My Stuff: Douglas Bagley

Stephen Bagley – Immigrant, Civil War Veteran and long time Plymouth In. Resident – by Douglas Bagley

My Great Grandfather Stephen Bagley was born in the Alsace-Lorraine Region of France in December of 1843, his parents were John (1814) and Magdelina Juter (1810). Stephen and his older brother Thiobold (SP?) (1841) along with their parents immigrated to the United States in 1848, it is not clear if a 3rd child Frances was born in the United States or France in 1848. We know the family can be found in the 1850 US Census living in District 135 Washington township, Stark County Ohio which is Northeast of Canton Ohio and and Southeast of Akron. John’s occupation is listed as a Weaver in this same Census.

The next item we have concerning Stephen is he was drafted into the US Army, 19th Ohio Co. H on October 8th 1862, at the time he was still living in Stark County Ohio. He was mustered in on November 8th, 1862 at Camp Mansfield Ohio for a period of 9 months. He was 18 when mustered into the army, was 5’5″ tall, had black hair, grey eyes and is listed as a farmer.

There is no record if Stephen ever saw any fighting while he was in the Army, his Unit figured heavily in the Battle of Stone’s River in TN. but the documents above seems to indicate he was located at an Army Hospital in Bowling Green KY during this engagement. He would have been with the 19th during the beginning phases of the Chattanooga TN campaign, but again nothing in the records indicates any engagements he may of participated in.

We do know that he was discharged from the Army July 24th, 1863 at McMinnville, Tn which Southeast of Murfreesboro.

It appears instead of going back to Ohio, he traveled with an Army buddy Casimere Wickey to Plymouth In, were he marries Louisa Wickey on June 18, 1868 in Plymouth.

Stephen and Louisa would have 6 children, 5 girls and 1 boy; Justine, Maria Magdalene (1869), Maria Louisa (1871), Christina Anna Eva (1873), Johannes “John” (1874), Mary (1877). Of the Children I know that John would pass away in Milwaukee, not sure of the date. Justine would marry a Robert Schoeniebe and Mary would marry a Buckley(?).

Louisa would pass away in 1879 from consumption.

Stephen would then marry Mary Kruyer who was born in Holland, in Chicago about 1880, they would have 2 children both girls: Mary(?) (1881) and Maria “Lena” (1885), again I do not have any information on these children. I did hear of talk of “Chicago” Aunts, but I have no details at this time, it could be the girls from his 1st marriage ended up in Chicago also.

Mary would pass away in 1889 and for the second time Stephen would be widower.

On August 27,1891, Stephen married for a 3rd time to Margaret Roth an immigrant from Germany (my note have Munich, but not sure if correct?), I have her arriving in the US on June 18, 1890. Family legend has Margaret seeing Stephen working as a Carpenter on house and declaring she was going to marry him. Margaret was my Great Grandmother. Stephen and Margaret would have 4 children, Edward Aloysius (1892), Elizabeth “Lizzie” Gertrude (1894), Joseph Peter Bagley (1896) and Francis (Frank) Bernard (1899). All the boys would end up in the Plymouth In. area and have families of their own, Elizabeth would become a Nun and would run the St. Mary’s bookstore for many years (while not being a Nun another Bagley would end up running a bookstore for another Catholic University).

Below is a pictures which is said to be Stephen Bagley, based on the bike, I would say this was took in the late 1880 of through the 1890s.

Stephen would work in Plymouth through the years, we know he worked as both a Bartender and a Carpenter around town. Another Family Legend has Stephen closing up a Bar and on his way home is attacked with an iron bar across his face and the bar money was taken, what was different is that whoever did this deed picked Stephen up and carried him to Stephen and Margaret house located on 1100 North Walnut St. and left him on the front porch. It was reported lost and eye in this attack.

Stephen built the house at 1100 North Walnut St with his own hands, the house is still owned by a descendent of Stephen and Margaret.

Below in a picture of Margaret

Stephen would die on September 30, 1903, Margaret would not follow until September 18, 1954. When Stephen died he left 4 childern with his widow.

If you know or have any other information on Stephen please contact me so I can include it in the family history.

Frank Bagley – WWI Diary by Douglas Bagley

I recently read Jeff Shaara “To The Last Man” and started to think about my Grandfathers WWI experiences. Luckily he decided to keep a diary of his experiences, what it contained is really the story of a small town kid with big dreams about serving his country and the reality of his experiences.  He will see no combat or any heroics, instead he will see the tediousness of being a soldiers and it’s daily routines.  It probably also says a lot about what becomes foremost in a soldiers life day to day.

My Grandfather was a small man and had to try several times to enlist, often failing the minimum weight requirement to enlist, after several attempts to join at several different locations within the state of Indiana he was finally accepted.  The artical below describes his adventures just to join the Army:

The story is when he got ton Indianapolis he still did not met the weight limit of 110, so he consumed several bunches of bananas and eventualy was re-weighed; thus passing the physical exam at last. (I saw this in a newspaper artical, but could not find the actual artical.

He was inducted into the Army in Indianapolis, IN and was sent to Fort Thomas, KY for basic training.  After completion of his basic training he was sent to Camp Crane, Pa for advance training, according to his records he was assigned as a clerk in the American Ambulance Services.  While at Camp Crane he obviously received word from home that some of the locals were giving his mother a hard time, she was born in Germany and had grown up around Munich before coming to the USA as a young lady.  In my Great Grandfathers Obit she was described as “an estimable German Lady”. 

Below is a letter to the editor which addressed the harrassment of his mother, and his plans to remediate the problem:

I have to admit the part where he talks about his Father’s service (My Great Grandfather) in the Union Army as being 4 years, was not quite correct, Great Grandfather Stephen actually served as a 9 months volunteer and then was mustered out after that time.

Below are excerpts from the diary my Grandfather kept to record his experiences in the Great War. Since the original diary is fairly hard to read, I created a version of what I could by attempting to overcome light writing, cryptic entries, misspellings and my own mistyping.words:

From one of the first entries, he seems to have gained weight in the Army going from 108 to 116 (I know I also gained weight in basic going from 140 to 156). He seemed to be impressed by New York, but had no real oppurtunity to see it.

In the entry below, he is shipped out to Europe a trip which will last 11 days. The first point of entry is England where they stay a couple of days before going to France. He arrives in France on the same day the armistead is signed with Germany, it would appear he arrived while a state of war was still in place, but by 11am on 11/11 all fighting ceases. With the armestead signed, we know the actual war was over now, back in 1918 there will be real fear that hostilities will resume if the peace process breaks down, so the Allied Forces will keep a tight viliagence for the next couple of months.

He would spend the next several months cleaning up after the Great War, he was listed as a clerk in the Medical Service of the US Army. A lot of the following he discusses food, sleep, basic hygene issues, marching and being packed on trains to move all around France. All the normal concerns of GIs around the world and in all the wars, while the battles may have been over, the GIs stilled lived and worked in what we would call primative ennvironments.

In the description below in very vivid detail, he discusses the water situation they encountered.

In May of 1919 finally boarded ship to take them back home to America, spent a day at Gibralter which seemed to make a big impression on him.

He finally gets back to the USA in June of 1919, last entry started through the MILL, the last step in being a solider now as well as then.