Son of Rebecca Gibson Baldridge and Joseph Riggs. Married to Evadne Withers on 12 Oct 1853 in Portsmouth, Scioto Co, OH.
*****************************************
William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas
S. B. RIGGS located at Emporia in 1869, and became engaged in banking, which he followed exclusively until 1874. In January of that year he came into possession of some milling property at Peabody, Marion Co., Kan., and carried on a flouring mill at that point until 1877. Since April, 1877, he has been engaged in the real estate, loan, abstract and insurance business. He is a member of the K. of H., and of the Board of Education, and also served in the latter capacity in 1869. He was born in West Union, Ohio, in 1832, and lived in Portsmouth, Ohio, from 1836 until he came to Emporia.
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The Emporia Gazette, 18 Mar 1909, Thursday
S. B. RIGGS DEAD
Stephen Baldridge Riggs died this morning at 10:30 o'clock, t the family home. His death followed a week's sickness with the grip, and this, complicated with heart trouble, brought about his death. For a year he had not been as well as usual, and the first of the year, with Mrs. Riggs, he went to San Antonio where he remained till two weeks ago. While there his daughters visited him and his stay was a most enjoyable one, but he wanted to be at home and returned in time for some of the trying weather of the early spring. For several days his death has seemed imminent, but it was without suffering, the peaceful passing of a man who had reached the fullness of years, surrounded by his children and relatives, in the town where for two score years he had builded and wrought and loved.
Mr. Riggs was born in West Union, Adams county, Ohio, August 17, 1832. He was the son of Joseph and Rebecca Baldridge Riggs, and one of a family of twelve children, six boys and six girls. The family moved to Hanging Rock, and subsequently to Portsmouth, which place remained the family home during the lifetime of the parents. It was here Mr. Riggs was educated and began his active business life, and it was here in 1853 he was married to Evadna (sic) Withers. He chose as his profession that of expert accountant, and was employed first in a large manufacturing establishment, and then as chief clerk on an Ohio river steamboat.
In July, 1869, Mr. Riggs came with his family to Emporia where he has lived ever since. Howard Dunlap, his nephew, came with him, and the two established the banking firm of Riggs and Dunlap. Mr. Riggs remained in the banking business till 1874, when he acquired a milling property in Peabody. He did not remove his residence from here, but for three years conducted the mill and then engaged in the real estate, loan and abstracting business, in which he remained active till a short time ago.
Mr. Riggs has left the impress of his life on Emporia, for no man of the early settlers, whose ranks are so rapidly thinning, did more to determine the character of the town than he. Reared in the culture and refinement of a Christian home, he brought to the embryo town of those early years the high ideals that, coupled with business ability and industry of the highest type, proved so great a fatcor (sic) in making Emporia a town of schools and churches. He did more, perhaps, than any other man in building the First Presbyterian church here. Giving amply of his means he secured donations of money and furniture from friends in Portsmouth that made the church a possibility. And to the faith of his youth he remained staunch. Even when dissensions arose he stood by the church, and for years the presence of Stephen Riggs in his pew has been as certain almost as the coming of the Sabbath. By the tenets of his creed his life was ordered. As an elder, superintendent of the Sunday school and an active member, he was always prominent in the councils of the church.
And as he was active in the religious life of the town, so was he in the educational realm. When the Kansas synod proposed establishing a college no one did more toward causing that college to be located here. He served as secretary of the first board of trustees of the College, and as a member of the building committee, helped plan the main building of the school. For several terms he was a member of the Normal board of regents, and was one of the building committee that erected the brick building destroyed subsequently by fire.
