BIO: John WAGNER, Centre County, PA

Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja & Sabrina Marie Robb

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Commemorative Biographical Record of Central Pennsylvania: Including the 
Counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion: Containing Biographical 
Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, Etc. 
Chicago: J. H. Beers, 1898.
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COMMEMORATIVE BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD, pages 106-107

JOHN WAGNER, of Bellefonte.  The salubrious air of this mountain region is 
favorable to longevity, and the subject of this sketch, a hale and hearty 
citizen of ninety-years, is evidence of the fact if any doubter were to be 
found.  With his stalwart frame, six feet in height, his healthy complexion, 
Roman nose and intelligent eyes of bluish gray, Mr. Wagner is a fine specimen of 
manhood, and his vigor makes one think of the times long past when three-score 
years and ten were not the ordinary limit of mortal existence.
  Mr. Wagner is a son of the Keystone State, having first seen the light in 
Northumberland county November 9, 1806.  His father, John Wagner, was born in 
Berks county, Penn., in 1773, and died in 1850, and the mother, whose maiden 
name was Catherine Kuntzman, was called from earth at the age of sixty-seven 
years.  The grandfathers on both sides were soldiers in the Revolutionary army, 
and Grandfather Wagner was taken prisoner by the British and placed with others 
upon an island, where he died of starvation.  An uncle who was with him survived 
the hardships, and returned home to tell the sorrowful story.  Our subject's 
father saw the martyr to the cause of freedom for the last time when the 
Hessians went into camp near Reading, Pennsylvania. 
  John Wagner, Sr., was a weaver by trade, but later became interested in 
agriculture, which he followed during the remainder of his life.  In 1812 he 
moved to Haines township, Centre county, where he made his permanent home, and 
until his death he was a prominent member of the German Reformed Church there.
  The personal history of the subject of this sketch is most interesting, as his 
reminiscences cover incidents which seen far removed from his generation.  He 
remembers seeing soldiers during the war of 1812, and his experiences in helping 
upon the farm with the primitive methods of that day would reconcile the modern 
farmer's boy to his lot, as Mr. Wagner had to "tramp out" the wheat on the barn 
floor, and to thresh clover and rye with the old-fashioned flail.  What 
schooling he had was obtained in the neighborhood of his home in Haines 
township, and in early manhood he settled upon a farm there.  In 1827 he married 
his first wife, Miss Helen Collier, by whom he had two children:  (1) Katherine 
E. married Daniel Gathagan, and had five children, of whom two, Julia and 
Webster, are living.  (2) Peggy married William Harmon, and both are now 
deceased; their children are: John (who lives in the country), Clark and Belle.  
Mrs. Helen Wagner died in 1828, and Mr. Wagner afterward wedded Miss Sallie 
Weisser, born in June, 1816.  By the last marriage there were four children:  
(1) Emeline, who married Mr. Hess, and has six children;  (2) Sue, the wife of 
Adam Wagner, of Bellefonte, now retired from business.  (3) Henry F., who died 
unmarried in his forty-seventh year; and (4) John C., who when last heard from 
was in St. Paul, Minn.  Mr. Wagner has lived to see his great-grandchildren and  
other descendants make an interesting group.
  In 1837 Mr. Wagner left his Haines township home for the vicinity of 
Boalsburg, and in 1859 he established his home in Benner township, but, on his 
retirement from active work in 1868, he settled permanently in Bellefonte.  He 
is a leading adherent of the Reformed Church there.  In his political sympathies 
he is a Democrat, and he is an advocate of free silver at "16 to 1".