California Biographies
Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
 
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 

Source:
History of Mendocino and Lake Counties, California
With Biographical Sketches
History by Aurelius O. Carpenter And Percy H. Millberry
Illustrated, Complete In One Volume
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1914


MOSES C. BRIGGS.� The discovery of gold gave definiteness to the 
half-formulated plans of a young Missourian, who as a nephew of Kit Carson 
possessed many of the qualities that gave success to that noted scout and 
whose previous life, flowing in the monotonous channel of farm routine, had 
given him no opportunity to gratify his love of adventure and his desire to see 
the world. Howard county in Missouri was his native locality and September 
24, 1827, the date of his birth. In such an environment during the first half 
of the nineteenth century there were no educational advantages. Schools 
were few and widely separated. On lonely, undeveloped claims the frontiers- 
men labored to provide the necessities of existence for the family. Game was 
plentiful and the lad became skilled in the use of a rifle. Nor was he less 
useful in the care of stock and the tilling of the soil. At the age of twenty-two 
he left the old Missouri home. Thenceforward he was identified with the 
development of Northern California. On the 15th of October, 1850, he ar- 
rived in Sonoma county. Capable, robust and resolute, he had no difficulty 
in finding employment and until the spring of 1852 he remained in the employ 
of Captain Mallagh as superintendent of the Santa Rosa ranch. 

It was during a tour of inspection, in search of pasturage for large herds 
of cattle, that Moses Briggs and William Potter discovered Potter valley in 
1852. As they halted their horses and looked down upon the beautiful but 
unoccupied spot at their feet, doubtless their feelings to a certain extent 
resembled those of Balboa who some three and one-half centuries before, 
from his vantage ground on the Isthmus of Darien, caught the first glimpse 
of the great Pacific ocean. As much as he was pleased with the valley, however. 
Mr. Briggs did not find it convenient to settle here at once and it was not until 
he had spent five years on the Fitch grant near Healdsburg that in 1857 he 
became a farmer in the region where Mr. Potter had preceded him. In 1859 
he moved to Ukiah, put up a livery barn, began to operate a stable and con- 
tinued in the business until 1861. Returning to the ranch in the valley, he 
resumed agricultural pursuits. However, in 1865 he again established a home 
in Ukiah, built another livery barn and resumed business. In 1867 he went 
back to the ranch, where he specialized in sheep-raising and the sale of wool 
until 1870. Until his death, which occurred in 1892, he continued to reside 
in the valley, where he was honored as a forceful pioneer, prominent Mason, 
generous citizen and capable farmer. In this same valley, honored by all, 
still lives his widow, formerly Miss Elizabeth Potter of Missouri, a sister of 
the discoverer of the valley, and also a pioneer of California, crossing the plains 
with her parents in 1845, a woman possessing the substantial qualities neces- 
sary to frontier existence. She became the wife of Mr. Briggs August 18, 
1852, and in all the hardships incident to life in a then undeveloped region 
she proved his helpful counselor and capable assistant, ministering to his 
comfort with whole-souled devotion, and wisely rearing her children, Nancy 
(Mrs. Boulon), Jennie J. (now Mrs. Matthews), Belle G. (now Mrs. Elston), 
Charles S. and Moses C. The splendid qualities that gave value to the citizen- 
ship of the pioneer members of the Potter and Briggs families appear in the 
present generation and form an endowment even more desirable than the 
broad acres of this charming valley.