Shadrach Ford Driggs Obituary

Deseret News, 5 Nov 1898 (Salt Lake City, Utah).

From Thursday's Daily, October 27 "Local and Other Matters"

Shadrach Ford Driggs died last night at his home in Pleasant Grove, over 85 years of age. He was born in Range No. 10, Ashtabula County, Ohio, August 23, 1831, then a wilderness. His father was Urial Driggs, born in the state of New York, April 29, 1780. The family heard the Gospel message in the wilderness of Ohio, and gathered with the Saints finally at Nauvoo, where the deceased, Shadrach, labored as a wagonmaker, and built many of the wagons for the Saints to emigrate West with, and finally, after using up all the seasoned timber that could be obtained, he cut up the great cart that was used in moving rock in the Temple yard, and made two wagons out of it for himself and family to emigrate with, and he has made and mended wagons ever since to within a few days of his death.

He left Nauvoo in 1846, came to Bluffs, and finally landed in Salt Lake City on October 2, 1852, and the same month moved to Pleasant Grove, where he has since resided. His wife, Eliza, preceded him to the great beyond, February 1, 1896. They had eleven children, but their grandchildren can hardly be numbered. He also leaves a wife, Celia, surviving him.

He came from a long line of ancestry that is traced for over a thousand years. In the year of 735, and during the reign of King Thiery IV of France, the ancestors of the deceased emigrated from Normandy and located in London, England. Thomas Driggs and his wife Hannah Sterling were the first known ancestors of this name. Among their children was one Stephen, who was born June 22, 821, during the Saxon heptarchy. From this time until April 16, 1512, the family continued to reside in London, and engaged in different professions and occupations. At this time George Driggs, by profession a watchmaker, removed to Sheffield. This branch of the family remained in Sheffield until February 4, 1703, when Joseph, with two children, embarked on board the ship Liverpool, for Boston, where he arrived April 7, 1703, and after a time settled at Hartford in the colony of Connecticut, and was the pioneer of the family to America. Since that time the posterity has become like the sands of the sea shore, and scattered all over the United States. Several were in the War of the Revolution, the war of 1812, and the War of the Rebellion.

The funeral will be held tomorrow (Friday), October 28th, at 2 p.m. at Pleasant Grove.

B.W. Driggs Jr. [probably Benjamin Woodbury Driggs, Jr.]

Source: http://www.jenforum.com/cgi-bin/print.cgi?driggs::150.html

http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/library/pioneercompanysources/0,16272,4019-1-98,00.html

Headstone of Shadrach Ford Driggs and Eliza White

in the Pleasant Grove Cemetery

Pleasant Grove, Utah

Tombstones Read:

Father

S.F. Driggs

Born Aug. 28, 1813

Died Oct. 26, 1898

Mother

E.W. Driggs

Born July 14, 1812

Died Feb. 10, 1896

Submitted by Ruth H. Barker

Uploaded by Emily Barker Farrer, 2010