon after this conference President Smith again visited branches throughout Iowa and ran into some trouble with crowds at Sidney. He later wrote, "We are also indebted in thanks for the assistance of Bro. Riley W. Briggs upon several occasions, more especially when at Sidney, where the prospect looked dark, he nobly came forward and stood with us in the declaring the word. He proved himself a 'friend in need' upon that occasion." ("The Saints' Herald," vol. 17, p. 658).
Riley delivered the funeral sermon for Mrs. E. F. Kelly, wife of Elder Richard Kelly, at her residence on Mud Creek, Mills County, Iowa on 18 Nov. 1873. She had become a Mormon in 1842 and been rebaptized into the RLDS by Riley's brother Edmund in 1860. The area was clearly known to Riley since he had lived there with his mother in 1860 and must have know Mrs. Kelly since that time.
Riley attended the quarterly conference at Fremont, Iowa on 31 Jan. 1874 where he gave a report about his district. He was appointed by the conference to act as their agent to confer with the railroad and charter a railroad car for the Plano, Conference in April.
The obituary of Riley's father Hugh was printed in the 15 Sept. 1874 edition of "The Saints Herald" published in Plano, Illinois:
"At Denver City, Colorado. June 16th, 1874, of ripe old age, Hugh L. Briggs, in the eighty-second year of his age.
He was the father of Brn. Jason W., E.C. and R.W. Briggs. He has led a long and busy life, and has gone to the sleep that knows no waking till the resurrection."
A notice on 15 July 1874 concerned Riley who is named as being among those voters delinquent in their shares for the "The First United Order of Enoch." The constitution of this organization states its purpose:
"The general business and object of this corporation shall be the associating together of men of capital and those skilled in labor and mechanics,....for the purpose of settling, developing and improving new tracts of land which tracts of land shall be selected and purchased by a committee to be appointed by the Board of Directors ... to take cognizance of the wants of worthy and industrious poor men who shall apply therefore, and provide them with labor and the means for securing homes and a livelihood and to develop energies and resources, of the people who may seek those respective localities for settlement."
The organization, which began in 1870, continued about twenty years, paying ninety per cent in dividends and returning the original stock also.
However, the church records from the semi-annual conference begun on 19 Sept. 1874 at Council Bluffs state that R. W. Brigs would be sent as a missionary to Washington Territory to labor under the President of the Pacific Slope. Perhaps his Oct 1 letter was before he left, or perhaps he did not go at all.
On 1 Oct 1874 the "Saints' Herald" published a letter by Elder Riley W. Briggs of Wheelers Grove concerning the state of the Church in his area:
"General church affairs are in a fair condition. I am doing some little local labor. During the last six months I have traveled over three hundred miles to hold funeral services, for those in and out of the church; have baptized four within a month, and done some little public speaking . . . . We are building a church house here - have it already enclosed."
Riley is listed as a "Farmer & Teacher" in the 1875 business directory for Grove Township in Pottawattamie County. The "teacher" designation might concern his role as a local leader of the RLDS church.
In 1876 Riley was elected a Justice of the Peace in Pottawattamie. He became a lawyer as some point and one would expect it was before he was a JP. A source from 1888 concerning a legal dispute over property in his father Hugh's will back in 1874 states that rent from a property of
Hugh and his second wife Susannah in Denver was used to help put Riley through law school.
Of a tragic note, on 17 July 1879 Riley lost his 1½ year old son Clarence N. Briggs who is buried in the "Mormon Cemetery" in Grove Township, four miles east of Macedonia on County Road G 66/Pioneer Trail. It has been called the Mormon Cemetery and the L.D.S. Cemetery because it is on the Mormon Trail and many of the people buried there belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
In 1880 Polly Briggs, aged 84 and born in NY, was living in the family of Chester S. Dodson in Hampton Township, Rush County, Kansas as recorded on page 10 of the U.S. census. The box for "Widowed / Divorced" was also checked. Dodson was 37 and born in Pennsylvania, and his wife Josephine was 28 and also from Pa (which might be a mistake). It is possible that Josephine is actually granddaughter Ellen J. from the 1870 census (who is now going by her middle name, a very common tradition in the 19th century for country people), but a note by the census taker written after Polly's name reads "Grandmother of the Stiles family on pag. 9." And there on the previous page only a few households away is the Stiles family of Curtis (age 57) and Mary (age 56). Polly's other grandchildren are there as well, and in addition to those not named in 1870 are Lillian (12), Daisy (9), Amy B. (6), and Eugene (3).
