Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 09.djvu/115

 RIGGS

RIIS

RIQQS, Kate Douglas Wiggin, author, was

born in Philadelplua, Pa., Sept. 28, 1859 ; daughter of Robert Noah and Helen (Dyer) Smith ; grand- daughter of Jones and Lydia (Knight) Dyer, and of Noah and Hannah (Wheaton) Smith, all of Maine. She spent her childhood in Hol- lis, Maine; attended Abbot academy, An- dover, Mass.. and in 1876 removed to Los Angeles, Cal., where she studied kinder- gartening, and after teaching in Santa Barbara college for a year, she organized in San Francisco the first free kindergar- tens for poor chil- dren on the Pacific slope in 1878, and in 1880, with her sister, Nora Archibald Smith, started a training school in connection with them. She was married in 1880 to Samuel Bradley Wig- gin of San Francisco, and removed in 1888 to New York city, where Mr. "Wiggin died the fol- lowing year. In 1895 she was married to George Christopher Riggs, but continued to write under the name of Kate Douglas Wiggin. Her published works include : The Birds' Christmas Carol (1886) ; Kindergarten Chimes (1888); ^4 Summer in a Cafion (1889) ; The Story of Patsy {1889) ; Timothy's Quest (1890); Polly Oliver's Problem (1893); A Cathedral Courtship and Penelope's English Ex- periences (1893); The Village Watch-Tower (1895): 2Iarm Lisa (1896); Penelope's Progress (1898); Penelope's Experiences in Ireland (1901); The Diary of a Goose-Girl {W02); Rebecca (1903). She also wrote with her sister, The Story Hour (1890) ; Children's Rights (1892), and The Repub- lic of Childhood (3 vols., 1895-96); and edited with her two volumes of poetry for children and young people, Golden Numbers and the Posy Ring (1902). She also set to music Niiie Love Songs and a Carol (1896).

RIQQS, Stephen Return, missionary, was born in Steubenville, Ohio, March 23, 1812; son of Stephen and Anna (Baird) Riggs ; grandson of Joseph and Hannah (Cook) Riggs and of Moses Baird, and a descendant of Edward Riggs, who settled in Roxbury, Mass., in 1633. He was grad- uated at Jefferson college, Canonsburg, Pa., A.B., 1834; attended the Western Theological seminary at Allegheny, Pa., 1835-36 ; was licensed to preach by the presbytery of Steubenville in September, 1836, and ordained by the presbj-tery of Chillicothe in April, 1837. He was married, Feb, 16, 1837, to Mary Ann, daughter of Thomas

and Martha Arms (Taylor) Longley of Hawley, Mass. He was sent as a missionary among the Sioux Indians by the A.B.C.F.M. in 1837, and was stationed for a few months at the Lake Har- riet mission, near Fort Snelling. He associated with the Rev. T. S. Williamson at Lac-qui- Parle mission (1837-42), where he learned the Dakota language, and started and conducted a mission station at Traverse des Sioux (1843-46), returning to Lac-qui-Parle in the latter year. He was in charge of the Hazel wood mission near the mouth of the Yellow Medicine river, 1854-62, where he was aided by his son Alfred, a graduate of Knox college. The Indian massacre under Little Crow, Aug. 18, 1862, forced him to fiee with his family, and they reached St. Paul, Minn. He received the degree D.D. from Beloit col- lege, and that of LL.D. from Washington and Jefferson college in 1873. He published : Tlie Dakota First Reading Book (with Gideon H. Pond, 1839); Woivapi Mitawa (1842); Dakota Tawoonspe or Dakota Lessons (1850); Dakota Vocabulary (1852); Tahkoo Wakan or the Gospel among the Dakotas (1869); 77ie Bible in Dakota, with the Rev. T. S. Williamson (1879), and 3Iary and I, or Forty Years Among the Sioux (1880). He also edited : A Grammar and Dictionary of the Dakota Language, collected by the Members of the Dakota 3Iission (1852, which became Vol. IV of the Smithsonian Contributions; rev. ed., 1883) ; and Hymns in the Dakota Language (1842), with the Rev. J. P. Williamson (1863, rev. ed.). He died in Beloit, Wis., Aug. 24, 1883.

RIIS, Jacob August, author, was born at Ribe, Denmark, May 3, 1849 ; son of Niels Edward and Caroline (Lundholm) Riis. He was a student at the Latin school in his native place ; learned the trade of carpenter, and was married, March 5, 1876, to Elizabeth Dorothea, daughter of Niels Nielsen of Herning, Denmark. In 1870 he removed to New York city, where he was em- ployed as police re- porter on the Tribune and the Sun, was in- strumental in estab- lishing small parks

and playgrounds and in improving the condition of schools and tenement houses. He was secretary of the New York imall Parks commission and executive officer of the Good Government clubs. His published works, which immediately at- tained large circulation, include : Hoto the Other