Fred E. Wagner was born to Charles/Carl and Mary Wagner in February, 1869, in Outagamie County, Wisconsin, the fifth of eight children. His parents were both born in Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Prussia (later Germany) about 1836. His parents were in the state of New York for several years after their arrival in America, where their first three children were born. Charles/Carl died between 1876 and 1880, and Mary and the six younger children continued to live on the family farm.
Fred went to Alaska to become a gold miner, probably sometime after 1885. By 1896 he was in Utah, probably working in the mines, or maybe in railroad construction.
Fred and Ellen Elizabeth Williams were married May 20, 1896, in Tooele, Utah, and 14-pound Winifred was born there on March 25, 1897. The family moved to Lawton, Grant County, Oregon, where Elmer was born December 16, 1900.
Shortly after that the family moved to Washington State and acquired (by homestead or outright purchase?) 160 acres in Douglas County, four miles southeast of Wenatchee. Fertile soil and sufficient rainfall allowed them to grow an abundant crop of vegetables, for which the growing population of the area provided a ready market. Fred sometimes supplemented their income by working as a miner.
His marriage to Ellen ended in divorce; and in August, 1910, he and the two boys (ages 13 and 9) took a train to Homestead, Dade County, Florida, where he acquired land which had to be cleared for farming. While there he worked part-time in Cuba, leaving the boys to tend the property and to go to school. In 1917 Fred returned to Wenatchee, sending for the boys two months later. He lived on his half of the 160 acres in Douglas County; but during his seven-year absence the area had been stricken with drought, and without water the land was not productive.
The boys stayed with him only a short time before going to live with their mother in Omak, Washington.
I don't know when or how he disposed of the Douglas County land, but that is listed as his address in the 1920-21 Polk Directory. The 1920 federal census lists Fred, age 51, on his Douglas Co. wheat farm; all of his neighbors were fruit farmers. On this census he declared that both of his parents were born in New York; it was undesirable at that time to be German. Living with him was a widowed housekeeper, age 41, and her 15-year old daughter.
In the 1922-23 Polk Directory Fred is shown as living at the foot of Palouse St. and working as a trucker for the Great Northern Railway. He is not listed in the 1923-24 edition; but the 1925-26 directory shows his residence as 704 Cashmere St., Wenatchee, and his occupation as a miner.
In 1925 or '26 Fred was injured in an accident and required extensive medical care, including a year at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, after which he was cared for in the home of his sister-in-law Annie, widow of his youngest brother, Ludwick (Louie) Wagner, in Black Creek, Wisconsin. His leg was amputated in January, 1928, and he died February 25, 1928. His will left $1.00 to each of his sons and the balance to Annie Wagner.
Sources: June 22,1990 visit with Winfred/Fred Wagner
U. S. censuses -- 1870, 1880, 1900, 1910, and 1920
Venus Wagner's diaries
Copy of his will
Family anecdotes
Obituary
1910 Douglas County tax map
Polk Directories
Prepared by Lavere Peters June 23, 1990
Added 1920 census Oct. 9, 1996