Lewis Riggs

Lewis Riggs ( born January 16, 1789 in Norfolk, Connecticut, † November 6, 1870 in Homer, New York) was an American physician and politician. Between 1841 and 1843 he represented the State of New York in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Lewis Riggs was born about six years after the end of the Revolutionary War in Litchfield County. He attended a community school, a grammar school and a Greek school. He then served an apprenticeship as a carpenter. He studied medicine in the Village of Torringford. He received his diploma in May 1812. He attended medical lectures in the same year by Dr. Benjamin Rush at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. A month after graduating broke out the British -American War. Riggs practiced in East Winsted. In 1813 he moved to Vernon in Oneida County and later from there to Homer. He continued his work as a doctor after. He also ran a own pharmacy. In 1828 he went to the sale of haberdashery. He was 1820-1823 Secretary of the Cortland County Medical Society and in the years 1825 and 1826 its president. President Andrew Jackson appointed him on 25 April 1829 postmaster in Homer - a post he held until August 7, 1839. Politically, he was a member of the Democratic Party.

In the congressional elections of 1840 for the 27th Congress Riggs was in the 22nd electoral district of New York in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington DC chosen, where he succeeds Stephen B. Leonard and Amasa Dana took on March 4, 1841 which together previously represented the 22th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He retired after the March 3, 1843 out of the Congress.

After his time Congress he resumed his activities as a doctor. He also operated a flour mill. He died about five years after the end of the Civil War in Homer and was then buried in the Glenwood Cemetery.