Rosalia Ellen Cox Driggs History
by Emily Barker Farrer, fall 2005
Rosalia Ellen Cox was born to Frederick Walter (F. Walter) Cox and Emeline Sally Whiting in the basement of their house on Parley Street in Nauvoo, Illinois on February 22, 1846. Her parents had been married just over 10 years; her mother was then 28 (CC 126). Rosalia was the fifth child born to F. Walter and Emeline, but her older sister, Louisa, died at age 7 in 1839, and when Rosalia was six months old (familysearch.org) and living at Mt. Pisgah, her 3 year old sister, Eliza, died due to “a dreadful sickness” that broke out. “There were very few who escaped the sickness, and the people were short of bread” (CC 135). This made Rosalia the third living child, and first living daughter in the Cox family (familysearch.org).
The month before Rosalia was born, her father, F. Walter married two additional wives, Jemima Losee and Cordelia Calista Morley, both age 22 (familysearch.org). Emeline, Rosalia’s mother was not happy about F. Walter taking additional wives (CC 122). Cordelia had “told how she was at first emotionally unprepared” for plural marriage, but did not explain her subsequent change of feelings (CC 121). She later came to Emeline and asked if she should marry F. Walter. Emeline replied that Cordelia must decide that for herself (CC 122). Interestingly, Cordelia was sealed to Joseph Smith, and only married for time to F. Walter (CC 124).
Around a year and a half before Rosalia was born, the prophet Joseph Smith and his Brother Hyrum were martyred in June of 1844 in Nauvoo. We can imagine the Coxes turbulent lives. This, of course, led to the eventual westward migration. When Rosalia was 6 years old in 1852, F. Walter took his family to the Rocky Mountains. He had built wagons and prepared food and supplies the previous year. “His outfit consisted of three wagons” (CC 213). He drove the first heavily loaded wagon, pulled by three yoke of oxen. Pregnant Emeline, Rosalia, and her little brother Edwin, 4 years old, accompanied F. Walter. William, Rosalia’s 11 year old brother drove a lighter wagon, which was pulled by one yoke of oxen and was accompanied by Jemima, her three small children, and her 14 year old sister, Lydia (CC 213). Rosalia’s oldest brother, Frederick, Jr., age 15, drove another heavy wagon drawn by three yoke of oxen, and carried Cordelia and her three young children (CC 214).
On one side of his wagon, F. Walter carried a barrel of drinking water. “Every morning he filled the barrel with water and added a cup of vinegar and some sugar thinking it would make the water more healthful…. On the other side of the wagon was a container for milk.” F. Walter took five cows on the journey, and Rosalia’s brothers, Fred and Will helped milk them. “Each morning they put the milk in the container and with the jolt of the wagon, they had fresh butter to use every night.” In the upper-back part of each wagon, F. Walter had built beds (CC 214).
The Coxes joined Captain Walker’s company at Council Bluffs, Iowa and traveled about 15 miles a day with the 50-wagon caravan. “It was a tedious journey for the young children to be crowded into the tightly packed wagons but they were all too young to walk much” (CC 214). Cholera broke out and 13 people died within the first 200 miles of the journey. F. Walter and little 2 ½ year old Byron, Jemima’s son, were ill with the sickness. Jemima was afraid Byron wouldn’t survive, so she asked Cordelia to sit with her and Byron through the night. They “earnestly prayed that their loved ones would be restored to health,” Father in Heaven heard the family’s prayers, and both F. Walter and Byron survived (CC 214).
Because of the delay caused by the sickness, the company divided into smaller groups. F. Walter took his family with a group of 10 wagons. One of his oxen died, so they substituted with a cow (CC 215).
The company passed herds of buffalo on the journey. Rosalia and Lavona (Lovina?), Cordelia’s daughter, gathered “buffalo chips for fuel” (CC 215).
Just past Fort Laramie in August 1852, Emeline bore Emily Amelia Cox. While she was recovering in the bed in the back of the wagon, she knitted “a pair of socks and mittens for the baby” (CC 215).
