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WILLIAM WAGAMON.
From an early epoch in the development of Keokuk county William
Wagamon has been numbered among its residents and he is now living
on section 21, Liberty township. He was born in Darke county, Ohio,
March 14, 1836. His father, Christopher Wagamon, was a native of
Pennsylvania and became a pioneer of Darke county, Ohio, settling there
in the midst of the green woods when his nearest neighbor lived three
miles away and when the work of progress and improvement seemed
scarcely begun. He wedded Catherine Miller, a native of the Buckeye
state, while her mother was a native of Germany. Mr. Wagamon was
three times married, however, the mother of our subject being his
third wife. His death occurred in 1852 and his widow survived him
until she was about seventy years of age.
William Wagamon was their eldest son and second child, and was
sixteen years of age at the time of his father's death. He remained
with his mother until about twenty-two years of age, asssisting largely
in carrying on the home farm. He was lhen married to Catherine
Marker, a native of Darke county, Ohio, and they began their domestic
life upon a small farm of twenty acres. Coming to Iowa, they located
first in Cedar county, where they remained for four years, and then
removed to Keokuk county, settling upon the farm which has since been
the home of our subject. The year 1864 witnessed his arrival in this
state and since 1868 he has resided continuously in Keokuk county.
He first purchased eighty acres of land, to which he afterward added
another tract of eighty acres. He likewise owns another farm of one
hundred and twenty-five acres, on which his son is now living. He also
possesses twenty-eight and a half acres of timber land, and this with
another eighty acre tract makes his property possessions aggregate three
hundred and ninety-three and one half acres, the greater part of which
is
under a high state of cultivation and well improved, the owner being
recognized as a progressive, industrious and intelligent farmer.
Unto Mr. and Mrs. Wagamon have been born seven children:
Mary, the wife of George Herr ; William H., who wedded Minnie Bergibine;
Martin V., who married Elizabeth Griffith; Thomas W., who
wedded Lena McDowell ; Charles, Eliza Ellen, and Perry Edward, all at
home. Mr. Wagamon is a Democrat in his political views. He was at
one time a director in the Savings Bank at Kinross and is now one of
its stockholders. His residence in the county covers more than a third
of a century and he has become widely known here.
HENRY F. WAGNER
One of the leading young members of the legal profession, who has
chosen the flourishing town of Sigourney as the scene of his labors, is
Henry F. Wagner, who has already made very gratifying progress,
although but a few years have elapsed since his admission to the Keokuk
county bar. The birth of Mr. Wagner occurred on February 11, 1874, in
Lancaster township, Keokuk county, Iowa, and he is a son of John M. and
Caroline (Meyer) Wagner, the former of whom was born in Snyder county,
Pennsylvania, on October 22, 1831, and the latter in Licking county,
Ohio, on February 6, 1845. Both parents are of German descent. They
were married in Ohio and came to Keokuk county in 1871 and in 1872
purchased their present fine farm in Lancaster township. They have four
surviving children, namely: Ida Ann, Mary C, Susan Belle and Henry F.
Mr. Wagner has always followed an agricultural life, and has actively
supported the Republican party. The family is a much respected one in
Lancaster township.
Our subject was reared on his father's farm and attended the
country schools until he was fourteen years old, completing the course
at that age. In 1891 he graduated from the Sigourney high school and at
the age of nineteen began teaching in the country schools. For three
years he worked industriously, working through the summers on the farm
and spending the fall and winter terms in teaching. He entered the law
department of the Iowa State Univesity and at that institution was
graduated in June, 1898. He immediately began practice in Sigourney and
has already won attention from his brother attorneys by his legal
ability and thorough knowledge. In politics he is a
Republican, while fraternally his associations are with the Royal Arch
Masons, the Odd Fellows and the Knights of Pythias. On October 12,
1898, he was married to Miss Lilian Updegraff, of Keokuk county, and a
little daughter has been named Gladys. A very promising future opens
before Mr. Wagner, and his friends predict for him a successful legal
career.
ALEXANDER WARNOCK
Alexander Warnock, a prominent farmer and representative of Adams
township, Keokuk county, was born on the 20th of April, 1845, in county
Down, Ireland, and is a son of John and Mary (Campbell) Warnock, who
were also natives of the Emerald Isle, the former born March 23, 1820,
and the latter on the i8th of June 1815. Mary Campbell was a direct
descendant of the long famous house of Argyle. Both parents were reared
and educated in their native land and there
continued to reside for several years after their marriage, four of
their eight
children being born there, while the birth of the others occurred after
the emigation of the family to America. By occupation the father was a
farmer. It was in 1849 that the family crossed the broad Atlantic and
took up their residence in Rock Island, Illinois, where the father
accepted a position on the Enterprise,
a steamboat plying on the Mississippi. He was thus employed the first
summer after coming to this country and then began work for the firm of
Bailey & Boyle, who owned and
operated a sawmill, in which he worked for about two years. He then
rented the property and ran it on his own account for some time, after
which
the family removed to the country in the spring of 1854, and he broke
and improved one hundred and sixty acres of land. He afterward lived on
several other farms in Rock Island county and continued to engage in
agricultural pursuits until life's labors were ended in death on the
27th of August. 1887. In politics he was a staunch Republican and took
an active interest in public affairs. He was an earnest and consistent
member of the United Presbyterian church m Rock Island county and was a
man highly respected and esteemed by all who knew him. His children
were: Margaret; William, deceased; Alexander; David; James C, John,
deceased; Hugh and Janet.
