W. A. BAGLEY
W. A. Bagley came to Cass county in September, 1873, and located in Washington township. In 1874 he purchased some wild land on section 10, and in the last of March of that year, he moved into a small frame building, which he had previously built, and there began to cultivate his land. He has since replaced his small frame house by a neat, commodious one, has improved his farm, and has made an elegant place of the wild and uncultivated land. He was born in Athens county, Ohio, on the 2d of June, 1821, and is the son of Williams and Louisa Bagley. His father was a native of New Hampshire, and was one of the first white settlers in Muskingum valley. He was a clothier by trade, but on going to Ohio he purchased land and followed agricultural pursuits. He built a woolen mill on the Muskingum River, and in 1832 he traded his property for land in Logan county, where he lived three years, and went to Bureau county, Illinois. In 1837 he came to Iowa, and located in Muscatine county, where he died in 1838. The subject of this sketch remained in Muscatine county with his parents until 1852, when he went to Cedar county, and there remained about two years, when he returned to Muscatine county and purchased a farm. Two years later he returned to Cedar county, where he was engaged in the mercantile trade two years, when he moved to Milton township, that county, where he lived on a farm until 1873, when he came to Cass county. Mr. Bagley was married in 1848 to Lucretia Burgan, a native of Ohio. They have ten children -- William F., Mary, Charlie, Emma, Hattie, Sallie, Scott, Katie, Louis and Burt.
Transcribed by Gloria Goltiani from "History of Cass County, Iowa. Together With Sketches of its Towns, Villages and Townships, Educational, Civil, Military and Political History: Portraits of Prominent Persons, and Biographies of Old Settlers and Representative Citizens." Springfield, Ill.: Continental Historical Company, 1884, pp. 630.
