Representative John Fletcher Driggs

John Fletcher Driggs served as a Representative from Michigan in the United States Congress from 1863 to 1869. A member of the Republican Party, John Fletcher Driggs contributed to the legislative process during 3 terms in office.

John Fletcher Driggs’s service in Congress occurred during a significant period in American history. As a member of the House of Representatives, John Fletcher Driggs participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of constituents.

John Fletcher Driggs (March 8, 1813 – December 17, 1877) was a politician from the U.S. state of Michigan. Driggs was born in Kinderhook, New York. He completed preparatory studies and moved with his parents to Tarrytown, New York, in 1825. He moved to New York City in 1827, where he was an apprentice, journeyman, and master mechanic in the trade of sash, door, and blind manufacturing, 1829–1856. He was superintendent of the New York penitentiary and public institutions on Blackwells Island in 1844 Driggs moved to Michigan in 1856 and engaged in the real-estate business and salt manufacturing. He was president of the common council of East Saginaw, Michigan, in 1858. He was a member of the Michigan House of Representatives, 1859–1860. He was tendered an appointment as colonel during the Civil War and organized the Twenty-ninth Michigan Infantry, July 29, 1864. Driggs was elected as a Republican becoming the first person to represent Michigan’s 6th congressional district to the 38th, 39th, and 40th Congresses, serving from March 4, 1863, to March 3, 1869. He was one of the committee members appointed to accompany the body of President Abraham Lincoln to Springfield, Illinois, for interment. Driggs was injured by a fall on the ice in the winter of 1875–1876, as a result of which he died in East Saginaw. He was interred in Brady Hill Cemetery, Saginaw and was re-interred in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Saginaw.