One scary thing that happened while on the journey was a cattle stampede, which was triggered by someone shaking a buffalo robe. One woman was actually trampled (CC 214). Additionally, while crossing a large stream, Fred’s wagon, which was far behind the others in the company, nearly tipped. However, one horseman who was driving the loose cattle, but was off looking for a stray, saw the family’s plight, plunged into the stream, and turned the lead cattle back. All were saved (CC 215).
One exciting event occurred near the Bear River, when Will was helping herd the loose cattle ahead of the company, and he saw a big bear cross the trail close in front of him (CC 215-216).
The Coxes arrived in the Salt Lake Valley on September 28, 1852. They rested until October 4th before they went on to Manti (CC 216). There they lived in a log house, then a stone fort with other families until they could build their own stone house (CC 217).
In the fall of 1854, when Rosalia was 8, her father married Jemima’s younger sister, Lydia Margaret Losee, age 17. F. Walter was 42 (familysearch.org).
In 1858, when Rosalia was almost 12, F. Walter took a fifth wife, Mary Ann Darrow Richardson (familysearch.org). Mary was a recent convert to the Church with her husband, Edmond, and two children. Because of their previous Presbyterian faith, which in their circle they felt it “improper to have more than two children,” Mary’s husband, became a eunuch (CC 232-233). After realizing that mistake, they asked Brigham Young for a blessing to “have more children. He considered their case…” and “presented them with a paper containing the names of three worthy polygamist men. He told Edmond and Mary to choose one of the three to father some children for them…. Family story was that Brigham Young used strong persuasion on Walter Cox (CC 234).” Brigham Young then “gave a temporary separation to Edmond and Mary. He then performed a civil marriage uniting Walter Cox and Mary Richardson…. Edmond went away to work but he sent alimony to Mary. She continued to live at the Richardson home. It was agreed that any children born to Mary would carry the Richardson name” (CC 234).
When Rosalia was 17 in 1863, her father, F. Walter was away on a mission in Preston, England. Life was full of adventure while he was away: Emeline had her last and 12th child; son Will, age 22, had to care for the large family, as his older brother, Fred was married with three children by this time; 10-year old Francis (Cordelia’s son) kicked an Indian who was eating “Vet’s” (Sylvester, Emeline’s son) lunch; Francis chopped off two year old Arletta’s two fingers (Cordelia’s daughter) while chopping wood; and Eleanor and Alice (Jemima’s daughters) were burned by scalding water from the fireplace, but miraculously, the burns healed and left no scars (CC 327-328).
In Manti in 1864, the Cox family lived in a big stone home. It took twenty-one loads of wood from the canyon to light five fires to heat the home in winter. With all that wood, sometimes the girls had to help chop it (CC 329).
The family had a candle mold and made candles with tallow from the sheep (CC 329).
There was a long attic room in the “Big House” where there were three looms, seven or eight spinning wheels facing the windows, and a cording machine. While the girls were young, they did not use the looms, but learned as they got older. The girls picked out all bits of dirt and straw from the wool, and sorted it into four grades. The finest wool was for fine flannel for dresses, the next for sheets and underwear, then for jeans and heavy cloth, and then quilt batting. It took about 1200 yards of yarn to make one yard of cloth (CC 328-329).
Rosalia was a very bright girl (CC 329), and even by the time she was 12 (CC 462) in 1858, she had “borrowed and read every book in town” (CC 329). When Rosalia was 19 in 1865, the long attic room served as her classroom where she taught her younger siblings and some neighbor children. “Later on she held an evening school for many of the adults of the town” (CC 329).
