BIOGRAPHY
Family
Howard R. Driggs was born August 8, 1873 in Pleasant Grove, Utah, the second of nine children born to Benjamin Woodbury Driggs, Sr. (1837-1913) and Rosalia Ellen Cox (1846-1924). He was a member of the seventh generation of the Driggs family born in America.
 Benjamin W. Driggs, Sr. |
 Rosalia Cox Driggs |
The first member of the Driggs family born in America was Joseph Driggs (1682-1748). Joseph's father, Josias Janszen Deraet Driggs (1641-1701), came to America from Holland and settled in Brooklyn, New York, where he was married to Aeltje Adams Brouwer (1648-1707). Joseph married Elizabeth Martin (1689-1725) in Connecticut.
Howard's ancestors in the first three generations resided largely in Connecticut. His ancestor in the third generation, Daniel Driggs (1741-1800), fought in the American Revolution. One of Daniel's sons was Urial Driggs (1780-1846) who married Hannah Ford (1780-1848) in 1800 in Berlin, Connecticut. Later, while living in Ohio, Urial and Hannah became members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.
The Driggs Family History recognizes Urial as the "father" of the Mormon branch of the Driggs family. Urial and Hannah were among the Mormon families who left Nauvoo, Illinois in the conflict that followed the assassination of Joseph Smith and his brother. They resettled in Iowa where they later died.
Their son, Shadrach, his wife Elizabeth White Driggs and their children, including Benjamin (Howard's father), were among Mormon pioneers who left Iowa in 1851, migrated west over the trails to Utah Valley and settled in Pleasant Grove. Benjamin was 14 at the time. The trek is described in Howard's book, Ben The Wagon Boy. In its dedication he stated: "This little book, inspired by a constant call from my story-loving grandsons to tell them about when I was a boy, is affectionately dedicated to my father, whose pioneer boyhood is faithfully mirrored in its pages."
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Left: Old Central School, first school house in Pleasant Grove, Utah,
built in 1852.
Center: Battle Creek Falls at historic Battle Creek site near Pleasant Grove.
Right: First telegraph office in Pleasant Grove, in home of Sarah Driggs.
Rosalia Cox Driggs was a telegraph operator here.
Howard's ancestors on his mother's side are traced back to England in the LDS Family History Center records and include many who became early settlers of Massachusetts. Rosalia Ellen Cox was born in Nauvoo, Illinois and married Howard's father in 1867 in Salt Lake City. Rosalia was Benjamin's second wife. 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."
Howard's brothers and sisters were: Frank Milton (1870-1959), Ida Lenora [Dowd] (1875-1963), Maude Rosalie [Christensen] (1877-1941), Clarice Lillia (1880-1881), Claire Lucille [Heller] (1882-1920), Geneva Pearl [Halverson] (1885-1980), Burton Wells (1888-1968), and Ralph Emerson (1890-1895). He also had eleven half-siblings from his father's marriage to Olivia Pratt.
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On September 8, 1897 Howard married Eva May Frampton (1874-1947) in the Mormon temple in Salt Lake City. Eva was also a native of Pleasant Grove and taught in the public schools of Pleasant Grove, American Fork and Cedar City, Utah. She was also an accomplished soprano, and a leader in church and community organizations in Utah and New York. Howard and Eva had two sons, Howard Wayne (1902-1951) and Harold Perry (1907-2003).
 Howard R. Driggs and Eva May Frampton after their wedding on September 8, 1897 |
 Wayne, Eva and Perry Driggs |
Wayne Driggs was a graduate of the University of Utah and received his Ph.D. from New York University. He held teaching positions in Utah, New York and New Jersey. At the time of his death in 1951 he was President of the Branch Agricultural College, in Cedar City, Utah which later became Southern Utah University. In 1934 he married Susan Elizabeth Swensen (1910-2002), who was born in Pleasant Grove, Utah.
Perry Driggs graduated from the University of Utah and was an advertising executive during his career with the J. Walter Thompson Company in Chicago. He is also an artist and was the illustrator for his father's book, Ben the Wagon Boy, and collaborated with him in other historical projects. In 1934 he married Clara Creer (1912-2001) who was born in Spanish Fork, Utah.
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On September 26, 1948 Howard
married Margaret Brazier Quarrier (1909-2008) in Lawrence, Kansas in the chapel at the
University of Kansas, of which she was a 1930 graduate. Following her
graduation she was a reporter for the Kansas City Star. After her
marriage to Howard she worked with him in the field activities of the American
Pioneer Trails Association and the editing of his books and film strips. Margaret had three children from her prior marriage, John, Philip and Camille
Quarrier.