Six years ago Mr. and Mrs. Riggs celebrated the golden anniversary of their wedding, and Mrs. Riggs survives her husband. Mr. Riggs is the first of the brothers and sisters who reached their majority to die, with the exception of a brother who was killed in a railroad wreck. The surviving sisters and brothers are Mrs. Rebecca Kendall, of Oakland, Calif.; Mrs. Martha Robinson, of Daytona, Fla.; Judge Samuel A. Riggs and Joseph E. Riggs, of Lawrence, both of whom are lawyers well known in Kansas; Charles H. Riggs, of Pittsburg, Pa., connected with the Union freight lines, and Dr. Alex B. Riggs, a professor in the Cincinnati Theological Seminary. His children are Mrs. Alma Finley, Miss Frances Riggs and Charles N. Riggs, of Emporia, and Mrs. W. A. Gardner, of Chicago, and they, with his brothers, Samuel and Joseph, and Mrs. Riggs, had been with him during the past few days. Mr. Gardner and daughters, Miss Fritz and Miss Olive, arrived this afternoon in their car from Chicago.
The funeral arrangements have been suspended pending word from the brothers who are not here.
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The Emporia Gazette, 18 Mar 1909, Thursday
STEPHEN B. RIGGS
For nearly forty years Stephen B. Riggs has been a part of this town; his passing from us will leave a place vacant in a wide circle of friends--among those "forefathers of the village" known as "old timers." These old timers have come to consider Mr. Riggs as one of the landmarks of the town; for altogether his life was a sturdy, staple sort of a life, that rarely varied and never vacillated. He lived and died in the faith of his youth. The Riggs home was one of the few in town where family prayers were always held. New fashions and new ways did not change Stephen Riggs: he remained a Republican as he remained a Presbyterian, without variableness or shadow of turning. He lived in one house during the long years of his residence here, and though business buildings crowded up to his yard and though he might have found new pastures and made money in changing his abode, he died where he lived, satisfied and happy.
He was the first of three brothers to go--Samuel, Joseph and Stephen; two live in Lawrence, and between the three always there was the closest fellowship and communion. For the Riggses were family folk; they liked one another and enjoyed the family relation. And so they became part of a type of American gentleman that stood for the epoch in which they lived--solid, substantial, clean and wholesome.
Emporia will miss the vigorous, self-contained, Christian gentleman who passed into the other world today. He lived the good life, fought the good fight, and will come into whatever reward is bestowed upon faithful souls who come from this earth bringing in the sheaves of righteous service. [William Allen White]
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The Emporia Weekly Gazette, 25 Mar 1909, Thursday
THE FUNERAL OF S. B. RIGGS
The funeral services of S. B. Riggs were held Saturday at 3 o'clock, from the First Presbyterian church. The casket was taken to the church at 3:15, and was placed under the large window in the west end of the church so that the friends might see the body. The services were conducted by Rev. S. L. Grigsby, of the First Presbyterian church, and Rev. J. H. J. Rice, of the First Congregational church, assisted. The Presbyterian choir composed of Miss Seibert, Miss Shoecraft, Maurice Wells and Ingram Forde, sang several selections. The pall-bearers were chosen from the congregation, C. A. Boyle, G. A. Hege and George Culbertson, representing the elders, A. S. Newman, representing the brotherhood, W. B. Haynes the lay members, and Victor Paxton as superintendent of the Sunday school. The honorary pall-bearers were J. M. Steele, W. T. McCarty, L. T. Heritage, S. H. Warren, Felix Held and R. D. Thomas.
*****************************************
William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas
S. B. RIGGS located at Emporia in 1869, and became engaged in banking, which he followed exclusively until 1874. In January of that year he came into possession of some milling property at Peabody, Marion Co., Kan., and carried on a flouring mill at that point until 1877. Since April, 1877, he has been engaged in the real estate, loan, abstract and insurance business. He is a member of the K. of H., and of the Board of Education, and also served in the latter capacity in 1869. He was born in West Union, Ohio, in 1832, and lived in Portsmouth, Ohio, from 1836 until he came to Emporia.
*****************************************
The Emporia Gazette, 18 Mar 1909, Thursday
S. B. RIGGS DEAD
Stephen Baldridge Riggs died this morning at 10:30 o'clock, t the family home. His death followed a week's sickness with the grip, and this, complicated with heart trouble, brought about his death. For a year he had not been as well as usual, and the first of the year, with Mrs. Riggs, he went to San Antonio where he remained till two weeks ago. While there his daughters visited him and his stay was a most enjoyable one, but he wanted to be at home and returned in time for some of the trying weather of the early spring. For several days his death has seemed imminent, but it was without suffering, the peaceful passing of a man who had reached the fullness of years, surrounded by his children and relatives, in the town where for two score years he had builded and wrought and loved.
