William Wagamon & Catherine Marker
My great, great, grandparents

William Wagamon 1836-1910
Catherine Marker 1839-1922
Picture taken about 1910

    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 on 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 had 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 oi his father’s death. He remained with his mother until about twenty- two years of age assisting largely in carrying on the home farm.  He was then married to Catherine Marker, a native of Darke county, Ohio, and they began their domestic life upon a smaIl 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 heen 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 haIf acres of timber land, and this with another eighty acre tract makes his property a total 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.

Source:
Genealogical and Biographical History of Keokuk County
Published 1903. Pgs. 377, 378. WILLIAM WAGAMON.

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