Briggs, Aaron M.

Dr. D.D. Briggs and wife, Mary Ann Elizabeth Dowling, came to what is known as the Briggs Chapel community in the middle 19th century. They built their home and devoted some of the land to a Methodist chapel and cemetery.

Their eldest son, Aaron Madison Briggs, married a neighbor girl, Emma Elida Boyd, and they built a home in the area. John James Briggs was their eldest son.

When John was a young man he went to Oklahoma to visit his Aunt Kitty Briggs Harrington. While there at a party given in his honor, he met the love of his life, Mary Maggie Smith. The two corresponded for over a year. In 1909 John made a second trip to Oklahoma and brought Maggie to Kemper County as his bride.

They lived in the Briggs Chapel Community until 1915 when they loaded their three children in a covered wagon and moved to Oklahoma to be near Maggie's family. One son, Kenneth, was born in Oklahoma. The family moved back to Briggs, Mississippi, in 1917. There they spent the rest of their lives. John worked as a foreman in the woods for Sumter Lumber Company.
John and Maggie were the parents of nine children.

Standing: Bertha Briggs Thomas and Maggie Smith Briggs. Seated: John James Briggs holding Thomas Aaron Briggs. Circa 1911.

 

From "Kemper County, Mississippi - A Pictorial History", placed here with permission by the Kemper County Historical Commission.