Bios:  Wiggins, Coulter, Indiana Co.

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A contemporary biographical article of Judge Coulter Wiggins (1913) 

Coulter Wiggins, of Blairsville, Indiana county, a lawyer 
of almost fifty years' standing and during a great part 
of that time engaged in practice at Blairsville, is a 
native of Indiana county, born Jan. 24, 1840, in White 
Township.  His grandfather, Thomas Wiggins, was a large 
land owner and farmer of White Township, where he was 
among the early settlers.  He owned a tract of over four 
hundred acres upon which he made some improvements, and 
died there while in the prime of life, leaving a wife 
and five young children.  His widow Elizabeth (Lytle), 
who was a native of Princeton, NJ, died in what is now 
Cherryhill township.  The five children, all now deceased, 
were:  Samuel, Robert, Andrew, John (who died young) and 
Margaret.      

Robert Wiggins, son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Lytle) Wiggins, 
was born on the farm in White township, Indiana county, and 
was but eight years old when his father died.  His opportunities 
for an education were therefore limited.  He lived on the homestead 
farm until he reached manhood, and became a possessor of part of 
that property, a tract of 160 acres on which he made extensive 
improvements and where he continued to engage in general farming 
the remainder of his life.  He died on his farm in June, 1890, at 
the age of eighty, and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery, at Indiana.  
His church connection was with the United Presbyterians.  In politics 
he was originally a Whig, later a Republican.  Robert Wiggins married 
Elizabeth Coulter, who was born in Rayne township, Indiana county, 
daughter of James Coulter, and died on the farm June 25, 1855, at the 
age of thirty-seven years.  She is buried in Greenwood cemetery.  She 
was the mother of the following children:  Malinda C., who died in 
young womanhood; Coulter; Jane Elizabeth who married Dr. W. B. Kroesen, 
and resided at Etna, Allegheny county, Pa, where she died; Ellen, who 
married Henry Keller, of Indiana;  Margaretta, who married Henry Bryan, 
of White township; and Jemima, who married Frank Detwiller and (second) 
Martin F. Jamison, and resides in Indiana.  For his second wife Robert 
Wiggins married Mrs. Lydia Flude, who died when about eighty years old, 
on the farm, leaving one son, James W.; he resides on the homestead in 
White Township.      

Coulter Wiggins, only son of Robert and Elizabeth (Coulter) Wiggins, 
began his education in the local schools of White township and later 
attended the Indiana Academy.  After leaving school he took up the 
study of law in the office of A. W. Taylor, of Indiana, and was admitted 
to practice at the Indiana county bar in 1864.  He remained in the office 
of Mr. Taylor for another year after being admitted to practice.  In 1865 
he received appointment as clerk in the War Department at Washington, 
D.C., where he spent two years, but on account of his health he resigned 
and went to Minnesota, where he practiced his profession five years, 
principally at Redwood Falls.  Meantime he became quite active in public 
life there, and served one term as district attorney and one term as 
Probate judge.  Returning to his native county, Judge Wiggins carried on 
the practice oflaw at Indiana, in the office of J. N. Banks, continuing 
there until 1890, atwhich time he located in Blairsville.  Here he has 
found his field of work, and has performed other important public service 
as attorney for the borough.  His office is on Market Street.  Judge Wiggins 
is noted for his modesty, but his efficiency and probity have brought him 
to the front, and he is popular as well as respected.  In politics he is a 
staunch Republican.  While in the borough in Indiana he was a member of the 
school board and served as secretary of that body for nine years.  He is an 
active member of the Presbyterian Church, and while in Redwood Falls, Minn., 
held the office of elder, to which he has also been chosen since returning to 
his home county, serving in both Indiana and Blairsville; he has also been a 
Sunday school teacher and superintendent of the Sunday school.  Mr. Wiggins 
was married Aug. 17, 1869, in Redwood Falls, Minn. to Adelaide Craigen, who 
was born in Hampshire county, W. Va., daughter of Jacob I. Craigen, and died 
at Blairsville, Oct. 8, 1908; she is buried in Greenwood cemetery, Indiana.  
Mrs. Wiggins was a member of the Presbyterian Church.  She was the mother of 
children as follows:  Hubert Paxton, who resides at Homestead, Pa, one that 
died in infancy; Robert Harrison, residing in Blairsville (he married 
Blanche Keyes); and Elsa Beatrice, who married Frederick Pfaff and resides 
at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.Stewart, Prof. J. T. Indiana County Pennsylvania:  

Her People Past and Present.  Chicago:  J.H. Beers and Co, 1913.