I will be adding pictures and documents as time permits.
Click a name to go directly to that person, or browse the whole file.
1st generation Jessie Marie Wagers Brown Kellogg, Charles Marion Kellogg
2nd gen. Myrtle Lucy Mitchell Wagers, Ray W Wagers
3rd gen. Benjamin Joseph Mitchell, Jessie Love Adams Mitchell, Abel Birchfield "Bert"Wagers, Laura Jane Low Wagers
4th gen. Hannah Eliza Hyatt Wagers, John Marvin Low, Mahala Ann Cogdill Low, James Washington Mitchell Jr., Polly Ann Yarger Mitchell, Alexander Adams, Louisa Jane Spurgeon Spray Adams
5th gen.Hannah Hall Yarger
Born August 26, 1846 in Holt County, Missouri
Died July 30, 1905 in Los Gatos, California
Married John Marvin Low at age 20 in 1866
She crossed the Oregon trail with her parents and husband. She and John crossed and recrossed the American west for the next twenty five years. She suffered from anemia. In 1905, she went to California for treatment, she died three months later from Mitral Valve Regurgitation.
Born March 3, 1834 in Oregon, Missouri
Died September 17,1934 in Wyoming
Married Mahalah Ann Cogdill in 1866
At age 17, he served in the Civil War in Battery C, 9th Missouri Light Artillery, until the end of the war. After the war, he was a river man on the Missouri River, transporting freight. He went to Oregon on the Oregon Trail with his wife's family in 1874. After Oregon, they came back to the Buck Horn in the Colorado Mountains west of Fort Collins. Later, he drove bull teams hauling freight on the Oregon Trail. It is said that he hauled the first load of Government freight into old Fort Laramie. He loved to tell picturesque stories of the west and had a taste for adventure. He had eleven children. He spent his later years in Thermopolis, Wyoming, with his daughter Annie, were he died at age 90. He was buried in Loveland Colorado.
Born July 28, 1806 in Hilsboro Ohio
Died May 2, 1888 at age 81 in Atkinson, Illinois
Married Benjamin Yarger May 21, 1828 in Hilsboro Ohio
She had four kids. They lived in Ohio, and visited Atkinson, Illinois. They fell in love with the town and later moved there. She was of German decent. She is buried in Grandview Cemetery.
Born December 11, 1911 in Moore, Oklahoma
Died April, 1985 or 1986 in Provo, Utah
Married Jessie Marie Wagers Brown
Chuck, as everyone called him, married grandma and they had five children, two boys and three girls. Grandpa was in WWII and stood at the bottom of the hill when they put the flag up at Iwo Jima. He was a very loving person, almost always having a smile on his face. He had sugar diabetes and developed gang green in his foot from a sore. In the first operation, they removed his leg just below the knee. By the time he died, he had had several surgeries to remove more of his legs, eventually ending just above the knee on both sides. Grandpa died while Wayne was on his mission (July 1984-July 1986). He died during the day, and his brother-in-law, Ray Wagers' wife, Elaine, died during the night.
Born May 22, 1920 in Steamboat Springs, Colorado
Died April 5, 1976 in Provo, Utah
Married Rolland Esplin Brown March 1, 1940 in Provo, Utah
Born October 12, 1834 East of Portland on the Wabash River Indiana
Died January 18, 1911 in Monte Vista, Colorado
Married Louisa Jane Spurgeon Spray in 1874 in Lincoln County
Alex, as he was called, was a small man, five feet, five and a half inches tall, weighing 115 pounds. He had a fair complexion, grey eyes, and black hair. He wore a black mustache. He lived in Indiana until he was 21 when he went to Iowa for about 1 1/2 years, and to Missouri for two years. He enrolled as a private in Company F, 6th Regiment of the Kansas Volunteer Cavalry on the 4th of October, 1861, to serve during the Civil War. He also served with Company A, 6th Regiment of the Kansas Volunteer Cavalry. He was honorably discharged on August 10, 1865. He suffered from pneumonia and from "bloody flux" during this time, the later staying with him the rest of his life. He married Agnes Ross, but she died in Salina, Kansas, November 20, 1869. Five years later, he married Louisa Spurgeon Spray, a widow with one child. They lived in Hedville until 1880, when they attempted to drive 500 head of cattle to Middle Park, Colorado. They were caught in heavy snows in September on Berthoud Pass and lost all but about 100 of the cattle. They settled a small farm in the meadows south of Grand Lake Village. In 1888, they bought the Garrison House, a hotel on the west side of Grand Lake. They added another story to it and refurnished it. At some point, He went to Denver and lived for several years. On October 26, 1909, he moved to the Old Soldiers Home, in Colorado. He died at the age of 77.
