Briggs - Benjamin-B
BENJAMIN BENNETT BRIGGS
Source: Zach, Karen Bazzani. Montgomery Medicine Men ... Crawfordsville: Montgomery County Historical Society, 2002.
Unusual in comparison to other area doctors, Benjamin Bennett Briggs (his grandmother's maiden name was Bennett) studied and researched for four years in Germany and France before graduating from the College of Physicians and Surgeons in New York. Altogether, he earned 7 medical degrees. He was born the 2nd of June in 1827 in Bristol, near Rochester, New York, the seventh of ten children. At the age of 22, he was shot in the lung while heading west for the 1849 Gold Rush. The reason he was back and forth to California is that he sought warmer climate to reduce the pain from his injury. He married Abigail Crane. She was born in Chatham, Barnstable County, Massachusettes on October 7, 1824 and died the 13th of July in 1862 in Santa Paula, Ventura County, California. He had taken her there to try to improve her t.b. She is buried in Sharon Center, Ohio. He was evidently supposed to be buried beside her but his ashes were never claimed and he assumedly is somewhere in Santa Paula. Next we know he married the mother of local attorney, Ben Crane on May 25th of 1870, just after his arrival to the county. She may or may not have been relation to Abigail Crane Briggs, BB's first wife. In 1873, he formed a partnership with Dr. James McClelland as surgeon. Dr. Briggs is said to have performed the first laparotomy, removing a 23 # tumor in Montgomery County. By 1878, he was partners with Warren Ristine on the second floor of the Post Office Building on East Main. Montgomery County was missing an excellent surgeon when he removed to LaCrescenta, (Los Angeles County) California about 1879 and died there 15 Feb 1893 after finally trying to bite the bullet by having it removed. It killed him. Earlier, he was probably in the Santa Paula area as well since his first wife died there. He was a Democrat and Protestant. Dr. T.J. Griffith paid him great tribute saying, "Dr. Briggs was mild-mannered, gentle of speech, reserved and careful of expression and a safe physician and surgeon."
It is apparent that the Cranes and Briggs entertwined several times -- a Louisa Briggs born 1815 died 1895 is also listed in the Sharon Center Cemeter in Medina County, Ohio but is buried in Santa Paula, California.
Note: Photos of Benjamin and his first wife, Abigail Crane were found on findagrave.com - Sharon Ceneter Cemetery, Sharon Center, Medine County, Ohio - the one with his skeleton was found in WardBriggs family tree on ancestry.com -- also found his middle name and his parents, Thomas B. Briggs and Abigail Gregg.
Source: 19th Century Database of Indiana Physicians -- Briggs, B.B. -- Montgomery County (Crawfordsville) Sources: Indiana State Board of Health 1882 -- Record #9830 in database
Although I like my biographical items together and my obituaries together on my GenWeb pages, this might be helpful (also wonder if the lady above is indeed Caroline and not his first wife, Abigail although the pictures is tagged "Abby" - kbz - he may have wanted a picture of her before she passed away.
Source: Crawfordsville Review, Thursday January 6, 1916
Mrs. Caroline A. BRIGGS, in her 90th year died yesterday afternoon at the home of her daughter, Mrs. HH Ristine South Grant Avenue of the infirmities of old age hastened by an attack of the prevailing la grippe. She had been on the decline for some time. Mrs. Briggs was born in Berkley MS in 1826. She was married in 1849 and moved to the vicinity of Bainbridge, where she lived for many years. After the death of her first husband the deceased in 1870 married Dr. Benjamin Briggs. They resided in this city for many years but later moved to California where Dr. Briggs died in 1893. Since that time Mrs. Briggs has made her home with her daughter, Mrs. Ristine. Early in life she espoused the cause of Christ and placed her membership in the Presbyterian Church. In this organization she has ever been a faithful worker and an exponent of its teachings. Besides her daughter, Mrs. Ristine the deceased is survived by one son, Mr. Ben Crane of this city. Funeral services will be held at the Ristine Home Friday afternoon at 2 and will be in charge of Rev. Walter Johnson of Center Church; burial in Oak Hill Cemetery. - typed by kbz
A twisting, turning tale of a doctor and good grapes
By Karen Zach, Around the County
Thursday, April 16, 2020 4:00 AM
I first “met this man” when I began my lengthy quest of researching Montgomery County doctors probably 45 years ago and I still am finding fascinating facts for all, and just became reinterested in this physician.
He was likely born in Bristol, New York (June 2, 1827) one of seven sons and two daughters of Thomas and Abigail (Gregg) Briggs. When he was eight, the family moved to Medina County, Ohio. Although his father was a farmer, he instilled his love and fascination for horticulture into his sons. It would play a large role in the boys’ upcoming futures.
In 1849, our subject, Benjamin Bennett Briggs, two of his brothers, John and George, along with a neighbor-friend, George Case set-out from Sharon, Ohio heading to Yuba City, California to the gold mines.
