MARTIN LUTHER BRIGGS, farmer and lumberman, residing on sec. 33, township of Deerfield, is the third son of Samuel and Clarissa (Smith) Briggs. His father was a native of New York and went to Pennsylvania about the year 1830. He settled there and improved a farm, and in 1832 married his first wife, Mary Dickens, of Tioga Co., Pa. She died in 1849, and two years later he married Mrs. Clarissa D. Hill, of the same county, and who was the mother of our subject. The elder Briggs died Aug. 9, 1867. The mother survived her husband nearly 13 years. She died May 17, 1880.
Mr. Briggs was born May 17, 1853. He acquired a common-school education in his native State, and at 17 set out to begin his single-handed struggle with the world. He spent four years in the business of a lumberman and came to Mecosta Co., where he purchased the farm he now occupies, consisting of 80 acres of wild land, which is fast reaching a good condition of improvements. Mr. Briggs passes about three-fourths of his time in the woods in his lumbering interests. He is amember of the Masonic fraternity and an adherent to the principles of the Republican party. Mr. Briggs was married Sept. 23, 1883, to Miss Ida M., daughter of James and Susan Harden of Deerfield, Mecosta Co. She is a native of Chenango Co., N.Y., and was born May 3, 1863.
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