Born 1875 in Hedville Kansas
Died She left the family and we don't know when or where
Married Benjamin Mitchell June 5, 1891 in Boulder Colorado
Born January 12, 1863 in Atkinson Illinois
Died November 29, 1923 in Colorado at age 60
Married Jessie Love Adams June 5, 1891 in Boulder Colorado
He was sent to prison in 1896 for the death of Harry Randall. Ben played the fiddle at dances and Harry was looking for a fight. Ben said no and turned to walk away, but someone pushed Harry into him and sent him sprawling. Ben turned and without thinking, stabbed him and killed him. He was very upset that he had taken a man's life. He spent six months in prison and lost his wife because of it. She left their three children with his mother and went supposedly to Utah, never to be seen or heard from again. He never played fiddle for the dances again. His spirit had been broken, his hair turned white over night. He was a somber man. He was a gentle, kind, father. He had a white flowing mustache and white hair. He died of Pneumonia at age 60. He is buried in the little cemetery on the hill above Grand Lake.
Born February 16, 1840 on Bear Fork of Cove Creek in West Virginia
Died August 21, 1940 in Denver Colorado
Married Alexander Adams in Kansas in 1874
She was only 4 feet 9 inches tall. She was a bright lively child with blue eyes and brown curly hair. At 18, she fell in love with Francis Spray Jr. from Germany. They were married and had a daughter Fanny. He went to war for the Union during the Civil War and died of Tuberculosis. She met and married Alexander Adams, a widower, and they moved to Kansas with her parents John and Phebe Spurgeon. She was known for her beautiful pieced quilts and braided rugs, some of which are on display at the museum in Grand Lakes Colorado. In the summer of 1880, Louisa and Alex trail drove a heard of cattle to the Colorado mountains, 350 miles away. She walked every step of the way. They left in August with 500 head, but because of the snow they got caught in, only arrived with about 100 head. They bought the Garrison House when they reached Grand Lake. After enlarging and refurnishing it, they renamed it the Grand View House. She ran the hotel, cooking and everything until it burnt down in 1902.
Born April 25, 1831 in New York State
Died in 1901 in Colorado
Married Polly Ann Yarger May 29, 1856 in Cambridge, Illinois He was 25
The family moved to Geneseo, Illinois. He worked for Benjamin and Hugh Yarger on their farm in Atchinson Illinois. His father was Scotch Irish. He was a large man with leonine head, high broad forehead, and high cheek bones. He had brown hair and blue eyes. He had seven children, two died before age five. He liked to travel, living in Northwest Kansas, Solomon River at Kirwin, in Iowa and in Nebraska. He worked at the family general store in Geneseo. He sold bibles. They moved to Colorado in 1880 and built a cabin north of Grand Lake. He trapped, hunted, and probably mined gold. He was buried at Grand Lake.
Born February 2, 1835 in Hillsboro Ohio
Died October 23, 1911 at age 76, in Colorado
Married James Washington Mitchell May 29, 1856 in Cambridge Illinois,
when she was 21 and he was 25.
She was a buxom, highly colored girl with sleek black hair she wore parted in the middle with fashionable flares on the side and back over plump cheeks. She was a take charge kind of person. When her son Ben was put in prison, she took his three children into her home and cared for them. Even after he was released, she helped him raise them. Their mother had left because she couldn't live with Polly while Ben was gone. Her ancestors came from Germany.
Born May 28, 1869 in Holt Co. Missouri on the bank of the Missouri River
Died December 28, 1955 in Denver, Colorado
Married Abel Birchfield Wagers January 29, 1889 in Masonville, Colorado by Reverend Tallie
They lived in Loveland Colorado, where most of their children were born. They moved to Roosevelt, Utah to raise alfalfa. She ran a restaurant and was a very good cook. They moved to National City by San Diego in 1935 and moved back and forth between there and Middle Park, Colorado for the weather. In 1874, when she was young, she rode the Oregon Trail with her family. She lived to see the passing of oxen, horses, and mules as the means for general transportation, while the cars, trucks, planes and trains took their place. She saw the beginning of telegraph, telephone, radio, and tv. She never went outside without a hat and coverings over her arms, often cut off black stockings. She worked hard in her garden. She was a midwife when her grandkids were born. She created a sensation with her sister Mag when they toured downtown Boulder in Mag's electric car. They were both in their eighties. She died at the age of 86 from lung cancer in Denver.