If Josephine is not Polly's granddaughter, there is the question of why she lives with neighbors a few doors away. Perhaps it was just a question of room, since Mary J. was clearly middle aged with several young ones still to care for, and looking after her blind mother might have been too much, but she still wanted her close to the family.
The RLDS history states that in a report delivered at the April 1882 annual conference at Independence, Missouri, Riley is listed among those who have dropped out of the "Quorum of Seventy" due to inactivity. There are 15 men on this list including his brother-in-law Curtis F. Stiles. Curtis had been with the RLDS from the very first conference to organize in 1852 with many notable roles, and he had been recommended as a high priest in Sept. 1874, and he had selected a missionary in Missouri when he moved the family there. The reasons for their Riley's and Curtis' lack of activity are not stated, but both men might have felt some antagonism for church leaders who had launched an attack on Riley's brother Jason W. Briggs who was deemed too liberal in 1879. He had actually been tried by an RLDS church tribunal and was found guilt of several transgressions of doctrine. He was eventually reinstated in his positions in 1880 after he made some clarifying statements, but his treatment by the by several key people in the very organization he and other Briggs relatives had formed perhaps was viewed as shabby way to deal someone whom they owed so much.
The 1885 "Atlas of Pottawattamie County, Iowa" lists the following Briggs names: C.F. Briggs, E.C. Briggs, E.S. Briggs, G.W. Briggs, J. Briggs, Mrs. A. Briggs, Mrs. J.A. Briggs, R.W. Briggs, W.F. Briggs, and Wm. T. Briggs. The R. W. is Riley, the E.C. is his brother Edmund, and there are others of the family there as well.
By the end of Polly's life in 1890, she had moved to Grove Township, Pottawattamie County, Iowa where she was again with her son Riley William (now about age 48) who had lived there off and on since 1860. His sister Mary J. was in her mid-sixties by this point and might not have been able to care for Polly any longer, so she joined the family of Riley who was younger. The area at Grove had an early RLDS and Briggs presence as noted in "History of Grove Township" (1907) which reports, "Many of these early settlers left Nauvoo intending to go to Utah, but for one reason or another, they paused here and finally concluded to remain and a few, if any, have had cause to regret it. The first to organize a religious body in the township were the Latter Day Saints. E. W. BRIGGS and W. W. BLAIR." This is Polly's son Edwin Ruthven who was baptized in Council Bluff, Iowa in 1860. Unfortunately Polly did not live long enough to enjoy her son's success.
Polly's own passing in 1890 was reported in the RLDS weekly newspaper which stated she was buried in Wheeler Grove Cemetery. As the mother of the founders of RLDS Church and a woman who opened her home to their meetings and early organization, she merited a special place in the Church history.
From Jan. 1892 to Jan. 1894 Riley served as a member of the Iowa State Assembly representing district 31, Pottawattamie County as a democrat. A form completed for the legislature states he was a lawyer for many years in Carson, Iowa, and he was also a missionary. He received his law degree from the University of Iowa, Iowa City.
There are references that could relate to Riley, but the is still need for more research. For example, the names of members of the "Pioneer Association of San Francisco" in 1890 lists R. W. Briggs as a member. He could have been a distant member living elsewhere in the country, and could have been one of the sons who made the trip with his father Hugh for the Gold Rush, but these are yet to be proven. Also, the "L. A. W. Bulletin and Good Roads" which was the "Official Organ of the League of American Wheelmen" for Jan though June of 1897 lists an R. W. Briggs as the local consul for Frankfort, Ohio (page 274, Volume 25). The league was apparently a nation wide bicycle club with the motto "The road is a creation of man and a type of civilized society." The main purposes of the bulletin seems to be advocating for legislation throughout the country for more good roads, discussing bicycle experiences, sharing information about construction and repair, and advertising of bicycle products. It ran hundreds of pages, had a circulation of 71,089 and cost 5 cents. It is not clear if this is the same R. W. Briggs from Iowa, so more research might solve the problem.
In 1897 a report was filed by members of the RLDS Church in Pottawattamie who had been instructed to visit Riley as part of a larger policy to contact scattered members and list them for their branches. The report indicates Riley was surprised by their visit. He was also surprised that he was still considered part of the church and told them clearly his position: "he was not in the faith, and had no desire to remain a member of the church.... The president of the local branch was instructed to strike his name from the records.... It may be stated that Elder Briggs's name had never been on any of the records for the Pottawattamie District."
The 1900 census finds Riley practicing law in Carson, Iowa. The household includes his wife Clara, age 45, Pearl S. who is 13, and son George is listed as a teacher, age 25. They have taken in a boarder, 12 year old Gertrude Smith who attends school. There is no record of how she came to be with them.