Mr. Riggs was born in West Union, Adams county, Ohio, August 17, 1832. He was the son of Joseph and Rebecca Baldridge Riggs, and one of a family of twelve children, six boys and six girls. The family moved to Hanging Rock, and subsequently to Portsmouth, which place remained the family home during the lifetime of the parents. It was here Mr. Riggs was educated and began his active business life, and it was here in 1853 he was married to Evadna (sic) Withers. He chose as his profession that of expert accountant, and was employed first in a large manufacturing establishment, and then as chief clerk on an Ohio river steamboat.
In July, 1869, Mr. Riggs came with his family to Emporia where he has lived ever since. Howard Dunlap, his nephew, came with him, and the two established the banking firm of Riggs and Dunlap. Mr. Riggs remained in the banking business till 1874, when he acquired a milling property in Peabody. He did not remove his residence from here, but for three years conducted the mill and then engaged in the real estate, loan and abstracting business, in which he remained active till a short time ago.
Mr. Riggs has left the impress of his life on Emporia, for no man of the early settlers, whose ranks are so rapidly thinning, did more to determine the character of the town than he. Reared in the culture and refinement of a Christian home, he brought to the embryo town of those early years the high ideals that, coupled with business ability and industry of the highest type, proved so great a fatcor (sic) in making Emporia a town of schools and churches. He did more, perhaps, than any other man in building the First Presbyterian church here. Giving amply of his means he secured donations of money and furniture from friends in Portsmouth that made the church a possibility. And to the faith of his youth he remained staunch. Even when dissensions arose he stood by the church, and for years the presence of Stephen Riggs in his pew has been as certain almost as the coming of the Sabbath. By the tenets of his creed his life was ordered. As an elder, superintendent of the Sunday school and an active member, he was always prominent in the councils of the church.
And as he was active in the religious life of the town, so was he in the educational realm. When the Kansas synod proposed establishing a college no one did more toward causing that college to be located here. He served as secretary of the first board of trustees of the College, and as a member of the building committee, helped plan the main building of the school. For several terms he was a member of the Normal board of regents, and was one of the building committee that erected the brick building destroyed subsequently by fire.
Six years ago Mr. and Mrs. Riggs celebrated the golden anniversary of their wedding, and Mrs. Riggs survives her husband. Mr. Riggs is the first of the brothers and sisters who reached their majority to die, with the exception of a brother who was killed in a railroad wreck. The surviving sisters and brothers are Mrs. Rebecca Kendall, of Oakland, Calif.; Mrs. Martha Robinson, of Daytona, Fla.; Judge Samuel A. Riggs and Joseph E. Riggs, of Lawrence, both of whom are lawyers well known in Kansas; Charles H. Riggs, of Pittsburg, Pa., connected with the Union freight lines, and Dr. Alex B. Riggs, a professor in the Cincinnati Theological Seminary. His children are Mrs. Alma Finley, Miss Frances Riggs and Charles N. Riggs, of Emporia, and Mrs. W. A. Gardner, of Chicago, and they, with his brothers, Samuel and Joseph, and Mrs. Riggs, had been with him during the past few days. Mr. Gardner and daughters, Miss Fritz and Miss Olive, arrived this afternoon in their car from Chicago.
The funeral arrangements have been suspended pending word from the brothers who are not here.
*****************************************
The Emporia Gazette, 18 Mar 1909, Thursday
STEPHEN B. RIGGS
For nearly forty years Stephen B. Riggs has been a part of this town; his passing from us will leave a place vacant in a wide circle of friends--among those "forefathers of the village" known as "old timers." These old timers have come to consider Mr. Riggs as one of the landmarks of the town; for altogether his life was a sturdy, staple sort of a life, that rarely varied and never vacillated. He lived and died in the faith of his youth. The Riggs home was one of the few in town where family prayers were always held. New fashions and new ways did not change Stephen Riggs: he remained a Republican as he remained a Presbyterian, without variableness or shadow of turning. He lived in one house during the long years of his residence here, and though business buildings crowded up to his yard and though he might have found new pastures and made money in changing his abode, he died where he lived, satisfied and happy.
