Vedder, O. F. and Lyman, H. S.  "History of Seattle, Washington - With
Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of Some of its Prominent Men and
Pioneers." Frederic James Grant, Ed.  New York: American Publishing and
Engraving Co., 1891.  p. 425.

DANIEL BAGLEY

     Was born in Hayfield township, Crawford county, Pennsylvania, September 7,
1818, his parents, David and Betsy Bagley, having moved there from Central New
York a few years before.  Pennsylvania was then a heavily wooded region, and the
subject of this sketch, during his boyhood and youth, aided his father in
clearing a farm and cultivating the same.  The district school, kept in a little
log cabin, afforded him the sole means of education, and only in the winter
months could he be spared to pursue his studies.  He made such good use of his
opportunities that at eighteen he began to teach school in the same and
adjoining districts.  At about twenty he went to Caledonia Springs, near
Rochester, New York, and engaged in farming and wood chopping for about a year.
On his return home he gave all of his small earnings, except seventy-five cents,
to his father.  He then earned enough to take him to Kentucky, near Covington,
and at big Bone Lick, he taught for about four months a private, open school,
after the custom of that region.  Schools would open as early in the morning as
teacher and pupils could get to the school house, not later that 8 a.m., and
continue, except at recess and noontime until about 5 p.m.  Every scholar
studied "out loud" to enable the pedagogue to know if each individual youngster
was studying and whether he was studying correctly.  The benches are desks were
of split logs, with the flat sides surfaced with a broadaxe, and pegs driven
into auger holes for legs.  He returned to the old home in Pennsylvania in the
summer of 1840.
     Jeremiah and Nancy Whipple moved from Massachusetts about 1810 and settled
near the Bagley farm, and their eldest daughter, Susannah R., and young Daniel
attended the same schools and grew to manhood and womanhood together.  Their
acquaintance here ripened into love and on August 15, 1840, they were united in
marriage.
     A few days later they started for the prairies of Illinois, and there
settled on a claim near Somanauk.  The husband farmed and taught school for two
years, while the wife performed the household duties of their small and
primitive cabin.  In 1842 Mr. Bagley was admitted into the ministry of the
Methodist Protestant church, and for ten years was engaged in active ministerial
work, nominally being stationed at one place each year, but in reality traveling
summer and winter from the south, near Springfield, to the northern boundaries
of the state.  buffalo and Indian trails then gridironed the broad and thinly
settled prairies, and were not succeeded by the iron rails of the early
railroads of the state until 1850 and the decade succeeding.  At Princeton,
Bureau county, the first home of the still young couple was established.
     A large number of earnest, independent spirits had settled in this region,
and the anti-slavery agitation that was then beginning to attract public
attention drew these together, and Princeton became the center of the movement
for the surrounding region.  Owen Lovejoy, whose brother had been murdered at
Alton, Illinois, a few years before by the pro-slavery element, occupied the
pulpit of the Congregational church there regularly, and Mr. Bagley's church
stood but a few rods away, and they united in religious and philanthropical
work.  They made several tours into the surrounding country and time and again
their anti-slavery meetings were disturbed and broken up by the pro-slavery
roughs of the day.  At Peoria they were rotten-egged out of the court house and
out of the public grounds.  During the closing years of the forties and early in
the fifties California and Oregon attracted a great deal of attention, and the
more enterprising of the younger generation began the westward movement that has
for forty years gone on in an ever-swelling tide.  In 1852, Rev. Daniel Bagley
was chosen by the board of missions of his church as missionary to Oregon, which
then extended from the summit of the Rocky mountains to the Pacific ocean, and
from California to the line of the British possessions.  On the 20th of April,
1852, a wagon train started from Princeton, westward.  In that train were the
subject of this sketch, also Judge Thomas Mercer and family, Dexton Horton, Esq.
and family, and William H. Shoudy, Esq., now of Seattle, and Mr. Aaron Mercer
and wife, now of Renton, this county.  this train crossed the Missouri river May
22, 1852, at Kanesville, Iowa, opposite the present site of Omaha.  Thousands of
Indians were camped at that point, and from there until the emigrants reached
the Dalles, their way was through an Indian country.  Those moving to the
Pacific coast that year were an army in numbers, so that the danger from Indians
was not serious, but the hardships and sufferings of the emigrants were
increased.  The difficulties of securing water and feed for the stock were great
and cholera became epidemic.  However, the fifteen or twenty families of this
particular train, after nearly five months of almost constant travel, arrived at
the Dalles, on the Columbia river, without the loss of one of their number and
with, practically, all their wagons and stock.  Here they separated, only two or
three families accompanying Mr. and Mrs. Bagley to Salem, Oregon, where they
ended their journey September 21, 1852.
     Mr. Bagley at once began active ministerial and missionary work, and
labored unremittingly in all parts of the Willamette valley the next eight
years.  He established about a score of churches and probably half that number
of church edifices were built mainly through his instrumentality.  this was long
prior to the advent of telegraphs and railroads, and the conveniences and
comforts of modern travel.  His labors extended from the Umpqua on the south to
the Columbia river on the north, and it was rare indeed that he remained at home
twenty days in succession and, in fact, a large part of these eight years was
