Judge Samuel A. Riggs served the Fourth District of Kansas. He was born in the village of Hanging Rock, Lawrence County, Ohio, on March 1, 1835. He attended Marietta College, Ohio and graduated from Jefferson College, Pennsylvania. He was a graduate of Cincinnati Law School and in 1858 was admitted to the Hamilton County, Ohio bar. In April, 1859, he came to Kansas and located in Lawrence, where he began the practice of law. For 25 years he was a member of the firm, Riggs & Nevison.

Mr. Riggs held various important positions such as County Attorney for the State of Kansas, United States District Attorney, and Judge of the Fourth District of Kansas. He also was a lecturer in the Law Department of the University of Kansas.

On December 31, 1861, he married Kate Doane Earle in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. They had one child, Henry Earle Riggs, a graduate of the University of Kansas in 1886.

Judge Riggs prosecuted Quantrill at Lawrence in 1860 for burglary and larceny, and for arson and kidnapping under the name of 'Charley Hart'.

Judge Riggs was apparently one of several Lawrence leaders targeted in Quantrill's raid. Judge Riggs was going to hide, but as he left the house he met one of the ruffians. Mrs. Riggs ran out to seize the reins of the man's horse and distract him until Mr. Riggs was able to disappear.

This picture of Judge Riggs was given to the Lawrence Room of Spencer Research Library by Miss Madge Bullene, in 1932. They had belonged to her mother, Mrs. Wilder S. Metcalf.