Briggs, Gardner W.

BRIGGS

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 6/28/2021 at 23:04:36

History of Warren County, Iowa from Its Earliest Settlement to 1908, by Rev. W. C. Martin, Clarke Publishing Co., Chicago, Illinois, 1908, p.441

GARDNER W. BRIGGS
Gardner W. Briggs, who owns and operates a fine farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Linn Township, was born in New York on the 15th of March, 1831, and is a son of Ezekiel Briggs, a native of Rhode Island. His paternal grandfather, Ephraim Briggs, was born in the same state and was descended from an old English family, which was early established in the new world. He aided the colonies in their struggle for independence as a soldier of the Revo­lutionary war and lived to the age of eighty-five years. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Nancy Burlingame, died at the advanced age of ninety-four.
Ezekiel Briggs made farming his life occupation and being thoroughly opposed to slavery he affiliated with the abolition party. In early manhood he married Miss Abby Young, a native of Rhode Island, born in the town which was also his birthplace. Her father was Christopher Young, a native of the same state and a farmer by occupation. Some of his sons were soldiers of the Revolutionary War. Ezekiel Briggs died in 1862, at the age of seventy-five years, and his wife passed away in 1868, at the age of seventy-one. Their children who are still living are Gardner W., of this review; Sylvester F., and Adeline Rosier.
Gardner W. Briggs is indebted to the country schools for the educational advantages he enjoyed during his youth and he remained at home until twenty-eight years of age, aiding his father in the work of the farm. In 1859 he went to Minnesota and for seven years was engaged in farming near Cascade in Olmstead County, but at the end of that time returned to New York and purchased the old homestead, where he continued to reside for a year and a half. Selling that place in 1868, he came to Warren county, Iowa, and located on his present farm of one hundred and sixty acres in Linn town­ship, which he has since placed under a high state of cultivation and improved with good and substantial buildings, which stand as monuments to his thrift and enterprise. He has been very successful in the management of his farm­ing interests and has secured a comfortable competence.
On June 13, 1854, Mr. Briggs was married in New York to Miss Elizabeth Hungerford, who was born in that state on the 15th of October, 1834, a daugh­ter of John Hungerford. Four children bless this union, all of whom are still living, namely: Elmer E., now a resident of Colfax, Iowa; Hubert S., of Los Angeles, California; Clare E., who married Boyd Buffington and resides in Fort Worth, Texas; and Mrs. Mary E. Aborn of Omega, Oklahoma.
Having prospered in business, Mr. Briggs is now able to live somewhat retired and for the past six years he and his wife have spent their winters in California. She is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and he gives liberally of his means to the support of that and other denominations. He is identified with the Republican Party and as a wide-awake, progressive American citizen, he never withholds his aid from any enterprise which he believes will prove of public benefit.