In the 1910 census, Riley and family have moved to Columbia Township, Boone Co., Missouri. Riley lived on his "own income" and supports his wife Clara, 56, and Pearl S. is listed as 21. Also in the household is Dorothy Briggs, age 6, a granddaughter born in the U.S. Philippines who came to the United States in 1905. This must be a daughter of son George N. Briggs. On the line for "language spoken," the census taker left it blank. She can not read or write but is in school. Questions raised by this are answered in the next census.
Evidently Riley and the family moved to Columbia, Missouri so daughter Pearl could attend the University of Missouri where she graduated. An article of 9 May 1910 edition of the "University Missourian" notes the marriage of Pearl S. Briggs to H. Hays Bullard, but she then continued her education at Tulane University, so the family moved to Independence, Missouri to be near her family. Her husband H. Hays Bullard received his PhD. at Tulane in 1912.
To honor Riley's family, daughter Pearl changed her middle name to Briggs when she married, and it is under the name Pearl Briggs Bullard that she published her research in the "Amercian Journal of Anatomy," Vol. 14, No. 1., November 1912. The piece was titled "A comparative study of the three principal regions of the spinal cord in a series of mammals." The piece ran from page 73 to 105. So Pearl put her degree to good use, and like so many in the Briggs family starting with Hugh, she was a published author.
Pearl and her husband Hays eventually moved to Baltimore where he is found as a physician at Johns Hopkins as an Associate Instructor in Pathology in 1915. They eventually moved to London, Ontario, Canada in 1920 and are located there at the time of Riley's death in 1927. Bullard was the director of the Department of Pathology at the University of Western Ontario.
By the 1920 census Riley had lost his wife Clara and moved to Nebraska where he lived with his son Walter H. Briggs who was a physician in Ewing Township, Holt Co. Meanwhile his older son George was in Fayette Township, Decatur Co., Iowa with his family which included wife Grace Briggs from Missouri and three daughters born in the "Philippine Islands." There are the twins Ruth M. and Elizabeth C. who are 11 and Dorothy M. (Maud), 16, who was living with her grandfather Riley in the 1910 census (see above). Also in George's family are son George N. who was 6 and born in the District of Columbia, and the youngest two, Mary Katherine, 2, and Roland, 1, both born in Iowa. George lists his occupation as "President" of a "College." The 1930 census also identifies him as the president (of Graceland College), and in fact he had become president there back in 1915). This school was established in 1895 by the RLDS Church, and when the administration building was dedicated on 1 Jan. 1897, the church president, Joseph Smith III, said that the college "should be free to all irrespective of faith or creed." In 1917 Graceland received accreditation by the states of Iowa and Missouri and from the North Central Association of Colleges as it became the first fully accredited junior college in Iowa. The brief biography they have for George states he was in the Philippine Bureau of Education 1910-14, but the births of Dorothy and the twins reveal he was there by 1904. In fact, he seems to have gone there perhaps as early as 1901 and was division superintendent by March 1906 for Suriago, Suriago; Cagayan and Misamis; San Fernando, Pampanga and Bataan.
Riley also had the pleasure of see two other grandchildren enter the world. These were the Pearl's children Jim Briggs Bullard and Eugenia Ellen Bullard, who seems to be the woman of this name who graduated in 1942 with a bachelor of arts from Flora Stone Mather College of Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She received the Hippolyte Gruener prize for merit in chemistry.
Riley survived his wife Clarissa by 13 years, and after leading such an eventful life, he died as a pedestrian in an vehicular accident in 1927. His obituary states that his sons were at his bedside when he passed away.
Death Certificate #19440:
Accidental Multiple Injuries - Street Car - Walked in Front of Car - Walnut & Lexington.
