Hagemann, Fred P. (Senator)

FARWELL, KNIEF, NEVERMANN, WENTE

Posted By: BCGS
Date: 12/31/2009 at 15:08:17

Fred P. Hagemann, who was chosen state senator at a special election on the 17th of February, 1913, enjoys an enviable reputation as a successful attorney of Waverly, where he has practiced his profession in association with Frank E. Farwell for the past seventeen years. His birth occurred in Maxfield township, Bremer county, on the 25th of December, 1869, his parents being Frederick and Dorothea (Knief) Hagemann, natives of Hesse, Germany. The father, who was born on the 11th of October, 1824, passed away on the 11th of June, 1912. He emigrated to the United States, locating first near Waverly, Ohio, where he had a brother in the ministry. After a short time, however, he came to Iowa and took up his abode in Maxfield township, Bremer county, where he became a landowner and followed farming until about 1897. At that time he put aside the active work of the field and passed the next four years in retirement at Denver, Iowa, while the remainer of his life was spent at Waverly. He served in the capacity of township assessor for a number of terms and was widely recognized as a representative and esteemed citizen of the community.

Fred P. Hagemann, the seventh in order of birth in a family of thirteen children, began his education in the district school of his native township and subsequently spent a year in Wartburg College at Mendota, Illinois. He likewise pursued preparatory courses in the colleges at Waterloo and at Iowa Falls and in the Iowa City Academy. In the fall of 1892 he entered the State University of Iowa for the regular collegiate course which he finished in 1895. He graduated from the law department of the same institution with the class of 1896. He was about fourteen years of age when he became a student in Wartburg College at Mendota, Illinois, and at the end of a year spent in that institution began working for others as a farm hand and also at the painter's trade. Between the ages of eighteen and twenty-three years, while obtaining his preparatory professional training, he was employed by others at intervals, working at the painter's trade during the last three years of that period. While attending the State University he spent his Saturdays and vacation periods in work at that occupation and thus acquired his excellent education without much expense to his parents. After being admitted to the bar he began the general practice of law in partnership with Frank E. Farwell, who has remained his associate throughout the intervening seventeen years. He has likewise served as county superintendent of schools for four years, making a splendid record in that connection. His active and helpful interest in charitable and religious organizations is indicated in the fact that for a number of years he has been a member of the executive committee of the Orphans' Home, acts as treasurer of the Lutheran Mutual Aid Society and is also a trustee of the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of Iowa and Other States. He is a stockholder of the Waverly Savings Bank and of the German Savings Bank at Tripoli and is likewise the owner of valuable business and residence property in Waverly. As an attorney he has always been careful to conform his practice to a high standard of professional ethics and has never sought to misrepresent in a matter of fact or law. He has ever treated the court with the studied courtesy which is its due, and has alway refrained from indulging in malicious criticism because it arrived at a different conclusion, in the decison of a case, from that which he hoped to hear. He is calm, dignified, self-controlled, and has given to his clients the service of great talent, unwearied industry and broad learning.

On the 25th of May, 1898, Senator Hagemann was united in wedlock to Miss Sophia Neverman, who was born in Maxfield township, Bremer county, her parents being John H. and Sophia (Wente) Neverman, the former a native of Germany and the latter of Bremer county, Iowa. Mr. Neverman emigrated to the United States and became an extensive landowner and very successful agriculturist of this county. He is now living retired in Waverly with his wife, who also survives. At one time he held the office of justice of the peace in Maxfield township. Mrs. Hagemann, the youngest in a family of four children, has by her marriage become the mother of two children, namely: Vernon Fred, who was born on the 14th of Octoer, 1901; and Carl E., whose natal day was July 5, 1906.

In politics Fred P. Hagemann has ever been a staunch and loyal democrat. He was chosen senator at a special election on the 17th of February, 1913, winning by a plurality of over twelve hundred although the district had been republican for twenty-six years. His record since that time has completely justified the honor which was thus conferred upon him. In religious faith he is a Lutheran, belonging to the church of that denomination at Waverly. He has held various official positions in the church, including that of secretary, and is likewise a member of the Lutheran school board. He was serving as president of the library board when the building was put up and he was instrumental in securing the Carnegie donation for the same. Senator Hagemann has endeavored to make his life a serviceable factor in the world's work, and Waverly honors him as one whose labors have been effective forces for public progress and improvement along many lines.

History of Bremer County, Iowa Vol. II 1914