The homeopathic physician had a strong bass voice.  He founded and directed the Arion Society, an Amsterdam singing group.  He was known for singing pieces called “Queen Esther” and “Belzhazzar’s Feast” in performances at the Sanford Hall on West Main Street and the Union Hall on East Main Street.

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The physician who wanted to be a singer

By Bob Cudmore

In about 1889 a well-established Amsterdam physician sold his medical practice to another doctor and went to New York City to become a performer. 

Dr. John V. Riggs came back within two years, opened a drug store on Market Street and eventually manufactured patent medicines.  Music and medicine dominated Riggs’s life. 

The homeopathic physician had a strong bass voice.  He founded and directed the Arion Society, an Amsterdam singing group.  He was known for singing pieces called “Queen Esther” and “Belzhazzar’s Feast” in performances at the Sanford Hall on West Main Street and the Union Hall on East Main Street.

Riggs was a member and one time director of the St. Ann’s Church choir.  Undertaker and Mohawk Valley historian W. Max Reid also belonged to the choir. 

A story about Riggs, written by his great-granddaughter Anne DeGroff, of Amsterdam, was judged the top entry in my Stories from the Mohawk Valley history essay contest this week.

DeGroff wrote the story in the form of a monologue spoken by Riggs at the end of his life.  “I was born in Schenectady in the spring of 1839.  My father was a printer and publisher who, along with my grandfather, published the Schenectady Cabinet (a local newspaper) and that was not my calling whatsoever!

“After attending Princetown Academy and taking a course at Albany Medical College, I graduated from the Buffalo College of Physicians and Surgeons.  But what I really wanted to do was sing and perform! So, after becoming a doctor, I managed to connect with the San Francisco minstrel troupe as an interlocutor and bass soloist and traveled with them.

“While this troupe was performing in the south however, I left the troupe to study yellow fever which was widespread at the time.  I then returned to Amsterdam and began practicing medicine at 29 Market Street.  Annie C Wilds and I were married at St George‘s Church in Schenectady on October 31, 1861.”

Annie Wilds Riggs died in 1909 and John died in 1917.  The Recorder noted that Riggs provided the local paper with daily Amsterdam temperature statistics for 20 years.  Husband and wife are buried at Fairview Cemetery.

The doctor died Thanksgiving eve and Thanksgiving night his son James S. Riggs carried on the family musical tradition.  The younger Riggs conducted the Liberty Bond Vocal Club at a concert that raised $150 to make life easier for Amsterdam soldiers who had been drafted into the U.S. Army.

 IRISH MELODIES

Reenactor musicians Liaisons Plaisantes will present Melodies for the Irish Heart this afternoon at 2:00 p.m. at St. Ann’s Episcopal Church on Division Street in Amsterdam.  The program of eighteenth century Irish music will benefit flood restoration work at Old Fort Johnson National Historic Landmark.  So far $42,000 has been raised toward $130,000 in restoration expenses.

Although he served Britain, colonist Sir William Johnson was Irish and proud of it.  Old Fort Johnson museum director Alessa Wylie said Johnson’s favorite holiday was St. Patrick’s Day.  Wylie wrote that Johnson’s celebration, “Often left him apologizing for a shaky hand and an aching head.”

Colonial Governor George Clinton wrote to Johnson in 1746, “We kept St. Patrick yesterday & this Day and drank yr Health & all friends in Albany with so many other Healths, that I can scarce write.”  Johnson’s brother Warren visited the area in 1760 and 1761 and wrote in his journal, “A great Meeting at my Brother’s House to drink St. Patrick, & most got vastly drunk.”

On a more cultural note, Johnson looked high and low to find an authentic blind Irish harpist to bring music and luck to his homes, Fort Johnson and Johnson Hall.

Mohawk Valley Weather, Thursday, October 5, 2023

61 degrees in The City of Amsterdam at 5:21AM 

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