Wiggin went to California to study kindergarten methods. She began to teach in San Francisco with her sister Nora assisting her, and the two were instrumental in the establishment of over 60 kindergartens for the poor in San Francisco and Oakland. She moved from California to New York, and having no kindergarten work on hand, devoted herself to literature. She sent "The Story of Patsy" and "The Bird's Christmas Carol" to Houghton, Mifflin & Co. who accepted them at once. Besides the talent for story-telling, she was a musician, sang well, and composed settings for her poems. She was also an excellent elocutionist. Her first literary work was "Half a Dozen Housekeepers", a serial story which she sent to "St. Nicholas". After the death of her husband in 1889, she returned to California to resume her kindergarten work, serving as the head of a Kindergarten Normal School. Some of her other works included "Cathedral Courtship", "A Summer in a Canon", "Timothy's Quest", "The Story Hour", "Kindergarten Chimes", "Polly Oliver's Problem", and "Children's Rights".