Residence: 108 S Fuller, Independence, MO
Informant: George Nathan Briggs, Lamoni, Iowa
Perhaps this biography should not end with Riley's death but with what he bequeathed to his children and later generations. Following in the footsteps of his father Hugh and brothers Jason and Edmund, sister Mary, and brother-in-law Curtis Stiles, he was a published author, and coupled with his own college education, he urged his children to pursue learning as well. Thus Walter became a doctor, George the president of college, and Pearl a medical researcher. And this continued on to a later generations as George's daughter Dorothy Maud Briggs married Charles H. Sandage, and their son, the great-grandson of Riley, was the astronomer Allan Rex Sandage (1926-2010). To quote from his online biography:
"Allan R. Sandage was an observational astronomer who was happiest at a telescope. On Hubble's sudden death, Allan inherited the programs using the world's largest optical telescope at Palomar to determine the distances and number counts of galaxies. Over many years he greatly revised the distance scale and, on reworking Hubble's analysis, discovered the error that led Hubble to doubt the interpretation of galaxies' redshifts as an expansion of the universe. Sandage showed there was a consistent age of Creation for the stars, the elements, and the Cosmos. Through work with Baade and Schwarzschild he discovered the key to the interpretation of the colour magnitude diagrams of star clusters in terms of stellar evolution. With others he founded Galactic Archaeology, interpreting the motions and elemental abundances of the oldest stars in terms of a model for the Galaxy's formation."
Sandage's mother Dorothy always encouraged his intellectual pursuits, and they remained close to the end of her life. When she died of cancer in 1970, "he smoked his last cigarette." Perhaps Dorothy was aware that Allan received the President's National Medal of Science in 1970, and three decades later his fame was such that he was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 2001.
If there is a heaven, Hugh, Riley and Pearl must have been pleased that the intellectual tradition of the Briggs family had reached to the stars.
Married: Clarissa E. Greene 21 July 1873 Fremont County, Iowa (another source states 29 July 1870 in Tabor, Iowa)
Children:
- George Nathaniel Briggs (b. 10 May 1874 in Tabor, Iowa, President of Graceland College 1915-1944, d. 26 Dec. 1952; married 1st Carrie Judd 1902, married 2nd Grace M. Kelley, 1912);
- Walter H. Briggs (b. 1876 in Iowa, graduated from State University of Iowa, College of Medicine, Iowa City, 1898, became a doctor in Ewing, Nebraska where his father Riley lived with him in 1920, d. 10 July 1946);
- Clarence N. Briggs (b. 13 Jan. 1878, d. in 17 July 1879);
- Pearl S. Briggs (b. Feb 1887, Iowa, married H. Hays Bullard in 1910 and eventually moved to London, Ontario, Canada).
Riley William first appears with his parents and younger siblings in the 1850 census for Beloit, Rock County Wisconsin. The family had a farm there since 1839. He carried the names of two of his mother's brothers, and we know that Riley Damon visited the family (as noted in the RLDS history written by his brother Edmund C. Briggs). By the time he was born, many in the family had become Mormon, so he must have been influenced by the family's religious experiences from his earliest memories.
Riley was just 18 in 1860 and is found alone with his mother Polly in Iowa as his older siblings have moved on in life and his father Hugh had remarried in Utah. Polly appears on 1 Jan. 1860 when she is listed as a new member of the RLDS branch for Farm Creek in Mills County, Iowa. The branch had been recently organized by her son Edmund Clarke Briggs on 16 Oct. 1859, and perhaps he suggested she join along with other family members who included her children Riley William, and daughter Mary J. with her husband Curtis F. Stiles. The record shows they were all recommended to the Farm Creek branch from the RLDS church at Zarahemla, Wisconsin, the place where Polly had owned property. She and some of her family had made the move to Iowa by 1860, and the new branch recods that she was baptized into the RLDS there on 7 July 1861. Soon her son-in-law C. F. Stiles was reported as being elected clerk for a new RLDS branch called Grand Prairie Branch in Livingston Co., Illinois, so he and Mary must have been on the move trying to spread the word (15 June 1865 edition of the "True Latter-Day Saints' Herald").
Polly's 1860 census record shows her listed as "P. Briggs" in Mud Creek, Mills County, Iowa (dwelling 779, family 721). She is identified as being 64 and born in NY, and with her is 18 year old Wm. R. (Riley William, a.k.a. William Riley) born in Wisconsin. The census taker had mistakenly recoredg Polly as male, which might have confused some researchers, but all the other information fits, and so it is she. Her personal property was worth $600, and nearby is Farm Creek where she attended church. About 25 miles away was another son, Edwin Ruthven with his family in Kane Township, Pottawattamie County.
Riley continued his affiliation with the church as he turned 20 and was ordained an RLDS elder 8 Oct. 1862. In 1863 at a special church conference held in North Star branch, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, 6 June 1863, various missions were appointed for elders of the church, and Riley was selected to go with Br. William Kelley as the two missionaries to Minnesota.
At the Annual Conference that met on 6 April 1864 at Amboy, Lee County, Illinois, Riley was made a member of the Seventy and also delivered a report of his activities for the church.