He was the first of three brothers to go--Samuel, Joseph and Stephen; two live in Lawrence, and between the three always there was the closest fellowship and communion. For the Riggses were family folk; they liked one another and enjoyed the family relation. And so they became part of a type of American gentleman that stood for the epoch in which they lived--solid, substantial, clean and wholesome.
Emporia will miss the vigorous, self-contained, Christian gentleman who passed into the other world today. He lived the good life, fought the good fight, and will come into whatever reward is bestowed upon faithful souls who come from this earth bringing in the sheaves of righteous service. [William Allen White]
*****************************************
The Emporia Weekly Gazette, 25 Mar 1909, Thursday
THE FUNERAL OF S. B. RIGGS
The funeral services of S. B. Riggs were held Saturday at 3 o'clock, from the First Presbyterian church. The casket was taken to the church at 3:15, and was placed under the large window in the west end of the church so that the friends might see the body. The services were conducted by Rev. S. L. Grigsby, of the First Presbyterian church, and Rev. J. H. J. Rice, of the First Congregational church, assisted. The Presbyterian choir composed of Miss Seibert, Miss Shoecraft, Maurice Wells and Ingram Forde, sang several selections. The pall-bearers were chosen from the congregation, C. A. Boyle, G. A. Hege and George Culbertson, representing the elders, A. S. Newman, representing the brotherhood, W. B. Haynes the lay members, and Victor Paxton as superintendent of the Sunday school. The honorary pall-bearers were J. M. Steele, W. T. McCarty, L. T. Heritage, S. H. Warren, Felix Held and R. D. Thomas.
Son of Rebecca Gibson Baldridge and Joseph Riggs. Married to Evadne Withers on 12 Oct 1853 in Portsmouth, Scioto Co, OH.
*****************************************
William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas
S. B. RIGGS located at Emporia in 1869, and became engaged in banking, which he followed exclusively until 1874. In January of that year he came into possession of some milling property at Peabody, Marion Co., Kan., and carried on a flouring mill at that point until 1877. Since April, 1877, he has been engaged in the real estate, loan, abstract and insurance business. He is a member of the K. of H., and of the Board of Education, and also served in the latter capacity in 1869. He was born in West Union, Ohio, in 1832, and lived in Portsmouth, Ohio, from 1836 until he came to Emporia.
*****************************************
The Emporia Gazette, 18 Mar 1909, Thursday
S. B. RIGGS DEAD
Stephen Baldridge Riggs died this morning at 10:30 o'clock, t the family home. His death followed a week's sickness with the grip, and this, complicated with heart trouble, brought about his death. For a year he had not been as well as usual, and the first of the year, with Mrs. Riggs, he went to San Antonio where he remained till two weeks ago. While there his daughters visited him and his stay was a most enjoyable one, but he wanted to be at home and returned in time for some of the trying weather of the early spring. For several days his death has seemed imminent, but it was without suffering, the peaceful passing of a man who had reached the fullness of years, surrounded by his children and relatives, in the town where for two score years he had builded and wrought and loved.
Mr. Riggs was born in West Union, Adams county, Ohio, August 17, 1832. He was the son of Joseph and Rebecca Baldridge Riggs, and one of a family of twelve children, six boys and six girls. The family moved to Hanging Rock, and subsequently to Portsmouth, which place remained the family home during the lifetime of the parents. It was here Mr. Riggs was educated and began his active business life, and it was here in 1853 he was married to Evadna (sic) Withers. He chose as his profession that of expert accountant, and was employed first in a large manufacturing establishment, and then as chief clerk on an Ohio river steamboat.
