Published in the Emporia, Kansas Gazette, October 3, 1906

Mrs. Maria Biggs Dead

Mrs. Maria C. Biggs died at the county poor farm early this morning. Mrs. Biggs was born in March 1826 and was the mother of nine children. Mrs. Biggs was married twice, and her first husband was interred in the Cottonwood cemetery. 
A. A. Stephens, superintendent of the schools of Lyon County in the early nineties, is a son of Mrs. Biggs, and his home is in Quinter, Kan., although Mr. Stephens is now visiting with his sister, Mrs. Hiram Davidson, at San Bernardino, Calif. The county authorities telegraphed Mrs. Davidson this afternoon in order to find out what to do with the body. The funeral arrangements will be made as soon as word is received from the children.

It is said that Mrs. Biggs, in her lonely hours of sickness at the poor farm, asked for her children, and grieved over what seemed to her their desertion of their mother. Some Emporia people who claim to know, say that A. A. Stephens has become wealthy since leaving Lyon county, and they condemn his seeming neglect of his mother. The case is a sad one, whatever may be the real circumstances.

Note: The family records show Mariah Cox Stephens Biggs as born July 1835. This is a supported date and the one I will use in my genealogy records. We show ten known children and two other possible children. In the 1900 Federal Census Mariah is shown as the mother of twelve children with six living.

From the Emporia, Kansas Gazette, October 4, 1906

A, A. Stephens, of Quinter, Kan., telegraphed today to Hardcastle & Kenyon that they should bury his mother, Mrs. Maria Biggs, in the Cottonwood cemetery, where the body of his father is interred. Mr. Stephens said he would come to the funeral, if possible. The interment will be made at 2 o'clock tomorrow in the Cottonwood cemetery.

From the Emporia, Kansas Gazette, October 5, 1906

Mrs. Maria Biggs, who died at the poor farm Wednesday, was buried in the Cottonwood cemetery today.