Alexander Warnock was only four years old at the time the family came
to the new world and in Rock Island county, Illinois, he passed the
days of his boyhood and youth in much the usual manner of farm boys, no
event of special importance occurring to vary the routine of farm work
during that time. On leaving home in 1868 he came to Keokuk county,
Iowa, and settled upon his present farm in Adams township, which
consists of one hundred sixty acres of rich and arable land, which he
has placed under a high state of cultivation and improved with good and
substantial buildings. In connection with general farming he gives
considerable attention to the raising of a high grade of pedigreed
stock, making a specialty of short-horn cattle, of which he has a fine
herd upon his place.
At Oskaloosa, Iowa, on the 9th of March, 1869, was celebrated the
marriage of Mr. Warnock and Miss Agnes McCracken, who was also a native
of Ireland, born on the 25th of December, 1847; her parents being James
and Elizabeth (McCormick) McCracken, both natives of the same country.
In 1849 she was brought by her parents to the United States and the
family became early settlers of Keokuk county. Her father, who was a
prominent farmer, died in 1887. Mrs. Warnock was reared and educated in
Rock Island county, Ilhnois, and by her marriage to our subject became
the mother of seven children, four sons and three daughters, who in
order of birth are as follows: John, born in the fall of 1869;
Elizabeth, September 19, 1871; James M., September 10, 1873; Mary, in
1875; Jefferson Clarke, in 1879; William, December 8, 1881; and
Gertrude, April 3, 1894. All were born on the home farm.
In his political affiliations, Mr. Warnock has been a life-long
Democrat and has taken quite an active interest in local politics,
while
religiously he is a member of the United Presbyterian church and is a
man who commands the respect and confidence of all with whom he comes
in contact, either in business or social life.
JOSEPH H. WENGER
Joseph H. Wenger resides in Liberty township, where for many years
he was an active factor in agricultural circles, but at the
present time he is leaving the work of the farm to others and is
enjoying a
richly merited rest. He was born in Edom, Virginia, November 15, 1835,
and comes of a family of German lineage. Christian Wenger, his paternal
great-grandfather, was born in the Palatinate, Germany, where he
remained until 1727, when he braved the dangers incident to an ocean
voyage at that day and crossed the Atlantic to the new world. He
located in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, where he married Eve Grebiel
and reared his, family and made his home until his death.
Among his children was Joseph Wenger, the grandfather of our
subject. He was born, reared and educated in Lancaster county,
Pennsylvania, and in the year 1785 removed to Edom, Virginia, settling
on a farm of between five hundred and six hundred acres, which he
purchased, cleared and improved, making it a productive property. He
there married Barbara Hoover and they become the parents of thirteen
children, seven sons and six daughters. His first wife died in January,
1792, and on the ist of December, 1793, he married Anna Hockman, a
native of Page county, Virginia, by whom he had five children, three
sons and two daughters, of whom the eldest was Joseph Wenger, Jr., the
father of our subject. His birth occurred in Edom, September 17, 1794,
and there he spent his early childhood, acquiring his education there
and also following the occupation of farming in his youth. He was
married April 28, 1818, to Barbara Beery, a native of the Old
Dominion, born near Newmarket, March 12, 1795, and a daughter of John
Beery of Edom. To the parents of our subject were born ten children,
five sons and five daughters: Catherine and John B., both deceased;
Elizabeth, who is living in Georgia, at the age of eighty years; Isaac,
who is now seventy-nine years of age ; Abraham, Anna, Jacob and
Barbara, all deceased; Mary, who lives at the old homestead in Edom,
Virginia; and Joseph H., of this review.
After his marriage the father of our subject removed to the old
homestead upon which all of his children were born. He was a farmer by
occupation and there carried in agricultural pursuits until his
life's labors were ended in death, February 14, 1865, when he was
seventy years of age. Throughout his entire life he was identified with
the Whig party and was a member of the Memionite church, his life being
actuated by his Christian principles.
Joseph H. Wenger spent his childhood in the county of his nativity,
being trained to habits of industry, economy and honesty upon the liome
farm and thus laying the foundation of an upright character. He
assisted in the cultivation of the fields upon the old homestead until
twenty-five years of age, when he came to Iowa, reaching Liberty
township, Keokuk county, in September, 1861. There he was employed in
various ways, although his attention was principally given to farming.
In 1866, however, with the money he had saved from his earnings he
purchased one hundred and twenty acres of land in Liberty township,
just east of South English, and began farming on his own account. This
land was partly under cultivation, and he at once began to further
improve and develop it. As his financial resources were increased he
also added to the property until he had over five hundred acres of very
rich, arable and valuable land, which he has since divid
