Oklahoma Genealogical Society
The
Wagner Family in 1889 Oklahoma Run
From
Oklahoma Genealogical Society Quarterly Vol. 12, Nos. 1 & 2; For
March & June 1967
Transcribed
to Electronic form by Jo White
Contributed by Mrs. Howard W. Woodruff (Audrey
Lee Wagner), Kansas City, Missouri
Henry Wagner, my great
grandfather, was born in Harrison Co., Ohio in 1831 and died in Kansas City,
Mo. in 1913. He was the son of Levi and
Elizabeth (Feltenberger) Wagner. Henry
married three times: first to Elizabeth
Jane Keeton in Gallia Co., Ohio, in 1852; second to Lydia Sechrist in Miami
Co., Kansas in 1859; and third to Margaret “Maggie” Bailey Miller in Moultrie
Co., Ill. in 1876. Henry served as a
Corporal in the Civil War in Co. G., 47th Reg. of Ill. He was a farmer, hauled-reight (freight?),
and was a lay-preacher in the Christian Church.
Henry homesteaded in
Kansas prior to 1860, and following the Civil War, he returned to Kansas. In his late 50’s he headed out for Oklahoma
to participate in the 1889 land rush.
His claim was near the town of Hallett, Oklahoma. Walter Wagner, son of Henry, born in 1880 in
Johnson Co., Kansas, moved to Oklahoma as a child and recalls living for
several years in a sod house. When he
was in his early teens, a tornado swept across Oklahoma, destroying everything
in its path. Maggie and the children
were alone at the time and saw it moving toward their newly built home. Maggie cried out in despair, “Pray, Walter,
pray!” This son of a layman preacher
dropped to his knees and started to pray aloud. The tornado came rushing toward them with a mighty roar, suddenly
lifted and passed over the house, then dropped to the earth and continued on
its path of destruction. Walter was not
a religious man, but like “Jacob at Bethel,” at this one place God heard his
prayer. When he died in August 1955, he
was brought at his request, from his home in Shidler, Oklahoma to the cemetery
at Hallett, which was once a part of the original Wagner homestead.
Hiram Steffy Wagner,
“Steff,” my grandfather, was the oldest son of the above Henry and Elizabeth
Jane (Keeton) Wagner. He was born in
1854 in Gallia Co., Ohio and died in Independence, Mo. in 1918. He married Laura Lindsey Hudson, daughter of
Benjamin Christopher Brookins Hudson.
Henry and Steff lost tract (sic) of one another through the years, and
unbeknown to the other, they both moved to Oklahoma and participated in the
famous 89er land rush. Steff was the
first sheriff of Blackwell, Oklahoma.
His wife, Laura, baked bread and sold it to the over-populated town of
Blackwell. A brother-in-law, Frank
Brewer, who married Jessie Adelaid Hudson, was also in the land run. In the spring of 1895 the men sold their
claims and returned to Kansas. They
hired out one of their teams and returned home in the same wagon, leaving my
father, Glenn H. Wagner, a boy just turned 13, to stay on for a few weeks to
care for them. Later he made the trip
alone, from Blackwell, Oklahoma to Olathe, Kansas riding one horse and leading
the other, sleeping out nights and camping along the way. Some members of the Hudson family remained
in Oklahoma and live in the area of Kingfisher today.
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