In May of 1864 he headed back east to New York to attend school and was eventually enrolled in Cazenovia Seminary (a Methodist Institution). The school records listed Denver, Colorado as his home, so it is likely that his father Hugh had some role in supporting his education (and see below a notice that he helped Riley with law school). It seems he finished the seminary in 1865 and returned to Iowa where he attended the University of Iowa and worked on his law degree.
At this time he was also was writing for the RLDS newspaper "The True Latter-Day Saints' Herald." Beginning with Riley's father Hugh who published his anti-Mormon essay in 1857, many of the Briggs family wrote for publication. This includes son Jason W. who was responsible for producing a church newspaper in Salt Lake City in the 1870s and also in England, and he wrote for "The Saint's Herald" as well. Son Edmund C. also contributed to the "Herald" and in 1900 published a history covering the beginning of the RLDS. And even their sister Mary J. (Briggs) Curtis wrote an opinion piece on expanding the role of women in the church. So Riley was part of a Briggs tradition developing at this time by producing religious essaya. One piece of his on "Evening Mediations" was written at Poughkeepsie NY on 12 May 1864 but published in the 15 June 1865 edition (page 183-4). Another essay called "Consciousness Beyond the Grave" was apparently written later since it ends with a reference to a woek published of 15 May 1864, but this piece was published before the one written earlier and appears in the 1 Sept. 1864 edition.
In the 1870 census Polly is no longer living in Iowa with Riley who might have been off to law school at this time. She is found in the home of her daughter Mary J. (age 46), with Curtis F. Stiles (age 47) who is the head of the family in their home in Barton, Holt County, in northwest Missouri on the boarder with Kansas. Polly is listed as age 76 and born in NY, which fits exactly with information for other census records. The reason for her no longer living alone but rather being part of this family is also stated. She is blind. In the home she was surrounded by her grandchildren including Ellen J. (age 19), George E. (16), Mary (12), and Edgar S. (4). There is no indication why the family moved from Iowa, but the RLDS church was reestablishing its center in Independence, Missouri, so perhaps they wanted to be closer to the organization HQ. Or just as likely, there were more opportunities for land as the plains opened up for settlement after the Civil War.
Riley continued his association with the church in the 1870s. He attended the semiannual conference of the RLDS church at Council Bluffs from 15 to 19 Sept 1870 and was named one of the two clerks of the conference. In fact, the memoirs of President Joseph Smith III record that Riley was among those who address those attending. At the Friday afternoon session he read the 90th Psalm and preached from Genesis xxviii 16. He spoke again on the Sunday afternoon session following the address by President Smith. At the end of the conference report Riley made the disclaimer that any error or omission of the clerks in the report was to be attributed to him. On a tour of visits to Iowa branches in the weeks after the conference, President Smith met with Riley on 4 Oct. at Plum Hollow as he had come to see him from Eastport.
The RLDS semiannual Conference of 12 to 15 Sept 1872 was held at Park Mills just outside Council Bluffs, Iowa, and Elder Riley W. Briggs again addressed the assembly. The Council Bluffs "Herald" reported that Riley W. Briggs was among those leaders who preached to the "immense congregation" on the Sabbath. The paper reported 102 tents, 265 wagons, and a minimum of 6,000 in attendance at the conference.
The local newspaper "The Council Bluffs Nonpariel" stated that this young man "... was the first speaker and his ability is no mean character, if he is to be judged by the effort made on this occasion."
Soon after this conference President Smith again visited branches throughout Iowa and ran into some trouble with crowds at Sidney. He later wrote, "We are also indebted in thanks for the assistance of Bro. Riley W. Briggs upon several occasions, more especially when at Sidney, where the prospect looked dark, he nobly came forward and stood with us in the declaring the word. He proved himself a 'friend in need' upon that occasion." ("The Saints' Herald," vol. 17, p. 658).
Riley delivered the funeral sermon for Mrs. E. F. Kelly, wife of Elder Richard Kelly, at her residence on Mud Creek, Mills County, Iowa on 18 Nov. 1873. She had become a Mormon in 1842 and been rebaptized into the RLDS by Riley's brother Edmund in 1860. The area was clearly known to Riley since he had lived there with his mother in 1860 and must have know Mrs. Kelly since that time.
Riley attended the quarterly conference at Fremont, Iowa on 31 Jan. 1874 where he gave a report about his district. He was appointed by the conference to act as their agent to confer with the railroad and charter a railroad car for the Plano, Conference in April.
The obituary of Riley's father Hugh was printed in the 15 Sept. 1874 edition of "The Saints Herald" published in Plano, Illinois:
"At Denver City, Colorado. June 16th, 1874, of ripe old age, Hugh L. Briggs, in the eighty-second year of his age.
