William S. Riggs

William Sears Riggs, his personal and family background, and his involvement in the Mountain Meadows Massacre.

Error creating thumbnail: File missing

William s. riggs 1.jpg

William S. Riggs

1830-1923

Biographical Sketch

[Note: William S. Riggs's presence at the Mountain Meadows Massacre has not been confirmed.]

Early Years in Indiana

Riggs and Mary Gillman in Putnam County in west-central Indiana. His parents had been among the founders of Putnam County in the early 1820s. Evidently, his parents were in Kentucky before that. The 1880 census shows his father born in Kentucky and his mother in Pennsylvania. (Contra are genealogy records showing his father and mother from Connecticut.) One of his brothers was named Andrew Jackson Riggs who was the namesake of one of his sons.

To Utah and the Iron Mission

At some unknown time he joined the Mormons in Illinois. He joined their migration in the late 1840s and arrived in Great Salt Lake City in July, 1850. By 1854 or before, Riggs had moved to Cedar City, the headquarters of the Iron Mission and the center of ongoing efforts to found a productive iron works there. In 1854, Riggs was a fiddler in community dances. In early February, 1855, twenty-five-year-old Riggs married seventeen-year-old Sarah Reeves at Cedar City. She was an English immigrant, the daughter of William Reeves and Frances Long.

In the Iron Military District: Private William Riggs, Company E in Isaac Haight's 2nd Battalion

In 1857, William S. Riggs and Jabez Durfee were privates in a platoon in Company E under Captain Elias Morris in Major Isaac C. Haight's 2nd Battalion. Other members of the company known or suspected of involvement in the massacre were second lieutenants Anthony J. Stratton, Richard Harrison, Swen Jacobs and Ira Allen, sergeants Samuel McMurdie and Robert Wiley, and privates Samuel Jukes/Jewkes and John Jacobs. It is not known when Riggs and his unit arrived at Mountain Meadows; it could have been any time between mid-day Tuesday the 8th to late afternoon on Thursday the 10th. His exact role in the massacre is not known with certainty but it is likely -- if he was at the massacre -- that he was among the militia guard that escorted the emigrant men from the wagon circle on their fateful northern march. Riggs was named in the 1859 federal arrest warrant issued by Judge John Cradlebaugh and was named as a participant in Stenhouse's 1873 Rocky Mountain Saints, which follows Cradlebaugh's arrest warrant. However, he was not named by John D. Lee nor mentioned by other witnesses during the Lee trials of 1875-1876. He is not known to have made any statements about the massacre.

Riggs, however, may not have been present on the day of the massacre. Walker, Turley and Leonard did not find corroboration of his presence. Thus, they do not list Riggs in Appendix C, their list of those whose presence at the massacre is confirmed. 

Leaving Cedar City

Riggs was among those who abandoned Cedar City shortly after the massacre. In 1858, William Riggs was among the six families who moved down Ash Creek and founded Toquerville, 1858. The other family heads were Joshua T. Willis, John Willis, Samuel Pollock, Josiah Reeves and Willis Young. All were interested in raising cotton. The other heads of families were William R. Davis, Richard Palmer, Samuel Pollock, James Davis, Elisha H. Groves, John H. Willis, Sidney Littlefield, Edward Littlefield, Josiah Reeves, and Rufus Allen. Riggs and his wife Sarah eventually had three sons and seven daughters, each of whom lived to adulthood and married. 

Service During the Black Hawk War, late 1860s

In 1866, Riggs was a Private in the 3rd platoon, Volunteer Cavalry Co., 1st Brigade of the Iron Military District and was involved in military reconnaisance and operations during the Black Hawk War. Under the leadership of Captain James Andrus, Riggs rode in an expedition for Washington County to near the junction of the Grand and Green Rivers in eastern Utah during that war.

Moving to the High Valleys in Garfield County

In the 1870s, Riggs and his wife and family moved to the high country in Garfield County where they and other families were founders of various settlements. In the 1880s, Riggs and his sons were cattlemen in Henrieville, Garfield County. He served in a church position as a high councilor of Panguitch stake in Garfield County, 1879-91, and as a bishop's counselor in the Henrieville ward in 1892. Some records note that he has skills as a carpenter. 

Evidently, the Riggs stayed on in Garfield County. He passed away in 1923 in his early 90s. He was survived by his many children and grandchildren.

References

Esshom, Pioneers and Prominent Men of Utah, 1133; Gottfredson, Indian Depredations in Utah, 225; Seegmiller, A History of Iron County, 174; Newell and Talbott, A History of Garfield County', 153, 172; Shirts and Shirts, A Trial Furnace, 357, 487-88, 495; Woodbury, "A History of Southern Utah an its National Parks," Utah Historical Quarterly, 12/3-4 (Jul.-Oct. 1944), 147; Walker, et al, Massacre at Mountain Meadows, 393 fn. 2.

Further information and confirmation needed. Please contact editor@1857ironcountymilitia.com.