Editing Kate Douglas Wiggin (section)

==Early career==
In 1873, hoping to ease Albion Bradbury's lung disease, Wiggin's family moved to [[Santa Barbara, California]], where her stepfather died three years later. A kindergarten training class was opening in Los Angeles under [[Emma Jacobina Christiana Marwedel|Emma Marwedel]] (1818–1893),<ref name=nie/><ref>{{Cite book|title=Emma Marwedel, 1818–1893 : pioneer of the kindergarten in California|publisher=worldcat.org|oclc = 4457643}}</ref> and Wiggin enrolled. After graduation, in 1878, she headed the first free kindergarten in California, on Silver Street in the slums of San Francisco. The children were "street Arabs of the wildest type", but she had a loving personality and dramatic flair. By 1880 she was forming a teacher-training school in conjunction with the Silver Street kindergarten.

In 1881, she married (Samuel) Bradley Wiggin, a San Francisco lawyer.<ref name=nie/> According to the customs of the time, she was required to resign her teaching job.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://library.bowdoin.edu/arch/mss/kdwg.shtml|title=Kate Douglas Wiggin Collection M187|website=library.bowdoin.edu|access-date=2018-12-20|archive-date=2002-07-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020713134712/https://library.bowdoin.edu/arch/mss/kdwg.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref> Still devoted to her school, she began to raise money for it through writing, first ''The Story of Patsy'' (1883), then ''[[The Birds' Christmas Carol]]'' (1887). Both privately printed books were issued commercially by [[Houghton Mifflin]] in 1889, with enormous success.

Wiggin had no children. She moved to New York City in 1888.<ref name=nie/> When her husband died suddenly in 1889, she relocated to [[Maine]]. For the rest of her life she grieved; but she also traveled as frequently as she could, dividing her time between writing, visits to Europe, and giving public reading for the benefit of various children's charities. She traveled abroad and back from [[Liverpool]] in the [[United Kingdom]] at least three times. Records from the [[Ellis Island]] logs show that she arrived back in New York City from [[Liverpool]] in October 1892, July 1893, and July 1894.<ref>[https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/passenger-result Ellis Island Records], Type in "Kate D. Wiggin"</ref> On the logs for the 1892 trip, Wiggin describes her occupation as "wife",<ref>[https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/passenger-details/czoxMjoiMTAzNDU4MDEwNjI4Ijs=/czo4OiJtYW5pZmVzdCI7 1892 Ellis Island logs]{{Dead link|date=March 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, passenger logs for this ship</ref> despite her former husband having died three years prior. In 1893 and 1894, she describes herself as an "authoress".<ref>[https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/passenger-details/czoxMjoiMTAyODM0MTQxMzExIjs=/czo4OiJtYW5pZmVzdCI7 1893 Ellis island logs]{{Dead link|date=March 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, 1893 passenger logs</ref>

On her way to England in 1894, Wiggin met George Christopher Riggs, an importer of dry goods, specifically linen. The pair are said to have hit it off and to have agreed to marry even before the ship docked in England.<ref>[https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/wiggin-kate-douglas-1856-1923 "Wiggin, Kate Douglas (1856-1923)"], Encyclopedia.com article</ref> In the [[Ellis Island]] logs from Wiggin's 1894 trip back to New York from [[Liverpool]], the two signed their names next to each other, indicating their closeness.<ref>[https://www.libertyellisfoundation.org/passenger-details/czoxMjoiMTAyODUwMTIwMjE4Ijs=/czo4OiJtYW5pZmVzdCI7, 1894 Ellis Island logs]{{Dead link|date=March 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}, 1894 ship passenger logs</ref> They married in New York City on March 30, 1895, at All Souls Church. 

Riggs soon became one of Wiggin's biggest advocates as she became more successful. She continued to write under the name of Wiggin after the marriage. Her literary output included popular books for adults. With her sister, she published scholarly work on the educational principles of [[Friedrich Fröbel]]: ''Froebel's Gifts'' (1895), ''Froebel's Occupations'' (1896), and ''Kindergarten Principles and Practice'' (1896).<ref name="nie" />  In 1903 she wrote the classic children's novel ''[[Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm]]'', which became an immediate best-seller, as did ''Rose o' the River'' in 1905''.'' ''Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm'' and ''[[Mother Carey's Chickens (novel)|Mother Carey's Chickens]]'' (1911) were adapted to the stage. Houghton Mifflin collected Wiggin's writings in 10 volumes in 1917.
[[File:Picture of Kate Douglas Wiggin.jpg|thumb|Photo of Wiggin (c. 1903)]]
For a time, Wiggin lived at [[Kate Douglas Wiggin House|Quillcote]], her summer home in Hollis, Maine (now listed on the [[National Register of Historic Places]]). Quillcote is around the corner from the town library, the Salmon Falls Library, which she founded in 1911.<ref>''My Garden of Memory'', pp.365–366</ref> She also founded a [[Dorcas Society]] in Hollis and the adjacent town of [[Buxton, Maine]] in 1897. The [[First Congregational Church of Buxton|Tory Hill Meeting House]] in Buxton inspired her book (and later play) ''The Old Peabody Pew'' (1907).