He was the father of Brn. Jason W., E.C. and R.W. Briggs. He has led a long and busy life, and has gone to the sleep that knows no waking till the resurrection."
A notice on 15 July 1874 concerned Riley who is named as being among those voters delinquent in their shares for the "The First United Order of Enoch." The constitution of this organization states its purpose:
"The general business and object of this corporation shall be the associating together of men of capital and those skilled in labor and mechanics,....for the purpose of settling, developing and improving new tracts of land which tracts of land shall be selected and purchased by a committee to be appointed by the Board of Directors ... to take cognizance of the wants of worthy and industrious poor men who shall apply therefore, and provide them with labor and the means for securing homes and a livelihood and to develop energies and resources, of the people who may seek those respective localities for settlement."
The organization, which began in 1870, continued about twenty years, paying ninety per cent in dividends and returning the original stock also.
However, the church records from the semi-annual conference begun on 19 Sept. 1874 at Council Bluffs state that R. W. Brigs would be sent as a missionary to Washington Territory to labor under the President of the Pacific Slope. Perhaps his Oct 1 letter was before he left, or perhaps he did not go at all.
On 1 Oct 1874 the "Saints' Herald" published a letter by Elder Riley W. Briggs of Wheelers Grove concerning the state of the Church in his area:
"General church affairs are in a fair condition. I am doing some little local labor. During the last six months I have traveled over three hundred miles to hold funeral services, for those in and out of the church; have baptized four within a month, and done some little public speaking . . . . We are building a church house here - have it already enclosed."
Riley is listed as a "Farmer & Teacher" in the 1875 business directory for Grove Township in Pottawattamie County. The "teacher" designation might concern his role as a local leader of the RLDS church.
In 1876 Riley was elected a Justice of the Peace in Pottawattamie. He became a lawyer as some point and one would expect it was before he was a JP. A source from 1888 concerning a legal dispute over property in his father Hugh's will back in 1874 states that rent from a property of
Hugh and his second wife Susannah in Denver was used to help put Riley through law school.
Of a tragic note, on 17 July 1879 Riley lost his 1½ year old son Clarence N. Briggs who is buried in the "Mormon Cemetery" in Grove Township, four miles east of Macedonia on County Road G 66/Pioneer Trail. It has been called the Mormon Cemetery and the L.D.S. Cemetery because it is on the Mormon Trail and many of the people buried there belonged to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
In 1880 Polly Briggs, aged 84 and born in NY, was living in the family of Chester S. Dodson in Hampton Township, Rush County, Kansas as recorded on page 10 of the U.S. census. The box for "Widowed / Divorced" was also checked. Dodson was 37 and born in Pennsylvania, and his wife Josephine was 28 and also from Pa (which might be a mistake). It is possible that Josephine is actually granddaughter Ellen J. from the 1870 census (who is now going by her middle name, a very common tradition in the 19th century for country people), but a note by the census taker written after Polly's name reads "Grandmother of the Stiles family on pag. 9." And there on the previous page only a few households away is the Stiles family of Curtis (age 57) and Mary (age 56). Polly's other grandchildren are there as well, and in addition to those not named in 1870 are Lillian (12), Daisy (9), Amy B. (6), and Eugene (3).
If Josephine is not Polly's granddaughter, there is the question of why she lives with neighbors a few doors away. Perhaps it was just a question of room, since Mary J. was clearly middle aged with several young ones still to care for, and looking after her blind mother might have been too much, but she still wanted her close to the family.
The RLDS history states that in a report delivered at the April 1882 annual conference at Independence, Missouri, Riley is listed among those who have dropped out of the "Quorum of Seventy" due to inactivity. There are 15 men on this list including his brother-in-law Curtis F. Stiles. Curtis had been with the RLDS from the very first conference to organize in 1852 with many notable roles, and he had been recommended as a high priest in Sept. 1874, and he had selected a missionary in Missouri when he moved the family there. The reasons for their Riley's and Curtis' lack of activity are not stated, but both men might have felt some antagonism for church leaders who had launched an attack on Riley's brother Jason W. Briggs who was deemed too liberal in 1879. He had actually been tried by an RLDS church tribunal and was found guilt of several transgressions of doctrine. He was eventually reinstated in his positions in 1880 after he made some clarifying statements, but his treatment by the by several key people in the very organization he and other Briggs relatives had formed perhaps was viewed as shabby way to deal someone whom they owed so much.