Although his diary I found online is dim and rather hard to read, it would be a good guideline to compare a trip if you had an ancestor go. He discussed weather, road conditions, food supply and the trail. Some entries are extremely short – “stayed in camp today,” while others are somewhat lengthier – June 12 – Road rough and sandy in many places – struck out from the platte into the Black Hills. Pine trees scattered everywhere.”
Things went well for the little group until the end of July when Ben was accidentally shot in one of his lungs. Eventually, with Ben in the wagon they travelled slowly, a few miles a day. Oddly, when Ben had time to write he had little to say. He did make note of writing several letters. Ben turned 22 on the trip and at 22 ½ finally landed in Yuba. With Ben’s lung yet to heal, it was decided he and brother George would purchase property and plant orchards. The sun and healthy climate slowly helped Ben’s lung situation, although he never healed to his 22-year-old health, that’s for sure.
He did heal enough to make a return trip to Ohio where George had $17,000 that he loaned out, making quite a profit on interests. He soon returned to California however where he had his orchard and a tavern/inn. Brother George, neighbor George, Ben, Samuel Crane and wife, along with Samuel’s father (probably William Crane another neighbor of theirs who was from Ben’s parents hometown in Massachusetts), Charles Curtis, Lafayette Waffle and friends, George and John Brown, all citizens of Sharon, Ohio left in mid-December to return back to warmth, this time travelling a portion on the railroad.
There were many trips back and forth, especially for Ben as he returned the next year to marry his adored Abigaile (Abby) Crane. They would have one child but he was close to many of his nieces and nephews and when Abby passed away young and he married her sister, Caroline, he would help raise her children, Ben and Sophia.
In fact, at age 35, after Abby’s death due to Tuberculosis and another bout with his own lung troubles, he took a brother’s daughter, Louise to help watch his daughter and went to Heidelburg, Germany and Paris, France where he received two of his seven medical degrees. His specialty was lung diseases, of course. This was in the middle of the Civil War. He could not serve due to his lung problems.
Upon the death of Caroline Crane’s husband (Abather Crane), Ben and his sister-in-law, Caroline “Carrie”, married and lived happily for close to 23 years. She would live a widow for 26 years most of the time back in Crawfordsville with daughter, Sophia and her husband, lawyer HH Ristine and close to her son, Ben Crane named for his uncle and later stepfather, Benjamin Briggs. Carrie and Ben lived in Crawfordsville from about 1869 to 1882 when Ben practiced medicine, specializing in lung disease, a dangerous specialty for the time with people young and old dropping off daily with consumption. While no consumption, Ben’s old malady with his lung drove the family back to California. He had researched for years to find the perfect climate for lung problems and decided it was right back where he’d been at age 22. He went with a plan and began by purchasing large blocks of land in what he would dub the Crescenta Valley as he (lore) was looking out the window of his home (Briggs Terrace) and saw three mountain ranges together in what he felt was a crescent shape. He laid-out the town now called Le Crescenta.
He and Carrie enjoyed their property and won many awards for horticultural endeavors, she an early photographer winning several prizes for her pictures. He developed and cultured rare products not seen in the US (this partially due to Irene and her husband, Rev. SL Ward spending many years in Persia as missionaries), such as large white seedless grapes.
Brothers George and Ben were particularly close, raising various fruits (pears, apples, grapes, prunes, peaches and olives) and were Master Masons in Yuba Lodge #39, purchasing land, developing water ways and subdivisions, along with improving their community in many ways.
Although listed as a physician in the city directories in LA County, it seems, he did little with the profession per se, yet all his dealings with getting good water, developing the fruits and buying properties (he was quite good at purchasing delinquent tax lands) were heading toward his dream of creating the perfect spot for asthmatics, consumptives or anyone with lung troubles.
His own damaged lung began causing extreme pain, thus he submitted to an operation to remove the long-ago bullet. Although he survived the operation, he died not long after, being 65 years old. Caroline would return back to Indiana not long afterward, leaving his nephew and daughter in charge of the large California holdings.
At his request, he was cremated at the Rosedale Cemetery. Sadly, no one ever picked-up the ashes, so in the far future, he was finally buried in that cemetery. So, don’t be mislead by the Findagrave entry in his Ohio hometown as he’s not really there. Nor is he with Abby, his first wife of about 10 years (in Ventura, California) and not with long time wife, Carrie, who is buried right here in Oak Hill.
Yet I’m glad Benjamin Bennett Briggs (photo from Jacqueline Kennedy, findagrave) was here for about a dozen years and his second wife for many so I can count him as not only one of our great physicians, but one of America’s amazing self-learned botanist because I really love seedless grapes!
Karen Zach is the editor of Montgomery Memories, our monthly magazine all about Montgomery County. Her column, Around the County, appears each Thursday in The Paper of Montgomery County. -- appeared in the Thursday April 16, 2020 The Paper online