╓PARA ╬PAR@ ` 6TEXT ` (Wiggin, Kate Douglas Smith1856╨1923educator and writerBorn in Philadelphia on September 28, 1856, Kate Smith grew up there and in Portland and then Hollis, Maine. She attended a district school and for short periods the Gorham (Maine) Female Seminary, the Morison Academy in Baltimore, and the Abbott Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. In 1873 she moved with her family to Santa Barbara, California. The death of her stepfather in 1877 left the family in perilous financial condition. At the suggestion of Caroline M. Severance, who also provided her room and board, Kate Smith entered the Pacific Model Training School for Kindergartners headed by Emma Marwedel. For a time after completing the course she directed a private kindergarten in Santa Barbara. Through Emma Marwedel she was chosen in 1878 to become head of the first free kindergarten in the Far West, organized that summer in San Francisco. In 1880, after further training under Susan Blow and Elizabeth Peabody, she and her sister, Nora A. Smith, established the California Kindergarten Training School. She remained head of the Silver Street Kindergarten until her marriage in December 1881 to Samuel B. Wiggin, a lawyer. She continued to lecture at the training school, and even after her move to New York City in 1884 she returned each spring for the commencement exercises. In 1883 Kate Wiggin published privately The Story of Patsy as a means to raise money for the school. In 1887 she published The Birds╒ Christmas Carol, also privately. Commercial editions of both books issued in 1889 were great successes. After her husband╒s death in 1889 she retired for a time to Hollis, Maine, and there wrote Timothy╒s Quest, 1890, a children╒s book. Thereafter she traveled frequently to Europe, especially after her marriage in March 1895 to George C. Riggs, a New York businessman. Subsequent books included Polly Oliver╒s Problem, for children, 1893, A Cathedral Courtship, 1893, Marm Lisa, 1896, Penelope╒s Progress, 1898, Penelope╒s English Experiences, 1900, Penelope╒s Irish Experiences, 1901, The Diary of a Goose Girl, 1902, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, probably her most popular work (dramatized by Wiggin in 1910 and later made into a motion picture), 1903, The Affair at the Inn, 1904, Rose o╒ the River, 1905, New Chronicles of Rebecca, 1907, The Old Peabody Pew, 1907, Susanna and Sue, 1909, Mother Carey╒s Chickens, 1911, Penelope╒s Postscripts, 1915, Ladies in Waiting, 1918, The Romance of a Christmas Card, 1919, and Homespun Tales, 1920. With her sister she also wrote and edited a number of books, including The Story Hour, 1890, and The Republic of Childhood, on Froebelian kindergarten practice, three volumes, 1895╨1896. She died in Harrow, England, on August 24, 1923; later in that year her autobiography, My Garden of Memory, was published. 6styl ` B ! ¬ 5¬ % 5¬ : !I !I ▐ !I æ !I ▐ ₧ !I ó 5¬ ú !I ╝ !I ▐ ╞ !I ╦ !I ▐ ▄ !I O 5¬ P !I x !I ï !I ╠ !I µ !I £ !I ½ !I h !I ~ !I ö !I ⌐ !I ▒ !I ║ !I ┬ !I ╒ !I ▌ !I √ !I !I !I ' !I @ !I H !I b !I ╬ !I π !I δ !I ⁿ !I !I !I % !I 8 !I @ !I O !I W !I n !I v !I î !I ö !I Ñ !I ¡ !I ╠ !I ╪ !I µ !I ≡ 5¬ ± !I