In July, 1869, Mr. Riggs came with his family to Emporia where he has lived ever since. Howard Dunlap, his nephew, came with him, and the two established the banking firm of Riggs and Dunlap. Mr. Riggs remained in the banking business till 1874, when he acquired a milling property in Peabody. He did not remove his residence from here, but for three years conducted the mill and then engaged in the real estate, loan and abstracting business, in which he remained active till a short time ago.
Mr. Riggs has left the impress of his life on Emporia, for no man of the early settlers, whose ranks are so rapidly thinning, did more to determine the character of the town than he. Reared in the culture and refinement of a Christian home, he brought to the embryo town of those early years the high ideals that, coupled with business ability and industry of the highest type, proved so great a fatcor (sic) in making Emporia a town of schools and churches. He did more, perhaps, than any other man in building the First Presbyterian church here. Giving amply of his means he secured donations of money and furniture from friends in Portsmouth that made the church a possibility. And to the faith of his youth he remained staunch. Even when dissensions arose he stood by the church, and for years the presence of Stephen Riggs in his pew has been as certain almost as the coming of the Sabbath. By the tenets of his creed his life was ordered. As an elder, superintendent of the Sunday school and an active member, he was always prominent in the councils of the church.
And as he was active in the religious life of the town, so was he in the educational realm. When the Kansas synod proposed establishing a college no one did more toward causing that college to be located here. He served as secretary of the first board of trustees of the College, and as a member of the building committee, helped plan the main building of the school. For several terms he was a member of the Normal board of regents, and was one of the building committee that erected the brick building destroyed subsequently by fire.
Six years ago Mr. and Mrs. Riggs celebrated the golden anniversary of their wedding, and Mrs. Riggs survives her husband. Mr. Riggs is the first of the brothers and sisters who reached their majority to die, with the exception of a brother who was killed in a railroad wreck. The surviving sisters and brothers are Mrs. Rebecca Kendall, of Oakland, Calif.; Mrs. Martha Robinson, of Daytona, Fla.; Judge Samuel A. Riggs and Joseph E. Riggs, of Lawrence, both of whom are lawyers well known in Kansas; Charles H. Riggs, of Pittsburg, Pa., connected with the Union freight lines, and Dr. Alex B. Riggs, a professor in the Cincinnati Theological Seminary. His children are Mrs. Alma Finley, Miss Frances Riggs and Charles N. Riggs, of Emporia, and Mrs. W. A. Gardner, of Chicago, and they, with his brothers, Samuel and Joseph, and Mrs. Riggs, had been with him during the past few days. Mr. Gardner and daughters, Miss Fritz and Miss Olive, arrived this afternoon in their car from Chicago.
The funeral arrangements have been suspended pending word from the brothers who are not here.
*****************************************
The Emporia Gazette, 18 Mar 1909, Thursday
STEPHEN B. RIGGS
For nearly forty years Stephen B. Riggs has been a part of this town; his passing from us will leave a place vacant in a wide circle of friends--among those "forefathers of the village" known as "old timers." These old timers have come to consider Mr. Riggs as one of the landmarks of the town; for altogether his life was a sturdy, staple sort of a life, that rarely varied and never vacillated. He lived and died in the faith of his youth. The Riggs home was one of the few in town where family prayers were always held. New fashions and new ways did not change Stephen Riggs: he remained a Republican as he remained a Presbyterian, without variableness or shadow of turning. He lived in one house during the long years of his residence here, and though business buildings crowded up to his yard and though he might have found new pastures and made money in changing his abode, he died where he lived, satisfied and happy.
He was the first of three brothers to go--Samuel, Joseph and Stephen; two live in Lawrence, and between the three always there was the closest fellowship and communion. For the Riggses were family folk; they liked one another and enjoyed the family relation. And so they became part of a type of American gentleman that stood for the epoch in which they lived--solid, substantial, clean and wholesome.