In 1867 when Rosalia was 21, she had a boyfriend, Joseph “Joe” Snow. He was 22. That same summer, Major Benjamin W. Driggs came to Manti (CC 363). He was there “protecting settlers from Indian depradations during the Black Hawk War” (DM 13, 15). “He requested the privilege of taking [Rosalia] to the dance at Ephriam” (CC 363). According to tradition in Manti, a man needed permission to date a girl. Rosalia’s father was gone, so Benjamin asked her older brother, Will. They had met as boys while herding cows in Nauvoo. Rosalia and Benjamin went to the dance; Rosalia rode her own horse with a side-saddle (CC 363-364). “Romance ensued… and so it happened on October 5, 1867 … that Major B.W. Driggs and Rosalia Cox were married. She was 21; he was 30” (DM 15). They were married in the Endowment House in Salt Lake City (familysearch.org).
Benjamin and Rosalia “made their home in Pleasant Grove, Utah where Benjamin already had a wife and five children. Rosalia became the sister wife of the oldest daughter, [Olivia], of Parley P. Pratt” (CC 364). Family rumor states that Olivia was unaware of Benjamin’s marriage to Rosalia until he brought her home. Olivia was quite bitter about the situation (DMB, MBZ). “Rosalia had no children for three years after her marriage,” she taught school, and was also the first telegraph operator in Pleasant Grove. “The telegraph station was set up in Rosalia's bedroom in the adobe house. In that same room on November 20th 1870, Frank Milton Driggs was born. Rosalia was 24 (CC 378).
After Rosalia married, but before Frank was born, her father, F. Walter took his sixth and final wife, Emma Sophia Smith Petersen, in October 1869. She was 19; he was 57. Emma’s mother joined the Church in Denmark, but her father was bitter. Emma and her family left their father and came to Utah with the Willie Handcart Company and were assigned by Brigham Young to live in Manti (CC 347).
Around April General Conference of 1871, while Benjamin “was in the process of establishing a [frame] home for [Rosalia], he was called on a mission to England. The house was readied and the telegraph instrument moved to it before [Benjamin] departed.” He completed his mission in August of 1872 (CC 378-379).
In 1873, “the doctrine of polygamy was becoming an issue of concern in the United States.” In February, Rosalia “wrote an open letter to the Relief Society magazine, then known as the Exponent” (CC 378). She reported the healthy financial status of the local Relief Society, the unanimity of the sisters in wanting to build the Kingdom of God, the well-attended meetings, the assistance given for public improvement as well as to individuals, and the support given by the sisters to the LDS faith (inferring polygamy) no matter what the United States Government did (CC 379).
“On 8 August 1873, Rosalia's son, Howard Roscoe Driggs was born in his mother's frame home” (CC 379); she was 27.
In 1875, Benjamin and Rosalia “moved with their two small sons to West Jordan…. The place was beginning to thrive as a pioneer smelter town. [Benjamin] established a General Store and Rosalia took in boarders to help finances. Olivia … remained in Pleasant Grove with her larger family to await developments” (CC 379).
At that time, “Rosalia met and became a close friend to Ellen R. Short.” Ellen was a Presbyterian, but that “made little difference to their friendship.” Both women were carrying daughters, and Rosalia’s Ida Lenora was born on July 27, 1875, six days after Ellen’s baby; Rosalia was 29. “…When the babies were a month old,” the mothers took them to visit Rosalia’s Whiting relatives in Springville (379-380).
On June 5, 1879, Rosalia’s father, F. Walter died. He had six wives; 38 children (familysearch.org, CC 512), of whom 27 were living at the time of his death; and 56 grandchildren, of whom 53 were living at the time of his death (CC 389). F. Walter’s fourth wife Lydia went to help Joe Snow (Rosalia’s old boyfriend) with his children, as his wife had died fairly young. In 1888, Joe and Lydia married. They did not have any children together, but lived together for 33 years (CC 430 & 512).
In West Jordan, Maud Rosalia was born on October 25, 1877 (familysearch.org); Rosalia was 31. On November 7, 1880, Clarice Lillia was born, but died when she was ten months old (CC 414); Rosalia was 34.
Somewhere between 1880 and 1882 Benjamin and Rosalia moved back to Pleasant Grove. The Edmunds-Tucker Bill had been passed in 1882, and Benjamin “was being hunted by the officers for polygamy, and made a living as a traveling salesman.” Rosalia spent part of her time with him, and part of her time at home. While Rosalia was away, her cousin’s 16 year old daughter, Corinne “Core” or “Cora” Sidwell came to Pleasant Grove to take “charge of things at their home” (CC 413).
