Orange County NyArchives Obituaries.....Hager, Philip October 27, 1922
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Linda Tremper ltremper1@comcast.net January 29, 2007, 9:09 pm

Cornwall Local  on Nov 2,1922
PHILIP HAGER HELD HIGHEST ESTEEM OF ALL WHO KNEW HIM
An appreciation by an old friend
By Dr Albert Reid Ledoux
Last week I had the unusual experience of attending memorial services for two 
of my life long friends,Lyman Abbott and Philip Hager;the one a man of world 
wide fame,a man who influenced a multitude of people;the other a man of the 
mountains little known beyond the shadow of Storm King.Other and more 
competent pens have told of the Lyman Abbott service but I would record some 
of the facts about dear old Phil Hager.In the wilderness bounded by Storm King 
and Crows Nest on the north and by Mount Rascal and Eagle Rock on the south-a 
wilderness,thank heaven even yet hardly invaded by campers,there dwelt when I 
first came to Cornwall in 1858,a race of sturdy mountaineers mostly of English 
decent,their very names suggestive of stability,such as Henry Christian 
Vought,Townsend Drew,Benjamin Lancaster,Vincent Odell,Luke Wood,John Lewis and 
John Quackenbosh;their names and virtues are recorded on the headstones of the 
old cemetery in The Clove and the foot of Whitehorse Mountain.
Philip Hager was not born in the mountains but in Europe nevertheless he came 
to Highland Falls with his parents in 1847 when four years old.When a young 
man he moved into the mountains where he found work to his liking.He married 
Catherine Lancaster,widow of John Lewis and on their mountain farm he reared 
his family.
Hager was a man of simplicity,honesty and faithfulness.He had moreover,the 
saving grace of humor and a cheerful disposition.Whether as a contractor,a 
teamster skillfully guiding his horses over the rocky trails of the wilderness 
or in an ordinary day's work he could be trusted implicitly;he was not only 
efficient but the very soul of honesty.Possessed of a simple Christian faith 
he lived his life as seeing one who is invisible and in his example was very 
wholesome.
Except for the interval in the 60's when he served as a volunteer in the 
war,his life was spent in these mountains.He knew every trail from Canaan 
Hollow to The Clove and the ways of the "good little beasts" his neighbors of 
cliff and valley.In his last years of life he was incapacitated by rheumatism 
later complicated by a creeping paralysis,His wife having died,he accepted a 
home with one or another of his children.His was uncomplaining,unexacting and 
full of apologies for the troubles he caused by his illness.Death came to him 
on October 27th and today he was laid to rest.The simple funeral service was 
conducted by Rev.Mr.Chase at the home of Mr.Hager's daughter Mrs.Ella Staples 
in the large gathering of friends were a few of the old mountaineers,among 
whom the writer and Comrade Luke Lancaster.

Additional Comments:
I found this newspaper clipping in my GGGrandmother Susan Hager Roser 
bible,Philip Hager is one of her brothers.

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