RIGGS, Elias

[s. 644] : Born at New Providence, N. J., November 19, 1810. Died at Constantinople, Turkey, January 17, 1901. During his early years he showed decided linguistic talent, and while at college he applied himself especially to the mastery of Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, Chaldean and modern Greek, and produced an Arabic grammar and Chaldean manual. While he was completing his last year at And over Theological Seminary he was invited by the American Board to join its mi ion in Greece, and on September 20, 1832, he was ordained. With Mrs. Riggs, on October 30, 1832, he sailed from Boston, and three months afterward joined Rev. Jonas King at Athens. For six years he labored at Argos, largely along educational lines, in Greece; and in 1844, because of governmental restrictions, he was transferred to Smyrna, Turkey, where he continued his work among the Greeks in that city. In 1844 he was a igned to the Armenian branch of the mi ion; and the greater part of his time from 1845 to 1852 was engaged in the work of translating the Scriptures into Armenian. In 1853 he was transferred to Constantinople, and was in charge of the Greek department and instructor in theology in the Bebek Training School. He visited the United States in 1856, and after filling the position of for three years he instructor of Hebrew at Union Theological Seminary, he was offered a profe orship in that institution. Upon his return to Constantinople he began the translation of the Bible into Bulgarian, another language he had mastered, and the complete edition of this work was i ued in 1871. In 1873 the American and British and Foreign Bible societies appointed a committee to revise the Turkish translation of the Bible, so as to make it acceptable both to the ma of the” people and to the educated. The members of the committee were Dr. W. G. SchaufHer, Rev. George F. Herrick, Rev. Robert Weakley, and Dr. Riggs. In 1878 the work, which has become the standard, was i ued in both Arabic and Armenian characters. Besides his more important translations. Dr. Riggs wrote numerous tracts, school-books, and devotional books; and he produced during his long mi ionary life, either as translations or originals, no le than four hundred and seventy-eight hymns in the Bulgarian language alone. To give an idea of the linguistic attainments of Dr. Riggs, it may be stated that he had a working knowledge of twenty languages, and was a master of twelve. There are four nations reading the Word of God as he translated it for them; and as Dr. Herrick says: “The homes, the schools, the churches, where Dr. Riggs’ translations of the Word of Lite are read, and where the hymns he has translated are sung, are numbered by the tens of you sands, anci extend from the Adriatic to the Persian Gulf, from the snows of the Caucasus to the burning sands of Arabia.” RIGGS, Stephen R.: Born Steubenville, Ohio, U. S. A., March 25, 1812; graduated at Jefferson College; studied theology at Alleghany Seminary; ordained April 6, 1837; went at once, with Mrs. Riggs, under appointment of the ABCFM to the mi ion among the Dakotas. Here he labored with great zeal and succe in mi ionary and literary work at various places till tne Sio^ux outbreak of 1862, when, barely escaping with his life, he fled to St. Paul, returning soon as chaplain of the military forces sent to suppre the outbreak. After a long and painful illne he died, August 24, 1883, aged 71, having spent over 45 years in active and succe ful work among the Indians. Dr. Riggs reduced the Dakota language to a written form, organizing and adapting translated into it it expre ion, and nearly the entire Bible. He to religious prepared also a Dakota dictionary of more than 16,000 words, which was published by the Smithsonian Institution. Upward of 50 volumes, and literary, partly translated, partly were prepared by him for the use of the Dakotas in their language. He lived to see ten churches organized and efficient, under native pastors. Of his eight children, five religious original, entered the mi ionary field, four Indians and one in China. 644