Around this time, “Ben Hawley, one of the town’s most well-to-do men had built a twelve room home on Center, near the north end of Main Street. Hawley was moving away and sold the big home and the two acres it stood on to Rosalia C. Driggs” (CC 414).
“On 13 Aug. 1882, Claire Lucille Driggs was born at the big home in Pleasant Grove” (CC 414); Rosalia was 36. In November, Benjamin, Rosalia, and Claire were making a visit to the Salt Lake Valley. “… Along the narrow high dugway around the Point of the Mountain, the horse suddenly became unmanageable and bolted off the road and down the steep mountain side toward the D.&R.G. railroad track and the Jordan River. The three occupants of the buggy were thrown over the dashboard. When Rosalia regained consciousness, she found herself part way down the hill with her baby girl a rod or so above and her husband down further. The horse and buggy still intact except for a broken dashboard, was caught down at the bottom. The parents were bruised and cut up but the baby, wrapped in blankets, seemed unhurt. Rescuers used ropes to get the buggy over the embankment into the railroad cut and across the bridge. The horse was hitched back to the buggy. ‘Thus ended what looked like a miraculous escape from death’” as was reported in the Editors Herald headlined “Fearful Ride – Narrow Escape, etc.” (CC 414).
In the big home where Rosalia lived in Pleasant Grove, she installed a telegraph instrument. Sons Frank, 12, and Howard, 9, both sent and received telegraph messages (CC 414).
Rosalia established a millinery (hat) store on the street to the right of the home. The “business was a case of constant sewing. Rosalia’s eyes were taxed by the constant sewing. Daughters, Lenora and Maud, were each required to thread two to three hundred needles before they went to school each morning so that their mother could continue her work. There were dozens of empty spools about from the thread used up…” (CC 414-415). One relative came for a visit in 1888 and mentioned, “… Aunt Rosalia has a nice shop seems to be doing a good deal of business…” (CC 424).
“It was 100 miles from Manti to Pleasant Grove. Emeline Whiting Cox made occasional trips by wagon to visit her daughter, Rosalia and family. In the evenings, Emeline sat with the darning and mending telling her grandchildren stories of the long ago. (Autobiograpy of Maude Driggs Christensen). It was then that she told them that they had Indian blood in their veins, and that their fourth great grandmother’s name meant “Running Deer” (Driggs, Howard R. Pitch Pine Tales)” (CC 415).
Around 1887 – 1888 a diphtheria epidemic broke out in Pleasant Grove. The disease took people with a vengeance. Rosalia sent her sons to Salt Lake Valley to stay with their aunt Sarah Driggs. Rosalia took her daughters to Manti. While there on February 23, 1888, little Burton Wells was born (CC 461); Rosalia was 42.
In August of 1890, “polygamy continued to be a hot issue” (CC 461). Benjamin was one of the many “being pursued by the federal officers” while “trying to provide for [his] large [family] while in hiding” (CC 461).
Benjamin, pregnant Rosalia, and 2 ½ year old Burton had been visiting some friends. Benjamin’s whitetop carriage was well known. As they were traveling north toward home in the late afternoon along a serene, sunflower skirted road, unexpectedly, “Deputies Redfield and McCellan rode up from behind.”
“Mr Driggs you are under arrest. Turn around and come back to Provo with us,” they said.
“We must take the boy home,” said Benjamin. “As they drove along, Benjamin and Rosalia discussed plans [on] how to manage affairs should he be sent to prision” (CC 461).
“I’m going to leave you,” he told Rosalia.
“Not with this high spirited team,” she replied. However, “he laid the reins on her lap and went over the revolving wheel into the sunflowers” (CC 461).
