Alexander Wagstaff

Submitted by Marrie Miller

Far from the scenes, the inspirations, the friendship and the old traditions of his native county, which he left at the age of eleven years for a new home far across the sea and almost as far across the land, making the entire trip of several thousand miles without an associate he had ever seen before he started, Alexander Wagstaff of Crook county, Wyoming, is essentially a product of the American frontier, of American institutions, of American opportunities and lines of thought and action. He was born in "Merrie England" on June 13, 1866, on the banks of one of her romantic rivers, the son of Alfred and Emily (Price) Wagstaff, the father English and the mother being Scotch Welch by nativity. His father is a prosperous farmer in England, as he is in the United States, with the substantial difference, that the former's unit of measure in land is a foot while the latter's is an acre or a mile, so different are the conditions and the chances in agricultural pursuits in the two countries. In 1877, when he was but eleven years of age, Alexander dared the heaving ocean and the long trip across the American continent to Iowa where he had friends, and locating at the thriving little town of Indianola in Warren county, went to work on a farm, attending school in the winter months and here remaining six years, finishing his education with such facilities as were conveniently available and preparing for a wider sweep of vision and a larger business activity. In 1883 he came farther west to North Dakota and worked two years on a stock ranch near Jamestown and run the ranch for three years more. At the end of this period he removed to Montana and for four years was on a ranch near Deer Lodge, foreman for nearly all that time, then for a number of years rode the range in that state, still being a foreman. He then began traveling through Idaho, Utah, Nevada, California and other states, keeping up his wanderings until 1892 when he settled in Wyoming, and after a few months work on a ranch on Powder River, of which he had partial charge, he took up the ranch on which he now lives in Crook county nine miles south of Sundance. He has steadily improved and developed this ranch, reducing it to fertility and productiveness and building up on it an increasing stock industry, which is now one of the most desirable in his section of the county. In 1898 he enlisted in the state militia for the Spanish-American war, but his regiment was not called out. He, however, served his three years' term, in the meantime as he had opportunity pushing his ranch and stock business and he now owns 640 acres of excellent and well located land and is a successful and prosperous stockman. On July 4, 1895, in his home county, he was united in marriage with Miss Julia Waite, a native of Iowa and daughter of James and Emily Waite who removed to Crook county, Wyo, from Iowa and are now prominent farmers. Mr and Mrs Wagstaff had four children, Edgar, Robert, Ethel and Daisy. On October 18, 1901, the faithful wife and mother died and was buried at Sundance. In politics Mr Wagstaff is a zealous Republican, not an active worker in the party ranks, finding more congenial occupation in his home and its interests, preferring the general good of the community to any particular party advantage. He is highly esteemed as a leading and influential citizen whose voice and aid are on the side of every good enterprise and whose helpful friendship is available to all who seek it in the proper spirit.