The 1885 "Atlas of Pottawattamie County, Iowa" lists the following Briggs names: C.F. Briggs, E.C. Briggs, E.S. Briggs, G.W. Briggs, J. Briggs, Mrs. A. Briggs, Mrs. J.A. Briggs, R.W. Briggs, W.F. Briggs, and Wm. T. Briggs. The R. W. is Riley, the E.C. is his brother Edmund, and there are others of the family there as well.
By the end of Polly's life in 1890, she had moved to Grove Township, Pottawattamie County, Iowa where she was again with her son Riley William (now about age 48) who had lived there off and on since 1860. His sister Mary J. was in her mid-sixties by this point and might not have been able to care for Polly any longer, so she joined the family of Riley who was younger. The area at Grove had an early RLDS and Briggs presence as noted in "History of Grove Township" (1907) which reports, "Many of these early settlers left Nauvoo intending to go to Utah, but for one reason or another, they paused here and finally concluded to remain and a few, if any, have had cause to regret it. The first to organize a religious body in the township were the Latter Day Saints. E. W. BRIGGS and W. W. BLAIR." This is Polly's son Edwin Ruthven who was baptized in Council Bluff, Iowa in 1860. Unfortunately Polly did not live long enough to enjoy her son's success.
Polly's own passing in 1890 was reported in the RLDS weekly newspaper which stated she was buried in Wheeler Grove Cemetery. As the mother of the founders of RLDS Church and a woman who opened her home to their meetings and early organization, she merited a special place in the Church history.
From Jan. 1892 to Jan. 1894 Riley served as a member of the Iowa State Assembly representing district 31, Pottawattamie County as a democrat. A form completed for the legislature states he was a lawyer for many years in Carson, Iowa, and he was also a missionary. He received his law degree from the University of Iowa, Iowa City.
There are references that could relate to Riley, but the is still need for more research. For example, the names of members of the "Pioneer Association of San Francisco" in 1890 lists R. W. Briggs as a member. He could have been a distant member living elsewhere in the country, and could have been one of the sons who made the trip with his father Hugh for the Gold Rush, but these are yet to be proven. Also, the "L. A. W. Bulletin and Good Roads" which was the "Official Organ of the League of American Wheelmen" for Jan though June of 1897 lists an R. W. Briggs as the local consul for Frankfort, Ohio (page 274, Volume 25). The league was apparently a nation wide bicycle club with the motto "The road is a creation of man and a type of civilized society." The main purposes of the bulletin seems to be advocating for legislation throughout the country for more good roads, discussing bicycle experiences, sharing information about construction and repair, and advertising of bicycle products. It ran hundreds of pages, had a circulation of 71,089 and cost 5 cents. It is not clear if this is the same R. W. Briggs from Iowa, so more research might solve the problem.
In 1897 a report was filed by members of the RLDS Church in Pottawattamie who had been instructed to visit Riley as part of a larger policy to contact scattered members and list them for their branches. The report indicates Riley was surprised by their visit. He was also surprised that he was still considered part of the church and told them clearly his position: "he was not in the faith, and had no desire to remain a member of the church.... The president of the local branch was instructed to strike his name from the records.... It may be stated that Elder Briggs's name had never been on any of the records for the Pottawattamie District."
The 1900 census finds Riley practicing law in Carson, Iowa. The household includes his wife Clara, age 45, Pearl S. who is 13, and son George is listed as a teacher, age 25. They have taken in a boarder, 12 year old Gertrude Smith who attends school. There is no record of how she came to be with them.
In the 1910 census, Riley and family have moved to Columbia Township, Boone Co., Missouri. Riley lived on his "own income" and supports his wife Clara, 56, and Pearl S. is listed as 21. Also in the household is Dorothy Briggs, age 6, a granddaughter born in the U.S. Philippines who came to the United States in 1905. This must be a daughter of son George N. Briggs. On the line for "language spoken," the census taker left it blank. She can not read or write but is in school. Questions raised by this are answered in the next census.
Evidently Riley and the family moved to Columbia, Missouri so daughter Pearl could attend the University of Missouri where she graduated. An article of 9 May 1910 edition of the "University Missourian" notes the marriage of Pearl S. Briggs to H. Hays Bullard, but she then continued her education at Tulane University, so the family moved to Independence, Missouri to be near her family. Her husband H. Hays Bullard received his PhD. at Tulane in 1912.