Emporia will miss the vigorous, self-contained, Christian gentleman who passed into the other world today. He lived the good life, fought the good fight, and will come into whatever reward is bestowed upon faithful souls who come from this earth bringing in the sheaves of righteous service. [William Allen White]
*****************************************
The Emporia Weekly Gazette, 25 Mar 1909, Thursday
THE FUNERAL OF S. B. RIGGS
The funeral services of S. B. Riggs were held Saturday at 3 o'clock, from the First Presbyterian church. The casket was taken to the church at 3:15, and was placed under the large window in the west end of the church so that the friends might see the body. The services were conducted by Rev. S. L. Grigsby, of the First Presbyterian church, and Rev. J. H. J. Rice, of the First Congregational church, assisted. The Presbyterian choir composed of Miss Seibert, Miss Shoecraft, Maurice Wells and Ingram Forde, sang several selections. The pall-bearers were chosen from the congregation, C. A. Boyle, G. A. Hege and George Culbertson, representing the elders, A. S. Newman, representing the brotherhood, W. B. Haynes the lay members, and Victor Paxton as superintendent of the Sunday school. The honorary pall-bearers were J. M. Steele, W. T. McCarty, L. T. Heritage, S. H. Warren, Felix Held and R. D. Thomas.
*****************************************
William G. Cutler's History of the State of Kansas
S. B. RIGGS located at Emporia in 1869, and became engaged in banking, which he followed exclusively until 1874. In January of that year he came into possession of some milling property at Peabody, Marion Co., Kan., and carried on a flouring mill at that point until 1877. Since April, 1877, he has been engaged in the real estate, loan, abstract and insurance business. He is a member of the K. of H., and of the Board of Education, and also served in the latter capacity in 1869. He was born in West Union, Ohio, in 1832, and lived in Portsmouth, Ohio, from 1836 until he came to Emporia.
*****************************************
The Emporia Gazette, 18 Mar 1909, Thursday
S. B. RIGGS DEAD
Stephen Baldridge Riggs died this morning at 10:30 o'clock, t the family home. His death followed a week's sickness with the grip, and this, complicated with heart trouble, brought about his death. For a year he had not been as well as usual, and the first of the year, with Mrs. Riggs, he went to San Antonio where he remained till two weeks ago. While there his daughters visited him and his stay was a most enjoyable one, but he wanted to be at home and returned in time for some of the trying weather of the early spring. For several days his death has seemed imminent, but it was without suffering, the peaceful passing of a man who had reached the fullness of years, surrounded by his children and relatives, in the town where for two score years he had builded and wrought and loved.
Mr. Riggs was born in West Union, Adams county, Ohio, August 17, 1832. He was the son of Joseph and Rebecca Baldridge Riggs, and one of a family of twelve children, six boys and six girls. The family moved to Hanging Rock, and subsequently to Portsmouth, which place remained the family home during the lifetime of the parents. It was here Mr. Riggs was educated and began his active business life, and it was here in 1853 he was married to Evadna (sic) Withers. He chose as his profession that of expert accountant, and was employed first in a large manufacturing establishment, and then as chief clerk on an Ohio river steamboat.
In July, 1869, Mr. Riggs came with his family to Emporia where he has lived ever since. Howard Dunlap, his nephew, came with him, and the two established the banking firm of Riggs and Dunlap. Mr. Riggs remained in the banking business till 1874, when he acquired a milling property in Peabody. He did not remove his residence from here, but for three years conducted the mill and then engaged in the real estate, loan and abstracting business, in which he remained active till a short time ago.
Mr. Riggs has left the impress of his life on Emporia, for no man of the early settlers, whose ranks are so rapidly thinning, did more to determine the character of the town than he. Reared in the culture and refinement of a Christian home, he brought to the embryo town of those early years the high ideals that, coupled with business ability and industry of the highest type, proved so great a fatcor (sic) in making Emporia a town of schools and churches. He did more, perhaps, than any other man in building the First Presbyterian church here. Giving amply of his means he secured donations of money and furniture from friends in Portsmouth that made the church a possibility. And to the faith of his youth he remained staunch. Even when dissensions arose he stood by the church, and for years the presence of Stephen Riggs in his pew has been as certain almost as the coming of the Sabbath. By the tenets of his creed his life was ordered. As an elder, superintendent of the Sunday school and an active member, he was always prominent in the councils of the church.
