The New International Encyclopædia/Wiggin, Kate Douglas

WIG'GIN, Kate Douglas (1857—). An American writer, born in Philadelphia, Pa.; the daughter of Robert N. Smith, a lawyer. She was early taken by her parents to Hollis, Maine; was educated at Abbot Academy, Andover, Mass.; removed to California in 1876, studied kindergarten methods at Los Angeles under Emma Marvedel, taught for a year in the Santa Barbara College, and then organized at San Francisco the first free kindergarten on the Pacific Coast, meeting with great success as a teacher. In 1888 she removed to New York City. She was married in 1880 to Samuel Bradley Wiggin, a San Francisco lawyer, who died in 1889, and in 1895 she was married to George C. Riggs. Among her published stories, several of which have been widely popular, are: The Story of Patsy (1889); Timothy's Quest (1890); A Cathedral Courtship (1893); Polly Oliver's Problem (1893); Marm Lisa (1896); Penelope's Progress (1898); Penelope's Experience in Ireland (1901); Diary of a Goose Girl (1902); and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903). She also published: The Birds' Christmas Carol (1888); Nine Love Songs and a Carol (1896); and, with her sister, Nora A. Smith, Froebel's Gifts (1895); Froebel's Occupations (1896); and Kindergarten Principles and Practice (1896).