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Dedication of the Oregon Trail Marker on the University of Kansas campus, 1954. Left to right: Professor Robert Taft, Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy, Howard Driggs, Dean Wood, president of the Kansas City chapter of the American Pioneer Trails Association, Professor George Anderson, Margaret Driggs, and librarian Robert Vosper. The marker (right) was donated by Howard and Margaret Driggs, and the granite stone work was a gift of the University's class of 1916.
Education
1908: B.A., University of Utah
1918: M.A., University of Utah
1926: Ph.D., New York University
Public school teacher - Pleasant Grove, Utah
Group of Pleasant Grove school teachers in the early 1890s.
Seated: Susan Brown (Swensen); Millie Robison (Paulsen);
D. H. Robison (Principal); Alvira Smith (Olpin); Eliza Swensen.
Standing: Samuel Smith, Howard R. Driggs; Carrie Neilsen;
Neils K. Neilsen; (unidentified); May Beers (Brown).
University of Utah
- 1897-1905
Instructor in English, Branch Normal School,
Cedar City, Utah (now Southern Utah University)- 1905-1906
On leave for study at University of Chicago- 1906-1912
Supervisor of English, School of Education- 1912-1914
Principal, Secondary Training School- 1914-1923
Professor of English Education; on leave 1918-1923
for study of English teaching in the United States
New York University
- 1923-1924
Visiting Professor- 1924-1926
Associate Professor, English Education- 1927-1942
Professor and Chairman, Department of English Education- 1942-1963
Professor Emeritus
Associations
President, 1908-1911:
Utah Library and Gymnasium Commission
President, 1916:
Utah Education AssociationEditor, 1917-1918:
Utah Educational Review
Vice President, 1919:
National Education Association
President, 1946-1947:
Horace Mann League
Member:
Phi Delta Kappa
President:
Oregon Trail Memorial Association
President:
American Pioneer Trails Association
Elected to Western Hall of Fame, 1952
Author
1913
Live Language Lessons
Book Two1915
Live Language Lessons
Second Book1916
1917
Wild Roses
A Tale of the Rockies
Live Language Lessons
First Book1919
1920
The Art of Teaching
Our Living Language1923
Live Language Lessons
Fifth Grade1923
Live Language Lessons
Seventh Grade1923
Live Language Lessons
Teacher's Manual1924
Jacko and the Dingo Boy1924
Live Language Lessons
Sixth Grade1924
Live Language Lessons
Eighth Grade1927
Living English for Junior High Schools
Book One1928
Living English
Third Book1930
1931
Living English for Junior High Schools
Book Two
Covered-Wagon Centennial1933
Living English
Third Grade1933
Living English
Fifth Grade1935
1935
The Pony Express Goes Through
An American Saga Told by Its Heroes
Living English
Fourth Grade1935
1942
Living English
Sixth Grade
Westward America1944
Ben the Wagon Boy1946
The Master's Art
An Activity Course in Gospel Teaching1947
Mormon Trail
Pathway of Pioneers Who Made the Deserts Blossom1948
Timpanogos Town
Story of Old Battle Creek and Pleasant Grove, Utah1950
New Light on Old Glory1951
Pitch Pine Tales1951
Nick Wilson, Pioneer Boy1952
George, The Handcart Boy1956
The Old West Speaks1957
When Grandfather Was a Boy1957
A Western Cowkid1959
Driggs Family History
Book 1: Beginnings in America1960
Money Rock
A Drama of the Pony Express
Co-author
1919
The White Indian Boy
With E.N. Wilson1922
Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail
With Ezra Meeker1923
Hidden Heroes of the Rockies
With Isaac K. Russell1924
Frontier Law1927
Deadwood Gold
A Story of the Black Hills
With George W. Stokes1927
THE Texas Ranger
A Story of the Texas Frontier
With James B. Gillett1927
Red Feather1927
National Scales for Measuring Composition1929
The Pioneer Photographer
Rocky Mountain Adventures With a Camera
With William H. Jackson1936
Rise of the Lone Star
With Sarah S. King1942
Longhorn Cowboy
With James H. Cook1957
This is the West1963
Red Feather's Homecoming
With E. George Payne
Editor
American Trails Series - American Pioneer Trails Association
Editor and Producer
American Trails Films - American Pioneer Trails Association
Photo sources: 
Benjamin Woodbury Driggs: Driggs Family History, Book
Two.
Rosalia Cox Driggs; Old Central School; Battle Creek Falls; Telegraph office; Pleasant Grove school teachers:
Timpanogos
Town.
Howard and Eva Driggs; Wayne, Eva and Perry Driggs; H. Wayne Driggs family; H. Perry Driggs family: Driggs
Family History, Book One
Oregon Trail Marker
dedication: On the Hill: A
Photographic History of the University of Kansas, University of Kansas
Press, 1983. Career summary from Who's Who in America.