Lewis Riggs was born and raised in Norfolk, Connecticut. The information about his early life is sparse, but we know that he was the youngest son of a family with seven children. Sources differ on the heritage of his parents, but it seems his father was of English descent and his mother was of Scottish ancestry. His father was a sea captain who left the call of the sea to settle into farming. Lewis was a bright boy with an aptitude for mechanics, and he received a common school education as well as Latin and Greek classes. There was no money for college, so in 1805, he was apprenticed to Samuel Gaylord to learn the carpentry trade. One source says that Riggs traveled to the Homer vicinity with Gaylord, building houses and barns in the area. However, by 1809, Riggs had decided that he wished to become a physician, and he began his studies in the office of Dr. Samuel Woodward in Torringford, Connecticut. He received his medical license in 1812, and in that same year, Riggs was fortunate enough to attend lectures at the University of Pennsylvania given by Dr. Benjamin Rush, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and by Dr. Philip Syng Physick, often called the father of American surgery.
Dr. Riggs practiced first in Connecticut, then he moved to Vernon, New York, in 1813. He stayed there until 1818, at which time he and his family moved to Homer. In 1814, Riggs married Fannie Olmstead of Hartford, Connecticut. They had five children, but we only have the names of two of them: Mary E. Riggs has a gravestone at Glenwood that shows her short life from 1818-1832, and Frederick Lewis, who lived 1824-1889. One of the reasons the family relocated from Vernon to Homer was that Riggs wished to add a pharmacy to his medical practice. Dr Riggs purchased the only pharmacy in Homer from Caleb Ballard.
During this period, Dr. Riggs joined the Cortland County Medical Society and became its secretary from 1820-1823, and then was its president from 1825-1826. At this time, Riggs decided to sell his practice and pharmacy and move to Trumansburg, where he went into the dry goods business with a partner. The store was called Riggs and Godard. Not long after beginning this enterprise, Riggs bought Godard’s share and moved the business to Homer where he hired a clerk to care for the store while he reestablished his medical practice. He eventually sold the store to his employee and focused on his practice once again.
Dr. Riggs was a democrat who followed Andrew Jackson. Riggs found himself appointed to the job of postmaster in Homer by President Jackson, a position he filled for ten years. He was not politically ambitious, but he was firm in his beliefs. He always maintained respect for those who held differing views, and he always exercised his right to vote. It is unknown what precipitated Riggs’ decision to run for a political office at the national level, but he did so in 1840 and was elected to the 27th Congress. While in Washington, he was in the company of future U.S. Presidents Millard Fillmore (House of Representatives), James Buchanan (Senate), and Franklin Pierce (Senate) as well as other notables from American history.
One term in Washington was evidently enough for Dr. Riggs, and he settled back into life in Homer. In 1845, he purchased his former home with the intention of staying there permanently, which he did. As a physician, Lewis Riggs was dedicated to his profession, and nothing could keep him from his patients. He traveled far and wide to see people, and he rarely misdiagnosed a malady. His remedies usually did the trick for treating illnesses. One of his peers described him as having “a stout heart, a sinewy, muscular frame, an iron will, and a determined persevering energy,” which is why it was shocking that in 1847, Riggs experienced an attack of hemiplegia, paralysis of one side of the body. This confined him to bed for weeks and seemed that it might result in his death, but he gradually recovered, though his strength was never quite the same. He continued to respond to calls from patients who insisted on seeing him, but he slowed down considerably.
It seems that life went along much as it always does, and the decade of the 1850s passed by without so much as a mention in sources about the life of Dr. Lewis Riggs. Maybe he and Fannie were finally settled into Homer for good. The children were grown, and presumably they had grandchildren in their lives, keeping them busy and content. Unfortunately, the end often sneaks up on you when you least expect it. In 1862, Dr. Riggs lost his wife, Fannie. They had been together for 48 years, had five children, moved from one place to another, and faced a serious medical condition that nearly killed Lewis. He was surely lost without her company and without any of their children in the house. He was remarried to a widow named Sarah Lilly. We know virtually nothing about Fannie or Sarah.
There is a long and emotional obituary for Dr. Lewis Riggs, which was written by his colleague, Dr. Caleb Green, who wrote, “He moulded his own character, and was the architect of his own fortune. He loved his friends, his profession, and his country.” Dr. Riggs was a man who was not afraid of taking chances in life. Along the way, he created a life dedicated to his fellow man, and he touched the lives of many in his own quest for self-fulfillment. Dr. Lewis Riggs and Fannie are at rest in Glenwood Cemetery. ~By Tabitha Scoville, CCHS Director