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Alberta, Past and Present, Historical and Biographical
Vol 2
Harry Austin Driggs


Harry Austin Driggs has had an active, useful and eventful life, making each moment count for the utmost, and as warden of the provincial jail at Fort Saskatchewan he occupied a position of trust and responsibility, which he capably filled for the past nine years, or until July 1, 1923, when he was transferred to Lethbridge. Mr. Driggs is a native of the United States. He was born in Adrian, Michigan, July 13, 1872, a son of Edwin B. and Maggie (Hastings) Driggs, the former a native of the state of South Carolina and the latter of Scotland. The father was a farmer and stock raiser, following those pursuits in Michigan and Texas and gaining a position of leadership in his chosen line of activity. He specialized in pure bred stock and was the first breeder of Hereford cattle in the Wolverine state, securing his stock in England.

Harry A. Driggs secured his education in Michigan, graduating from the Palmyra high school in 1891, and he afterward became a student at the Orchard Lake Military Academy, which he attended for two years. Subsequently he came to Canada, reaching Lethbridge, Alberta, in 1896, and for the next two years he worked as a cow-puncher. In 1898 he returned to the States and enlisted in the Thirty-first Michigan Volunteer Infantry, for service in the Spanish-American war, being stationed in the south until the cessation of hostilities. In 1899 he again made his way to Alberta and in the fall of that yea!' engaged in ranching near Grassy Lake, in the Taber district. He held that property until 1908, when he disposed of it in order that he might give his attention to his other interests. In 1907 he had established a private bank at Grassy Lake and continued its operation until 1913, also conducting a general store during that period. In the spring of 1914 he was appointed warden of the new provincial jail at Fort Saskatchewan, in the Victoria district, and filled that position with efficiency and conscientiousness until he transferred from Fort Saskatchewan prison on July 1, 1923, to Lethbridge. He has also done important work as a civil engineer, assisting in surveying the townsites for Magrath, Sterling, and Grassy Lake, of which he was first president, also first reeve of Eureka municipality, and he was likewise engaged by the Lethbridge Irrigation Company in survey work on their canal, remaining with them until the work was completed.

Mr. Driggs was married in Michigan, on the 21st of February, 1900, to Miss Clara Anne Mitchell, a native of that state. He has attained the thirty-second degree in Scottish Rite Masonry and is an exemplary representative of the craft. He is faithful to the trust reposed in him and thoroughness and devotion to duty are his outstanding characteristics. He is regarded as a man of high moral character and substantial worth and the respect which is accorded him is well deserved.


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