Blind Tom Wiggins stops touring and joins vaudeville circuit

After being dogged by incessant legal challenges to her custodianship of Tom, Eliza Stutzbach took Blind Tom Wiggins off the concert circuit around 1893.

Tom spent the next ten years as a ward of Eliza and her husband, who divided their time between New York city and New Jersey's Navesink Highlands. In 1903 Eliza arranged for Tom to appear on the popular vaudeville circuit, beginning with Brooklyn's Orpheum Theater. He spent almost a year performing in vaudeville, before his health began to deteriorate.