William A. Driggs,Sr.& Jr.

Pictures publish date 1896.
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William A. Driggs, Sr. 

Birth: May 30, 1813.
Death: May 25, 1890.

William A. Driggs Sr., Beloved husband of Darlene Driggs 1824-1894.

Wife: Sarah Louisa Boyd Driggs (1821 - 1890).

Children: William A. Driggs (1855 - 1926).

Burial: Englewood Cemetery, Clinton, Henry County, Missouri.

W.A. Driggs Home.

William A. Driggs, Jr. 

Birth: 1855.
Death: 1926.

William A. Driggs, Beloved husband of Nannie (Holliday) Driggs 1858-1914.

Parents: William A. Driggs (1813 - 1890), Sarah Louisa Boyd Driggs (1821 - 1890).

Wife: Nannie Holliday Driggs (1858 - 1914).

Burial: Englewo
od Cemetery, Clinton, Henry County, Missouri.

William A. Driggs & Son

Biographies.

W. A. Driggs, president and manager of the Peoples Hardware Com- pany at Clinton, Missouri, is one of the well-known and successful busi- ness men of Henry County. Mr. Driggs was born in Woodsfield, Monroe County, Ohio, September 28, 1854, and is a son of William and Sarah Louise (Boyd) Driggs, the foi-mer a native of Connecticut and the latter of Alexandria, Virginia. William Driggs, the father, came from New England to Ohio with his parents when he was a child. In 1868 he came from Ohio to Missouri, and settled in Henry County. At that time the nearest railroad to Henry County was at Warrensburg, and when he came here he made the trip from Warrensburg to Clinton by stage.

He purchased a farm adjoining the city of Clinton on the north for which he paid forty dollars per acre. Here he followed farming and stock raising, the remainder of his life, with the exception of the last few years, when he built a home in Clinton and practically retired. He died April 28, 1891, age seventy-nine years, and his wife departed this life December 23rd of the same year. Five of their children are now living, Estella, the wife of John H. Lust, Altamont, Kansas ; W. A., the subject of this sketch ; Sopha, the wife of John C. Goodell, Mound Valley, Kansas; A. L. Bald- win, Kansas; Mary Frances, the wife of E. L. Redding, San Francisco, California.

W. A. Driggs was educated in the public schools of Henry County, receiving a good common school education. When he was nineteen years of age he went to learn the tinner's trade and for thirteen years worked as a journeyman tinner. He then engaged in the hardware business -in Clinton, in partnership with G. W. Thomas, under the firm name of Driggs & Thomas. This firm did business about one year, when Mr. Driggs purchased his partner's interest and conducted the business alone until 1897, when he went to Nebraska. After remaining there about a year he went to Kansas and in 1901 returned to Clinton, where he engaged in the furniture business, under the title of the Clinton Furniture Company.

Three years later he disposed of the furniture business and bought the hardware business which had been conducted by Thomas & Foster, and in 1910 incorporated this business under the coi-porate name of the Peoples Hardware Company, and since that time has been president and manager of this institution. This is one of the extensive hardware establishments of Henry County, and it is seldom that one finds such a complete line of hardware made up of such clean stock as is found in this establishment. The store is located on the east side of the square and has a frontage of twenty-three feet and is one hundred feet deep. Two stories are occupied by the hardware business besides a large warehouse in the rear.

Mr. Driggs was united in marriage, June 12, 1888, to Miss Nanna R. Holliday, a daughter of George H. Holliday, deceased. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Driggs, Mary Louise, who resides at home with her parents and John, who now holds a commission as first lieutenant in the National Army of the United States. Mr. Driggs is a member of the Independent Order of United Work- man, Modem Woodmen of America and the Methodist Episcopal Church. One of the greatest bereavement of Mr. Driggs' life occurred December 13, 1914, when Mrs. Driggs departed this life.