C, (Charles) Eugene Riggs

Born in Williams County, April 26, 1853; son of Charles and Annie Northcraft Riggs; married Mabel Elizabeth Pratt. He received a bachelor of arts; and Master of Arts degrees from Ohio Wesleyan University in 1877 and studied medicine in the office of his physician brother for two years followed by one formal year in the Medical College of Nashville, Tennessee. He graduated in 1880 from the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore and completed one year senior internship at Woman's Hospital in Baltimore, after post graduate courses at New York, London, Edinburgh and Paris he came to St. Paul and engaged in general practice in 1881. In 1882, he became professor of mental and nervous diseases in the St. Paul Medical College. Thus began the neurological adventure of the first neurologist in the Northwest. When the Minnesota College Hospital was organized in 1888, Dr. Riggs became its professor of nervous diseases. He was interested in both neurology and psychiatry and in 1909, largely through his efforts; the Minnesota Voluntary Commitment and Detention laws were enacted. After the reorganization of the faculty by President Vincent he resigned from the faculty after 25 years of gratuitous service and became professor emeritus of nervous and mental diseases. He was a founder and first president of the Minnesota Neurological Society in 1909 and a member of the American Neurological Association, American Medico Psychological Association and American Medical association. He is pictured with other members of the American Neurological Association in 1896.