The Last Days of G. Oliver Riggs

Sixty-five years ago, my great-grandfather lived in a rented room at the New Hotel Markham in Bemidji.  Two days a week, he boarded a bus and traveled 25 miles north to the Red Lake Indian Reservation.

G. Oliver Riggs had tried retirement, but at age 75, after a year of rest at his cottage on Grace Lake near Bemidji, he went back to work.  It might have been for the money, or the personal satisfaction, or both.  There was no pension fund for pioneering Minnesota music men, but he also wasn’t one to relax for too long.

My grandfather Ronald had encouraged G. Oliver to take the job organizing and directing the first band at Red Lake High School.  G. Oliver’s immediate concern was finding enough instruments for all the Ojibwe and white students who wanted to play – as of late January, there were only 26 instruments for 50 band members. Finding the money for instruments had always presented a challenge for him, since his early days as a director, and it remains a stumbling block today for aspiring student musicians (see my post from September).

G. Oliver seemed confident, however, that he could convince the school board at its Feb. 6 meeting to come up with the money for more instruments.

A letter written by G. Oliver Riggs to his son Ronald in January 1946.

He wrote several letters to my grandfather in the waning days of January, providing updates on how the band was coming along, and discussing the business of trying to sell the Grace Lake property, which had been his retreat for years.

A letter G. Oliver wrote to son Ronald on school stationery, dated Jan. 23, 1946.

The sequence of the letters is confusing, partly because one is incorrectly dated Jan. 28; by that date, he was no longer living.  In that letter, he tells Ronald, “It has never been hard for me to organize a band.  I am not smart enough to play the game any way but straight.  Children seem to know people better than some older people do.”

In an undated letter that appears to be his last to my grandfather, he mentions that he’d felt the best he’d felt in a long time the previous Friday, after returning from the school.  He had felt less well the day before writing the letter, he said, but he believed the band work was doing him some good (he suffered from heart trouble).

G. Oliver returned to the school on Thursday, Jan. 24, 1946, and stayed overnight.  Sometime during the night he became ill.  He was rushed to the hospital in Bemidji, but died on the way there of a heart attack at about 10 a.m. on Jan. 25, 1946.  He was 75 years, 1 month, and 29 days old.

G. Oliver Riggs, 1870-1946

G. Oliver was survived by his two sons, Ronald and Percy, and their families.  G. Oliver’s wife Islea had died in 1942, and his younger sister, Daisy Riggs Reed, had died in 1943.

He was not a religious man, and his funeral was held the Monday after his death at McKee Funeral Home in Bemidji.  Professor Carl Thompson of the Bemidji State Teachers College provided the vocal music.  According to estate papers, the funeral expenses totaled $450.  G. Oliver was buried in the family plot in Crookston.

After G. Oliver died, the Red Lake Superintendent of Schools, Gordon Ose, wrote a letter to my grandfather, saying that the death was a shock, and that G. Oliver would be sadly missed.

“It was so destined that I happened to spend the last four hours of your father’s life with him, and I want you to know that he was his old lovable self right up to the time he was stricken.  He was truly a band master to the very last, and you and Percy have every reason to be proud of him,” Ose wrote.

In a follow-up letter, Ose reported that everyone was enthusastic about my grandfather’s plan for the memorial fund the faculty established in G. Oliver’s name.  I don’t have any documentation from my grandfather about what that plan was – perhaps it was for a scholarship, or was used to buy instruments?

Ronald also received a letter from George Landers, the famous Iowa bandmaster and lifelong friend of G. Oliver’s, who wrote, “Your father was an outstanding man.  He had done much to assist youngsters in making this old world a better place to live in with music.”

In March 1946, the Schmitt Music News paid tribute to G. Oliver, who had served as president of the Minnesota Bandmasters Association in 1929 and had judged many band contests throughout his career:

“The entire school band field is indebted to Mr. Riggs, for he was a pioneer in boys bands and his organizations were models after which many school bands were patterned … His bands were noted for size, unusual discipline, and perfection of performance.  His part in building the foundations of school instrumental music will always be a fitting memorial to a gentleman, musician, and educator.”

I’m proud of my great-grandfather and his legacy.  But it’s more than pride that compels me to tell the story of his life.  I think it’s important to understand the history of music education in Minnesota during this difficult economic time when schools are stretched for funds.  G. Oliver kept his bands going through wars and the Great Depression, and the communities where he worked were better for it.  As the parent of three young musicians, I feel it’s more important than ever to let those in charge of budgets know that the arts are a vital part of the public school experience.

As G. Oliver’s friend Landers believed (so strongly that he put the phrase on his letterhead), “Music is the heritage of every child.”

It’s up to all of us to honor the work done by G. Oliver Riggs, George Landers, and other music education pioneers, and make this world a better place to live in by ensuring that music education is valued for all children, regardless of race, sex, religion or income.