employed in itinerant work, traveling through heat and dust, rain, snow, mud and
floods, by day and night, nearly entirely on horse back, so that at forty years
of age his constitution was greatly impaired by exposure and overwork.
     During all their married life Mrs. Bagley had been an invalid, and in
October, 1860, the family removed from near Salem to Seattle, hoping the change
of climate would prove beneficial to both of them.  The trip was made entirely
overland in a buggy -- except from Portland to Monticello -- and the trip that
can now be made in as many hours, required ten days to accomplish.  They brought
the number of families in the village up to an even twenty.
     The unbroken forest began where the postoffice of Columbia street now
stands, and at no point was it more than 250 yards from the waters of the bay.
     Mr. Bagley was again the pioneer minister of his church in this region and
for most of the time, covering the war of the rebellion, he was the only
clergyman stationed here.  A small church house, unceiled and unplastered, had
been put up several years before by Rev. D. E. Blaine, but the Methodist
Episcopal church had no minister here, so Mr. Bagley and a small band of
worshipers gathered there.  Early in 1865 the historic "Brown church" was built
at the corner of Second and Madison streets, and Mr. Bagley's manual labor and
private purse contributed largely to that work.
     From the time of his arrival in Seattle in 1860, until 1871, besides
regular ministerial work Mr. Bagley was among the foremost in all efforts for
the advancement of the material interests of the place.  His connection with the
building of the Territorial University and the opening of the Newcastle coal
mines is referred to at considerable length elsewhere in this work and will not
be recited here, though it will be proper to emphasize the declaration that to
him justly belongs, to an eminent degree, the credit of securing to the
claimants their titles to the coal lands at Newcastle and at Squak, and the
pioneer work in developing the mines at the former place.  A large share of his
time and all of his small private fortune were devoted to the work, and after
the Seattle Coal company had reached the end of its tether he pledged his
personal credit and saved the company from bankruptcy.
     During the civil war he took an earnest and active part in politics, not as
a candidate, but as a director and leader, first in the Union party and then in
the Republican party, and from 1860 until about 1875, he attended nearly all
county and territorial conventions as a delegate, and also did a good deal of
editorial work for some of the earlier papers in Seattle and the Puget Sound
Courier of Olympia.
     Early in life he became a member of the F. and A. Masons, and soon after
his arrival in Seattle joined in the institution of St. John's Lodge, was chosen
master of that lodge and soon after received the honor of an election as grand
master of the territorial grand lodge.  He has always maintained his connection
with the order, but for many years has not attended its sessions.
     From the time of the organization of the Methodist Protestant church in
Seattle until the year 1885, a period of a little more than twenty years, he was
continued as pastor.  Since his resignation in 1885, he has done a great deal of
ministerial work, and under his direction and as a result of his efforts small
churches have been built at Duwamish, Renton, Ballard and Yesler, and during
much of this time he has made weekly trips to and conducted religious services
at some one of these places.  Early in the fifties the annual conference of the
M.P. church was organized in Oregon.  The churches in Seattle have remained a
part of that organization, and for much of this long period he has been
continued as president of that body, and several times has gone to the eastern
states as delegate to the general conference of the state organizations.  The
church that he instituted on the Pacific coast, and which has had local churches
organized in Oregon, Washington and California, has never gained much numerical
strength, and its continued existence here has been mainly owing to his vigorous
personality and efforts, until comparatively recent times, when he was
reinforced by other ministerial support of ability and influence.
     Early in January, 1862, while visiting in Olympia, Mrs. Bagley slipped on
an icy sidewalk, fell and injured herself so severely that she has had to use
crutches ever since.  During the last half century she has scarcely known a day
free from illness and pain, but all these years she has been cheerful and
patient and borne the cares and performed the duties of a clergyman's wife to
the best of her ability and without complaint, and has indeed been a loving
helpmeet.  Much of the time compelled to remain at home, often with a child of
infant years her sole companion, and denied the society of her husband -- not
having the physical strength to accompany him -- she shared little in the
romance and adventure of pioneer life, but all the burdens of a pioneer's wife
fell upon her with added weight.
     To them was first born a daughter, who died an infant.  November 30, 1843,
Clarence B., their only son, was born.  He is now a resident of Seattle.  In
1865 he was married to Alice, the daughter of Hon. Thomas Mercer, one of the
earliest pioneers of this place, and they, with their family of five children,
and the grandfather and grandmother Bagley all live near each other in the
northern part of the city.  Here in their declining years, having reached more
than the allotted space, the subject of this sketch and his wife have a lovely
home and enjoy the comforts of civilization, of which they were in the vanguard
the first three-score years of their lives, and at seventy-two years of age they
are apparently as strong as during the past ten years and more, and may be
expected to remain with their friends and loved ones for years to come.

* * * *

Submitted to the WA. Bios Project in February 2006 by Diana Smith.

Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies
Project. Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the
individual featured in the biographies.