“A short distance up the road one of the deputies glanced back over his shoulder” (CC 461). As Benjamin was not with Rosalia, the deputies wheeled their horses around and demanded to know where Mr. Driggs was. “They had traveled far enough that [Rosalia] could honestly say that she did not know.” Deputy “Redfield was an apostate from the … Church. He demanded that she go back to Provo with them. Being a woman of courage and dignity, she flatly refused” (CC 462).
“The officers escorted her home. They took turns keeping watch at the house and searching the fields, but the next morning came and B.W. Driggs was not found. He had made his way through the fields to a ranch house. The majority of the Latter-day Saints were not participating in polygamy but the vast majority were in sympathy with those who were. Driggs was given supper and told to rest in the straw stack. The officer came inquiring but got no information. About midnight a freight train stopped at the crossing near by. Driggs took the train and went to Idaho” (CC 462).
“On 12 September 1890, he was arrested at Montpelier, Idaho for alleged adultery. He was brought to Provo, and sentenced to six months imprisonment in Utah State Penitentiary. The day after Driggs’ confinement, the warden called him for an interview. The warden said, ‘Driggs you are a much respected man in Pleasant Grove and many other places, will you try to escape?’ B.W. assured the warden that he would not try. From that day on Driggs was a trustee and allowed much freedom. He was released after one hundred one days” (CC 462).
On November 16, 1890, Ralph Emerson, Rosalia’s ninth and last child was born in Pleasant Grove; she was 44 (familysearch.org).
In March 1896, Rosalia’s mother, Emeline died at age 78. She had mothered twelve children (familysearch.org).
On October 1, 1913, Benjamin died at age 76. Sometime after that, Rosalia “sold the big home in Pleasant Grove and moved to Ogden where her son Frank was superintendent of the State School for the Deaf and Blind.” She bought a home on 24th Street, and her daughters Lenora and Lucille established a millinery business there. However, the daughters felt the business might to better in Idaho Falls, so they moved there, made money, and found husbands. Rosalia’s other children were in California and New York, so she sold her Ogden home (CC 512).
In 1921, Lydia died (Rosalia’s father’s fourth wife who had married Rosalia’s old boyfriend after Rosalia’s father died) leaving Joe Snow alone in Manti.
“It was toward the close of 1923 and Rosalia was at her daughter Geneva’s home in Long Beach, [California]. Rosalia was sick and Geneva was nursing her. In adjusting the bed, Geneva found a bundle of letters tied with a blue ribbon under the pillow. The daughter was curious and began to ask questions. Finally Rosalia confessed that she had visited in Manti some weeks before, and that she and Joe Snow had planned to get married. Geneva confided the news to her husband. She said that she was going to steal and read those letters. [Her husband,] Owen Halverson told Geneva to leave the letters alone that they were private property.”
“Rosalia soon went to stay with her daughter Lenora in Idaho Falls. There on 30 March 1924 Rosalia Cox Driggs died [at age 78]. Geneva did not know what became of the letters tied in blue” (CC 513-514).
Nevertheless, it was said that Rosalia loved Benjamin so much that she would have done anything for him… except it were for the other wives** (MBZ).
Sources:
Before and After Mt. Pisgah, Clare B. Christensen, Salt Lake City, 1979.
Driggs Family in America, L. Lynne Driggs, Phoenix, 1971.
Don and May: Their Story, Junius E. Driggs, Phoenix, 1974.
Family Search.org, www.familysearch.org
DMB – Interview with David McKay Barker, October 2005
MBZ – Interview with Miriam Barker Zabriskie, October 2005
*Additional family rumor states that Rosalia’s son Frank never married because of the tension in his mother’s polygamous marriage (MBZ or DMB).
**Miriam Zabriskie stated that Benjamin possibly had a third wife; however, there is no record of her and no children were born into the union.
Additional information:
http://www.driggsfoundation.org/biography.htm, “She was a teacher in the early 1870s, member of the Home Dramatic Association and pioneer telegraph operator of Pleasant Grove. Howard dedicated one of his earliest books, Wild Roses: A Tale of the Rockies, to Rosalia: "To My Mother - who loved the wild roses."