Pioneer Days: The Indian War of 1855
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[Editor’s note: In recognition of Mount Ayr’s sesquicentennial observance next year, the Record-News will run an occasional feature story recounting the early days of the city and county. Items are told in the vernacular of the day in which they were written, but some have been edited with discretion.]
By Mrs. B.M. Lesan (1862-1941)
In the spring of 1855 two men, with their wives, settled in the northeastern part of Ringgold County, near Sand Creek, by the name of Driggs and Lane, Mr. Driggs and wife coming from Wisconsin and Lane and his wife coming from Missouri. Driggs and his wife were good looking refined people, not to be compared with Lane and his wife who were both big, rough, fat and homely people but not viscous. These two families were no relation whatever, but the two families lived a mile or so apart, were pioneers and on friendly but not intimate terms.
In the late summer, probably in September, Driggs and Lane started out to hunt deer and turkey which at that time were very numerous along the rivers and creeks. Driggs went on one side of Sand Creek and Lane on the other side. They hunted until 10:30 o’clock, probably when looking across the creek Lane saw an Indian with his gun drawn to shoot Driggs, and before he could do thing, the gun went off and killed Driggs. Lane was panic stricken, lest the next shot came his way. He ran as fast as he could for a couple of miles, or more, to the nearest cabin, which happened to be Stanbury Wright’s. He rushed into the cabin about noon and told the family what had happened.
The excitement was intense. Messengers were sent out to warn the settlers of the great danger as it was known that a band of Indians were camping on a twelve-mile creek across the line in Union County. The neighbors brought their families, also Mrs. Driggs and Mrs. Lane, to the Wright cabin where a guard was left to protect them while Lane led a crowd of men to the spot where Driggs body was found. He was not scalped as the Indian knew Lane saw him and that would have been a plain case. The men proceeded to the Wright cabin with the body of the dead man and a guard was put over it in the yard as there was no room in the cabin.
A few settlers were suspicious of Lane, so they took a ham of meat, stretched Driggs’ shirt over it and shot Lane’s gun into it, but it failed to make a hole as the Indian’s gun. Then they probed for the ball in Driggs’ body and got it found, it was not the same caliber as Lane’s gun. Lane told his story over and never wavered or disputed himself, was perfectly willing to submit to any test to prove his innocence. They all with one accord decided Lane was not guilty. Drigg’s shirt was not powder burnt.
The sight of Driggs’ still cold form as it lay in Wright’s yard, weltering in his own blood, created a thrill of horror in the hearts of the settlers, and as they thought of their own families exposed to similar dangers, decided in their own minds, the proper course to pursue and with one accord they vowed vengeance against the Indians.
That night twenty or thirty militia men from Decatur County camped in George W. Lesan’s yard and stacked their guns in the corner of the cabin. They had been sent for and were on their way to Mount Ayr to join Peter Doze, sheriff, who the next day took the militia and forty or fifty settlers and proceeded in a body to the Indian camp,, where they surrounded the Indians, who showed by their actions that they were not surprised and were expecting trouble and after a short parley the Indians stacked their arms and surrendered under protest.
A council was called and the trial, though necessarily conducted in an informal manner, was proceeded with the first step being to find the gun which the ball was taken from the dead man’s body would fit. They tried all the guns but found none that the ball would fit. But this did not convince them as they knew the Indian who shot Driggs could be miles from the camp at that time or could have hid his gun. They consulted together again, still believing an Indian killed Driggs, but did not think to policy to resort to extreme measures. Then an old Indian warrior stepped out and in broken English presented the cause of his people, recounting the “friendly relations” they had always had with the pale faces of the settlement, expressing his sorrow and disapproval of the murder of Driggs. He pressed the point that the ball would fit in no Indian’s gun. But there was no such “oratory” by this old warrior as has been quoted by the “Ringgold Historical Records” and if the old Indian ever barred his breast and said, “shoot Indian if you want too,” nobody at the trial ever heard of it. But after another consultation amongst the whites, they decided to give them back their guns and remove them immediately to their reservation in Kansas.
Now, had the settlers believed Lane guilty they would have strung him up to the first tree they came to, and the Indians would not have been taken away. The settlers and militia, under Peter Doze, started them immediately and the cost to the county was $86.85.
Mr. Driggs was buried from the home of Stanbury Wright soon after the trial of Lane and Mrs. Driggs never went back to her home to live, but stayed in the home of Mr. Wright for about three months until she could sell her land and have a sale to dispose of her stock and her household goods which was the envy of all her neighbors as she had “store furniture” instead of homemade furniture as the rest of the pioneers.
George W. Lesan went to this sale where he bought a square stand whit two drop leaves and one drawer which at his death was handed down to the writer, who prizes it very highly as a “relic” of the Ringgold County Indian war.
Mrs. Driggs left the Wright home soon after her sale and went back to her parents in Wisconsin, from where she corresponded with Mr. Wright’s seventeen-year-old daughter, Louisa, for several years. Lane moved to Missouri the next spring, not on account of Driggs’ murder, but from custom as he was a sort of squatter, never staying long in one place; but nobody would have dared accuse him to his face of the horrible things he has been accused of in the “Ringgold Historical Record” and it seems queer that his neighbors never found out he was such a man and Mrs. Driggs such a bad woman until thirty or forty years after.
I would give a great deal to know the man that was the instigator of such a base falsehood as there is scarcely a word of truth in it. It is nothing but a tale of scandal made out of whole cloth. Someone must have a fertile brain to feed on such sweet morsels. David Lesan was at Lane’s and the Indian’s trial and has told the story many times and Louisa Wright married Solomon Lesan and has recounted the story to the family time after time; also shown her letters received from Mrs. Driggs in Wisconsin.
I have gathered this story from every reliable source for the last year and Mrs. M.M. Lesan can tell which is right, my story or “Ringgold Historical Record.” I have written this story now, as I wish to dispute the other story before all the old people that were here at the time have passed away, that one of the worst falsehoods may not go down int Ringgold history, unchallenged. I can give other names of old settlers that will corroborate this statement if necessary.
Note from Iowa Gen Web: As an officer Mr. Doze was connected with the Driggs and Hale tragedy of 1855 and getting the Indians out of the county. They were removed to Kansas. He sold their property at public auction, consisting of three guns, sixteen steel traps and some other trumpery and the money was used toward the Indian removal.
Driggs and Hale went out hunting and Hale came back, stating that the Indians had killed Driggs. An investigation revealed that Driggs had been killed by a bullet which matched Hale’s ammunition. Although declared innocent, this led to the removal of the Indians residing in Ringgold County. Allegedly, Hale and Driggs’ wife were intimate, leading up to Driggs’ murder. Hale disappeared from Ringgold County for parts unknown a few years later.