And as he was active in the religious life of the town, so was he in the educational realm. When the Kansas synod proposed establishing a college no one did more toward causing that college to be located here. He served as secretary of the first board of trustees of the College, and as a member of the building committee, helped plan the main building of the school. For several terms he was a member of the Normal board of regents, and was one of the building committee that erected the brick building destroyed subsequently by fire.
Six years ago Mr. and Mrs. Riggs celebrated the golden anniversary of their wedding, and Mrs. Riggs survives her husband. Mr. Riggs is the first of the brothers and sisters who reached their majority to die, with the exception of a brother who was killed in a railroad wreck. The surviving sisters and brothers are Mrs. Rebecca Kendall, of Oakland, Calif.; Mrs. Martha Robinson, of Daytona, Fla.; Judge Samuel A. Riggs and Joseph E. Riggs, of Lawrence, both of whom are lawyers well known in Kansas; Charles H. Riggs, of Pittsburg, Pa., connected with the Union freight lines, and Dr. Alex B. Riggs, a professor in the Cincinnati Theological Seminary. His children are Mrs. Alma Finley, Miss Frances Riggs and Charles N. Riggs, of Emporia, and Mrs. W. A. Gardner, of Chicago, and they, with his brothers, Samuel and Joseph, and Mrs. Riggs, had been with him during the past few days. Mr. Gardner and daughters, Miss Fritz and Miss Olive, arrived this afternoon in their car from Chicago.
The funeral arrangements have been suspended pending word from the brothers who are not here.
*****************************************
The Emporia Gazette, 18 Mar 1909, Thursday
STEPHEN B. RIGGS
For nearly forty years Stephen B. Riggs has been a part of this town; his passing from us will leave a place vacant in a wide circle of friends--among those "forefathers of the village" known as "old timers." These old timers have come to consider Mr. Riggs as one of the landmarks of the town; for altogether his life was a sturdy, staple sort of a life, that rarely varied and never vacillated. He lived and died in the faith of his youth. The Riggs home was one of the few in town where family prayers were always held. New fashions and new ways did not change Stephen Riggs: he remained a Republican as he remained a Presbyterian, without variableness or shadow of turning. He lived in one house during the long years of his residence here, and though business buildings crowded up to his yard and though he might have found new pastures and made money in changing his abode, he died where he lived, satisfied and happy.
He was the first of three brothers to go--Samuel, Joseph and Stephen; two live in Lawrence, and between the three always there was the closest fellowship and communion. For the Riggses were family folk; they liked one another and enjoyed the family relation. And so they became part of a type of American gentleman that stood for the epoch in which they lived--solid, substantial, clean and wholesome.
Emporia will miss the vigorous, self-contained, Christian gentleman who passed into the other world today. He lived the good life, fought the good fight, and will come into whatever reward is bestowed upon faithful souls who come from this earth bringing in the sheaves of righteous service. [William Allen White]
*****************************************
The Emporia Weekly Gazette, 25 Mar 1909, Thursday
THE FUNERAL OF S. B. RIGGS
The funeral services of S. B. Riggs were held Saturday at 3 o'clock, from the First Presbyterian church. The casket was taken to the church at 3:15, and was placed under the large window in the west end of the church so that the friends might see the body. The services were conducted by Rev. S. L. Grigsby, of the First Presbyterian church, and Rev. J. H. J. Rice, of the First Congregational church, assisted. The Presbyterian choir composed of Miss Seibert, Miss Shoecraft, Maurice Wells and Ingram Forde, sang several selections. The pall-bearers were chosen from the congregation, C. A. Boyle, G. A. Hege and George Culbertson, representing the elders, A. S. Newman, representing the brotherhood, W. B. Haynes the lay members, and Victor Paxton as superintendent of the Sunday school. The honorary pall-bearers were J. M. Steele, W. T. McCarty, L. T. Heritage, S. H. Warren, Felix Held and R. D. Thomas.
Family Members
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