Burr Riggs

(1811–60)

Burr Riggs, a botanist and physician, was born in Oxford, Connecticut. He was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and ordained an elder sometime before June 3, 1831. Later that year, he was ordained a high priest in Orange, Ohio. In January 1832, he was called by revelation to serve a mission to the southern United States (Doctrine and Covenants 75:17). He was excommunicated in February 1833, but was reinstated shortly thereafter. In 1834 he marched from Ohio to Missouri as part of the Camp of Israel and that same year he married Lovina S. Williams in Geauga County, Ohio. In 1835 Riggs accompanied Joseph Young on a mission to New York and Massachusetts. Riggs moved to Caldwell County, Missouri, in 1836 and to Quincy, Illinois, in 1839. He was excommunicated in Quincy in March 1839, but he was later reinstated. Lovina died in 1846 and Riggs married Eunice M. Stone in 1851. He was buried in Quincy.

References in the Doctrine and Covenants

Doctrine and Covenants 75

Additional Information

Biographical facts and sources, The Joseph Smith Papers

Revelations In Context

• Religious Enthusiasm among Early Ohio Converts