Andrew J. Bagley
Andrew J. Bagley, a leading citizen of Orange Township and one of her self-made and substantial men, engages in farming and stock-raising on his property situated here, which consists of 218 acres of very valuable land. Mr. Bagley was born April 23, 1838, in Muskingum County, Ohio, and is a son of Samuel and Sarah (Lenhart) Bagley.
The pioneer of the Bagley family in Ohio, was the grandfather, Reuben Bagley, who started from Loudoun County, Virginia, in a two-horse wagon, with his wife, five sons and three daughters, the names of his children being John, Benjamin, Samuel, Hiram and Christopher, and Sarah, Betsey and Polly. Reuben Bagley settled in Muskingum County. At this time the son Samuel was a boy of 10 years and he grew to manhood on the pioneer farm and was subsequently married in Muskingum County to Sarah Lenhart. She was born in 1805 and died in June, 1861. Her parents were John and Eliza ( Morgan) Lenhart. Samuel Bagley was married (second) in 1862, to Lovitha Mathews, both deceased. In 1851 the parents of Andrew J. Bagley removed from Muskingum to Vinton County, Ohio, where they lived until death, the mother at the age of 56 years and the father aged 77 years. For 55 years he was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church and was conscientious in his support of all its uplifting agencies. For many years he was a subscriber to a religious journal and on the day of his death, walked a distance of a mile and a half in order to get it from the post office. He was suddenly stricken, and with apparently no suffering passed out of life, leaving behind him the record of a good man. His 11 children were born to his first union and two of these died in infancy. James William, the oldest survivor, resides at Logan, Hocking County, Ohio. Andrew J., of Orange Township, is the second in order of birth. Spencer resides at Rock Island, Illinois. John L. resides at Logan, in Hocking County. Samuel H. and Christopher both reside in Worth County, Missouri. Eliza Amanda died in Athens County Ohio. Arie Jane and Martha reside at Columbus.
Andrew J. Bagley attended the district schools of Vinton County and spent his boyhood on the home farm, after which he worked for a time through the neighborhood. When the Civil War was precipitated, Mr. Bagley's thoughts turned toward a military life, one strange enough to a country-bred youth, and his mind was. soon made up. On July 14, 1861, he enlisted in Company C, Thirty-ninth Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry, a company that was recruited in the neighborhood of Nelsonville. For a few days the regiment was detained at Cincinnati and at camp at Springfield and then was sent on to St. Louis, where it embarked for Island No. 10, down the Mississippi River. The military annals of the time tell how New Madrid was captured, with 1,600 Confederates evacuating Island No. 10. The regiment went on down the mighty river to Fort Pillow, and from there to Hamburg Landing. There the Thirty-ninth Regiment formed a part of the left wing of the army that participated in the battle of Shiloh which followed, and then continued to pursue the enemy to Farmington, where the latter made a slight stand, and then fell back to Corinth. Four regiments, including the Thirty-ninth, with a battery, were then detailed to guard the M. & C. Railroad. From there nearly the entire brigade went to Memphis. Tennessee.
At Memphis, in the winter of 1863-64, Mr. Bagley re-enlisted as a veteran, marched with his regiment from that city to Chattanooga. There General Sherman consolidated his forces for the Atlanta campaign, and Mr. Bagley was with the part of the army that pursued General Joseph Johnson, participating in that series of great battles reaching from Ringgold Station to Resaca, Dallas, Big Shanty and Kenesaw Mountain, followed by Marietta, Bethel Church and Chattahoochee River. He was also in the engagement at Decatur and in the battle of Peach Tree Creek. His regiment marched then to Jonesboro and to Lovejoy Station and after following General Hood and lighting in the battle at Franklin, returned to Atlanta. As a member, successively, of the 17th, 14th, 15th and 20th Army Corps, he saw extreme military hardship. He took part in the march to the sea and assisted in the taking of Atlanta and of the opening up of communication from there to Beaufort, South Carolina. His regiment reached that point by steamer, disembarked there and went on to Columbia, South Carolina, and from there to Goldsboro, North Carolina, and later to Raleigh, and at that city Mr. Bagley witnessed the meeting of those two great commanders, Generals Grant and Sherman. The fight at Raleigh, North Carolina, was the last one in which Mr. Bagley took part. He was promoted several times and during the last year's service he was with a four-gun battery. He was present at the Grand Review at Washington City. He is one of the 250,000 men out of the 300,000 first enlistments, who veteranized. He was finally mustered out after four years of faithful service, at Detroit. Michigan, and reached his home in June. 1865. He is a valued member of Price Post, Grand Army of the Republic, at Westerville. and prizes those occasions when he can talk over those old days of danger and hardship, but yet of great enthusiasm and patriotism, with comrades some of whom stood at his side when both faced almost certain death on many a southern battlefield.
Mr. Bagley has devoted himself to agricultural pursuits ever since the close of his army life, and he has been a resident of Delaware County for the past 30 years. His first purchase of land was of 90½ acres, which he subsequently traded for his present farm, paying a difference of $6,500 in cash. This property Mr. Bagley acquired through his own persistent industry, he being entirely a self-made man. His farm is so situated that it is well adapted to both the growing of grains and the developing of line stock. He has made many substantial improvements and his surroundings indicate thrift and good management.
In the fall of 1865, Mr. Bagley was married (first) to Hannah Allen, who was a daughter of David Allen, of Athens County, Ohio, and three children were born to this union, namely: William Sherman, who resides at Portland, Oregon; Sarah Agnes, who married William Jacox. and they reside in Orange Township and have two children, Harold and Wilbur; Samuel Fenton, who married Kate Sapp. They have four children—Glenn, Paul. Merrill and Edgar. On April 24. 1884, Mr. Bagley was married (second) to Sarah Frances Irwin, who was born in Berlin Township, Delaware County. Ohio, and is a daughter of James and Elizabeth (Cashner) Irwin. They have three children: Leroy, Leona and Lodemia. Leona married Arthur Freeman, a native of Delaware County, and they reside on the home place. They have three children. Frances Lucile, Willis and an infant. For 21 years Mr. Bagley has been a justice of the peace of Orange Township.
From 20th Century History of Delaware County, Ohio, and Representative Citizens by James R. Lytle