John R. Briggs Jr.

John Reading Briggs Jr., (c.1822 – December 3, 1872) was an American newspaper publisher, politician, and pioneer of Wisconsin and Iowa. He served in the Wisconsin State Senate and Assembly, representing Rock County. He was described as a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln, and was employed as stationery clerk for the United States House of Representatives for the last decade of his life. His wife was Emily Briggs, a pioneering female journalist in Washington, D.C.

Biography John R. Briggs Jr., was born in Montague, Massachusetts, about 1822. At age 14, he apprenticed in the printing trade. After five years of apprenticeship, he was employed by Henry L. Dawes as editor of the North Adams, Massachusetts, Transcript newspaper. He then went to work editing and publishing the Whig in Troy, New York.

In 1854, due to a conflict in the language of the redistricting law versus the language of the Wisconsin Constitution—which specified Senate terms as two years—he claimed he was entitled by his 1852 election to another year as state senator. The issue was debated in the Senate, but they ultimately ruled against his petition. Through his political connections with Lincoln, he was appointed assistant clerk of the United States House of Representatives after Lincoln became president in 1861. He worked for the Office of the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives for the rest of his life.

John Briggs suffered from tuberculosis for fifteen years before finally succumbing to the disease. He died at his home in Washington, D.C., on December 3, 1872.

Personal life and family John R. Briggs Jr., was a nephew of Massachusetts Governor George N. Briggs and a cousin of Union Army general Henry Shaw Briggs. Emily Briggs assisted her husband with his newspaper, and then became famous as a correspondent for The Philadelphia Press, using the pen-name "Olivia".