Dr. Benjamin Bennett Briggs was a horticulturist and medical doctor who originally came to California from Ohio during the Gold Rush but returned to Ohio where he married and established a medical practice. He later returned to California to continue with horticultural pursuits and was one of the founders of La Crescenta, where he hoped to establish a health resort. Though he died before he could accomplish all his dreams, today's Crescenta-Canada valley was home to many sanitariums and health resorts owing to its excellent quality of air. Briggs is also remembered for having started the first school in the valley, the first church, the first public park, and the first full-time medical practice in the area. The Briggs family papers contain correspondence to and from various family members, photographs of family members spanning multiple generations, Dr. Benjamin Bennett Briggs' 1849 diary, ephemera, collected publications, and realia. Shedding light on the daily lives of one of Southern California's pioneer families, the Briggs family papers is a small but historically important resource.

In 1986, Sally Ward, the wife of Dr. Chester L. Ward, M.D., wrote a short description of Benjamin Bennett Briggs' life and his descendents based upon information compiled earlier by Irene Ward Kennedy, the sister of Benjamin Briggs Ward, Sr. The document that Sally Ward created is the first folder in the collection and helps to identify various family members through the generations as well as summarize the life of Benjamin Bennett Briggs specifically.

4.92 Linear Feet 8 boxes

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