CHARLES WAGER, b 27 Aug 1835

WAGER, VAN STEINBERGER

Posted By: Donna Moldt Walker (email)
Date: 2/28/2005 at 07:03:00

Charles Wager, of Van Buren Township, has been for many years one of its most prominent citizens, and particularly interested in affairs of general moment to the community. He is a life-long farmer, a self-made man, and has been uniformly prosperous in his undertakings. He was Trustee at one time, and for the past nine years has been Township Assessor. He has likewise an army record to which he may point with pride, and is in fact one of those reliable and responsible men who are the necessary adjuncts to the building up of every well-regulated community. His family consists of an amiable and intelligent wife and accomplished daughter, the latter a fine musician, attractive in appearance, and, it is hardly necessary to say, the idol of her parents. They occupy a comfortable home, but in the near future will remove into a new dwelling which is in process of completion, and which in due time will be really elegant.

The subject of this sketch was born in Ludlowville, Lansing Township, Tompkins Co., N.Y., Aug. 27, 1835, and is the son of Admiral Wager. The paternal grandfather did good service as a soldier in the Revolutionary War. Charles, our subject, was thrown upon his own resources at an early age, leaving home when a lad of twelve years, and has since paddled his own canoe. He at first worked out on farms in his native State, attending school in the winter and acquiring such education as he had opportunity.

About the time of reaching his majority in 1856, young Wager resolved to seek his fortunes in the West, and accordingly coming to this county occupied himself as a farm laborer by the month until after the outbreak of the Civil War. He watched the conflict for more than a year, and then, there seeming no prospect of a close of the struggle, proffered his services to the Union cause, enlisting on the 2d of August, at Van Buren, in Company A, 24th Iowa Infantry, for three years or during the war. He was mustered into service at Muscatine and drilled there a couple of months. The regiment then received marching orders, proceeded to Helena, Ark., and soon afterward started on a raid in Mississippi and up the Black River.

Young Wager at the outset was made a corporal at Muscatine, and was soon afterward promoted to sergeant. His regiment now started on the Vicksburg campaign, fighting at Jackson, Port Gibson, Champion Hills, and the other battles included in the campaign. For forty-two days they lay in trenches before Vicksburg. Sergeant Wager, on account of efficient service, was tendered the commission of lieutenant, but his company was so depleted by sickness, wounds and death that it could not be mustered. After Vicksburg they fought at Jackson and Raymond, then proceeded to New Orleans and entered upon the Red River expedition The soldiers now suffered innumerable hardships and painful marches, and Mr. Wager, coming down the Arkansas River on a steamer, was severely wounded. He lay three months in the general hospital at Baton Rouge, when he was given a furlough and returned home. He recovered slowly and his furlough was extended. On the 19th of October, 1864, he rejoined his regiment in Cedar Creek, Va., and they were on the move all of the following winter around Savannah and Augusta, Ga., and up into the Carolinas, participating in the fight at Goldsboro, but not long afterward, receiving the news of Lee's surrender, were mustered out at Savannah on the 17th of July, 1865. Our subject received his final discharge and pay at Davenport, Iowa, and prepared to resume the peaceful pursuits of civil life.

Mr. Wager was married in July, 1867, to Miss Ellen, a sister of Capt. Van Steinberger, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work. Mrs. Wager was born in New York, and came to Iowa with her parents in 1857, when a maiden of fifteen years, they settling in Van Buren Township. They have one child only, Buelah, the daughter already spoken of. She has been given a good education, graduating from the Preston High School and taking a course in music at Grinnell College.

Politically, Mr. Wager is a Republican, "dyed in the wool," and is willing to sacrifice much for the sake of his principles. Socially, he belongs to G.A.R., Scofield Post at Miles, also to the Iowa Legion and the I.O.O.F. at Preston. In his farming operations he does not make a specialty of any one thing, but carries on general agriculture. He pursues the quiet and inoffensive life of a private citizen, is the friend of law and order, and bears an irreproachable character. He has taken a special interest in educational matters, and has officiated as Treasurer of his School District for a period of fifteen years, still holding the office.

("Portrait and Biographical Album of Jackson County, Iowa", originally published in 1889, by the Chapman Brothers, of Chicago, Illinois.)