To honor Riley's family, daughter Pearl changed her middle name to Briggs when she married, and it is under the name Pearl Briggs Bullard that she published her research in the "Amercian Journal of Anatomy," Vol. 14, No. 1., November 1912. The piece was titled "A comparative study of the three principal regions of the spinal cord in a series of mammals." The piece ran from page 73 to 105. So Pearl put her degree to good use, and like so many in the Briggs family starting with Hugh, she was a published author.
Pearl and her husband Hays eventually moved to Baltimore where he is found as a physician at Johns Hopkins as an Associate Instructor in Pathology in 1915. They eventually moved to London, Ontario, Canada in 1920 and are located there at the time of Riley's death in 1927. Bullard was the director of the Department of Pathology at the University of Western Ontario.
By the 1920 census Riley had lost his wife Clara and moved to Nebraska where he lived with his son Walter H. Briggs who was a physician in Ewing Township, Holt Co. Meanwhile his older son George was in Fayette Township, Decatur Co., Iowa with his family which included wife Grace Briggs from Missouri and three daughters born in the "Philippine Islands." There are the twins Ruth M. and Elizabeth C. who are 11 and Dorothy M. (Maud), 16, who was living with her grandfather Riley in the 1910 census (see above). Also in George's family are son George N. who was 6 and born in the District of Columbia, and the youngest two, Mary Katherine, 2, and Roland, 1, both born in Iowa. George lists his occupation as "President" of a "College." The 1930 census also identifies him as the president (of Graceland College), and in fact he had become president there back in 1915). This school was established in 1895 by the RLDS Church, and when the administration building was dedicated on 1 Jan. 1897, the church president, Joseph Smith III, said that the college "should be free to all irrespective of faith or creed." In 1917 Graceland received accreditation by the states of Iowa and Missouri and from the North Central Association of Colleges as it became the first fully accredited junior college in Iowa. The brief biography they have for George states he was in the Philippine Bureau of Education 1910-14, but the births of Dorothy and the twins reveal he was there by 1904. In fact, he seems to have gone there perhaps as early as 1901 and was division superintendent by March 1906 for Suriago, Suriago; Cagayan and Misamis; San Fernando, Pampanga and Bataan.
Riley also had the pleasure of see two other grandchildren enter the world. These were the Pearl's children Jim Briggs Bullard and Eugenia Ellen Bullard, who seems to be the woman of this name who graduated in 1942 with a bachelor of arts from Flora Stone Mather College of Western Reserve University in Cleveland. She received the Hippolyte Gruener prize for merit in chemistry.
Riley survived his wife Clarissa by 13 years, and after leading such an eventful life, he died as a pedestrian in an vehicular accident in 1927. His obituary states that his sons were at his bedside when he passed away.
Death Certificate #19440:
Accidental Multiple Injuries - Street Car - Walked in Front of Car - Walnut & Lexington.
Residence: 108 S Fuller, Independence, MO
Informant: George Nathan Briggs, Lamoni, Iowa
Perhaps this biography should not end with Riley's death but with what he bequeathed to his children and later generations. Following in the footsteps of his father Hugh and brothers Jason and Edmund, sister Mary, and brother-in-law Curtis Stiles, he was a published author, and coupled with his own college education, he urged his children to pursue learning as well. Thus Walter became a doctor, George the president of college, and Pearl a medical researcher. And this continued on to a later generations as George's daughter Dorothy Maud Briggs married Charles H. Sandage, and their son, the great-grandson of Riley, was the astronomer Allan Rex Sandage (1926-2010). To quote from his online biography:
"Allan R. Sandage was an observational astronomer who was happiest at a telescope. On Hubble's sudden death, Allan inherited the programs using the world's largest optical telescope at Palomar to determine the distances and number counts of galaxies. Over many years he greatly revised the distance scale and, on reworking Hubble's analysis, discovered the error that led Hubble to doubt the interpretation of galaxies' redshifts as an expansion of the universe. Sandage showed there was a consistent age of Creation for the stars, the elements, and the Cosmos. Through work with Baade and Schwarzschild he discovered the key to the interpretation of the colour magnitude diagrams of star clusters in terms of stellar evolution. With others he founded Galactic Archaeology, interpreting the motions and elemental abundances of the oldest stars in terms of a model for the Galaxy's formation."
Sandage's mother Dorothy always encouraged his intellectual pursuits, and they remained close to the end of her life. When she died of cancer in 1970, "he smoked his last cigarette." Perhaps Dorothy was aware that Allan received the President's National Medal of Science in 1970, and three decades later his fame was such that he was elected a Foreign Member of the Royal Society in 2001.
If there is a heaven, Hugh, Riley and Pearl must have been pleased that the intellectual tradition of the Briggs family had reached to the stars.
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