BRIGGS, Mrs. Mary Blatchley, born in Valparaiso, Ind., 1st January, 1846. She is of Scotch, English and Dutch descent. The father was a practicing physician and surgeon of prominence in the allopathic school. Mrs. Briggs' early school-days were spent in the public schools of Iowa. Later her education was continued in the young ladies' seminary in Council Bluffs, Iowa, receiving prizes for excellent scholarship. In the month of August, 1861, her family removed to Ouincy, III., where she resumed her studies and there enjoyed the advantages of the best schools until she was nineteen years old. In religious belief Mrs. Briggs is strictly a Presbyterian, was born "in the faith," and has always lived the radical life of a consistent Christian. Rev. F. S. Blayney, LL.D., the first pastor of the Second Presbyterian Church of Omaha, writes of Mrs. Briggs's practical and valuable aid during the long and severe trials from 1880 to 1886 in the struggle to found and build his church, she being one of the foremost workers for the society's welfare. She has always taken a vivid interest in public characters and the local and foreign politics discussed in the newspapers. She was married to John S. Briggs, 24th December, 1867, since which time they have resided in Omaha, Neb. Mr. Briggs was born in Ohio, but was reared in Iowa,
MARY BLATCHLEY BRIGGS.
removing to Nebraska in 1856. He is the son of the late Ansel Briggs, first governor of the State of Iowa. To Mr. anil Mr*. Brings three promising children have been born. Mrs. Briggs as filled many important public positions. During eleven years she served as assistant secretary, superintendent, reporter for the press, and manager of county. State and inter-state fairs. While on a visit to Idaho, she and her husband prepared a collection of minerals, stalactitic and calcareous deposits, which, at the suggestion of the officials of the Union Pacific Railroad, was sent to the Mechanics' Institute in Boston, Mass. Mrs. Briggs is interested in art and is secretary of the Western Art Association, which has three-hundred members. In literature she has won an assured position by her poems, one volume of which has been compiled and published. Mrs. Briggs was selected by Mrs. Potter Palmer as one of the six representative women of the West to serve on the executive committee of the Board of Lady Managers of the World's Columbian Commission for the Exposition in 1893. She was appointed a member of the bylaws judiciary committee and was elected an honorary and corresponding member of the woman's branch of the World's Congress Auxiliary, and served on several committees. She possesses an intimate knowledge of Nebraska, its history, its resources, its development and its people