Born March 29, 1861 in Newton County Missouri
Died April 28, 1941 in Frazer, Colorado
Married Laura Jane Low January 29, 1889 in Masonville, Colorado
Born January 18, 1825 in Haywood Co., North Carolina
Died January 19, 1894 in Riddleville, Texas
Married George A wagers in 1846 in Alabama, she was 20.
They lived in Alabama and Missouri. She did most of the child rearing because he worked on a plantation as an overseer. She had to hide in the dirt cellar with her kids in 1861 when John Hunt Morgan, the dreaded Civil War outrider, swept across the country side taking anything he could use, and killing those that opposed him. They lost everything in the war. Hannah was a small woman with large blue eyes, an olive complexion, and smooth black hair parted in the middle and pulled down tight past high cheekbones. Her ears were somewhat larger than one would expect. Her mouth was sensitive but controlled. She was a Sweet, gentle woman. She died of pneumonia at age 67.
Born January 9, 1894 in Grand Lake Colorado
Died June 6, 1956 in Provo, Utah
Married Ray W. Wagers September 2, 1914 in Colorado
As a child she helped her uncle John catch trout and strip the eggs to make caviar. She doctored the lion hounds by pulling the porcupine quills from their noses. Her mother left when she was two years old. She lived with her father and his mother. She attended a one room schoolhouse in Grand Lake, where she was a quick learner and loved school. Later, she went to Denver for school where she quit in the eighth grade because an uppity teacher said the class was just a bunch of "uneducated hogs". At eighteen, she took the normal exam to teach school and passed. She married Ray and they had six kids. After he left in 1923, she started doing washing and sewing for others, to have money to feed her family. She was a wonderful seamstress. Although Ray left, they were never divorced, and she remained close to his parents. She was an Episcopalian, and had the kids baptized before the "Mormons" could get them. She always made sure the kids had what they needed, although new things for her were few and far between, she treasured the satisfaction she got from making the kids happy. She worked hard and sent Marjie to school, with no help from Ray. In 1935, she moved to Provo, where she rented a house with an extra room to rent to students from BYU to help pay for her own rent. She worked for the Utah State Hospital for 20 years where she was night supervisor. In 1950, she was attacked while walking home from the bus stop after work. She suffered a heart attack at the scene and never fully recovered. In 1955, she broke her collar bone, she developed diabetes, and in April, had another heart attack. She died in June and was buried in the Provo Cemetery. She had a keen, quick mind, a great zest for life, and a driving need to learn. She was a creative, artistic, idealistic. Her favorite saying was "If you have two loaves of bread, sell one to buy Hyacinths for your soul". She also liked "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference".
Born July 28, 1894 in Arkins, near Loveland, Colorado
Died May 18, 1960 in his sleep in Hot Sulphur Springs, Colorado
Married Myrtle Lucy Mitchell September 2, 1914 in Colorado
He was a handsome, clean cut man, about six feet tall, with blue eyes and brown hair, that he wore parted on the side. Thin lips over even teeth. He had his dad's big ears, and a quiet smile with a soft laugh to go with his pleasant disposition. He loved horses and hunting - a typical western cowboy. He had a pleasant singing voice and loved to whistle. He was a drinking man and was proud of the fact that he could "hold his liquor". He had one of the first International Trucks in Middle Park. He was a very hard worker. He grubbed sage brush, hauled hay, was a coal miner, hauled coal, he and his brother and brother-in-law bought a Hub mobile and drove it as a stage between Loveland and Denver. He played baseball for Granby, and was an excellent dancer. He moved his family to several small towns west along the Colorado River and finally ended up in Steamboat Springs, where Jessie was born. After a while, they moved to Roosevelt, Utah. There he worked at the Peppard Seed Company where alfalfa seed was processed, and shipped. He went to Provo in 1923 to work at the Columbia Steel Plant that was under construction. He lived with a Johnson family while he was there and when they moved to California, he went with them. He left his wife to raise their six children and never went back to Roosevelt. In 1944, he went back to Granby and was the co-owner of the Granby Bar. In 1945, he became co-owner of the night club The SU-Z-Q in Denver. His lady friend bought out the other partner in the club. They sold it and bought the Western Inn west of Idaho Springs, unfortunately, it was a flop. He then bought a restaurant in Hot Sulphur Springs, where he died of coronary occlusion at age 67. He is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Denver. His motto was "Do unto others as you would have them do to you".
Copyright Brenda Tanner 2002.