John C. Briggs

#33 John Clinton Briggs (1864-1939) 1901

John Clinton Briggs, son of Samuel Elam Briggs and Cornelia A. Palmer, was born in October 1864 in Nevada, Story County, Iowa. He attended public school until he was sixteen years of age, when he took up the painters’ trade which he followed during the summer seasons for several years. During the summer of 1883 he was employed as a cook in a mining camp near Ophis, in the San Miguel country in southwestern Colorado, the two following summers being passed at market gardening in Nevada. He put in a large garden and peddled his produce driving around town with his horse and wagon. Winter always found Mr. Briggs clerking in his father’s drug store in Nevada.

In 1887, when his National Guard Company was producing a play called, The Streets of New York, he met Mary Etta “Etta” Williams, daughter of Wesley H. Williams and Permelia Massey. He and Miss Williams were chosen to be actors in the play and a romance blossomed. The couple was married on March 27, 1890 in Nevada, Story County, Iowa. John Briggs bought a small house that was originally owned by his father and the couple settled in Nevada.

John C. Briggs was elected to the Nevada School Board in 1899 while he clerked continuously for his father until the spring of 1901. At that time, his father, S. E. Briggs, sold his drug store and retired from business. John C. Briggs was elected mayor that year and served one term in 1901.

His term was marked by his determination to secure for the town a more efficient police service for Nevada, whose population at that time was about 2,500. At the time the City Marshall, who was receiving a meager $15.00 per month salary for services he had not performed, was discharged. This Marshall was expected to work 12 hours a day for that salary. Mayor Briggs appointed W. S. Smith as a special policeman to resolve the issue however city council refused raise the wage set for the Marshall.

At the conclusion of his term as mayor, John C. Briggs removed from Nevada to join his father in Pasadena, California. With some of the proceeds of the sale of the drugstore and sale of Briggs land, he and a partner bought a nineteen acre orchard and located in the town of Orange.

When his father, Samuel E. Briggs died in 1903, John C. Briggs was able to buy lots in Orange and build a new house. He then sold his interest in the orchard and built a real estate office in Orange. He was very successful in the real estate business and in 1910 removed from Orange, building a new home in an upscale part of Pasadena. He later built a home in Palo Alto, which was constructed by his son, Samuel Briggs’ construction company, Meese & Briggs.

When Etta died in 1930, his brother, George Briggs came to live with him for about a year and in 1932 he sold his Palo Alto home to his son, Revoe Briggs. John Clinton Briggs died on November 18, 1939 in Palo Alto, California. He was survived by his two sons, Revoe Carlisle Briggs and Samuel Elam Briggs, Jr.