James Manney Hagaman
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James Manney Hagaman (1830 – January 18, 1904) was a lawyer, land agent, newspaper editor, and the founder of
Concordia, Kansas Concordia is a city in and the county seat of Cloud County, Kansas, Cloud County, Kansas, United States. It is located along the Republican River in the Smoky Hills region of the Great Plains in North Central Kansas. As of the 2020 United State ...
. He and his wife settled in what is now Cloud County in 1860. In addition to founding the town of Concordia, he is credited with leading the movement to separate what was then Shirley Township from Washington County in 1866.


Political career

In 1866, the people of Shirley Township sent Hagaman to
Governor of Kansas A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political r ...
Samuel J. Crawford Samuel Johnson Crawford (April 10, 1835 – October 21, 1913) was a Union Army officer during the American Civil War, and the third Governor of Kansas (1865–1868). He also served as one of the first members of the Kansas Legislature. Ea ...
with the petition requesting the right to organize as a county. The governor granted permission and Shirley Township became Shirley County (later "Cloud" County). Hagaman was elected
county clerk A clerk is a white-collar worker who conducts general office tasks, or a worker who performs similar sales-related tasks in a retail environment. The responsibilities of clerical workers commonly include record keeping, filing, staffing service ...
and promptly became a candidate to be the first to represent Shirley County in the
Kansas House of Representatives The Kansas House of Representatives is the lower house of the legislature of the U.S. state of Kansas. Composed of 125 state representatives from districts with roughly equal populations of at least 19,000, its members are responsible for craftin ...
, losing to John B. Rupe. In 1868, he ran again for the Kansas House and this time won, barely defeating a man named Donoho. He later served two terms as Mayor of Concordia from 1878–1880 and also served five terms on the city council.


The founding of Concordia

As Hagaman rose to political power in the state of Kansas, he faced political opposition in the town of
Clyde, Kansas Clyde is a city in Cloud County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 694. It is located east of Concordia along state highway K-9. History Clyde was laid out in 1867, making it the oldest town in Cl ...
from several sources. In her book on the history of Concordia, Janet Pease Emery wrote:
Jim Hagaman was done with Clyde. He swore it would never be the county seat. If it took every ox, cow, and horse he owned, he'd see that the courthouse went elsewhere – even if he had to build a town himself. Madder than hops, Hagaman took out a claim in Lincoln Township and founded Concordia.


Newspaper editor

In 1879, Hagaman (along with his son James E. Hagaman) founded ''The Concordia Blade'' newspaper, the third local newspaper printed in the town. The paper struggled in its early years, as did the other local publications (''The Empire'' and ''the Republican''). In 1889 he sold out his interest to The Blade Publishing Company. All three papers were later merged to form the '' Concordia Blade-Empire'' which is still in publication as of 2013.


His death

James Hagaman died in Concordia in 1904. Although he had been behind the scenes for over 25 years and in front on both the town council and as the mayor, the city council made no official mention of his passing. Janet Pease Emery's book states "Hagaman left life passively, causing not a ripple in the pond where for so many years he was the big fish." Although no one knew how old he was at death, those close to him guessed he was around 73 years old. His widow Mary Hagaman purchased a cemetery plot and presumably buried him there in an unmarked grave.


Notes


References

* Concordia Blade Empire: http://www.bladeempire.com/ * Bell, Rachel Lowrey (1998a). A Proud Past... A Pictorial History of Concordia, Kansas, Marceline, Missouri: D-Books Publishing. * Emery, Janet Pease (1970a). It Takes People to Make a Town, Salina, Kansas: Arrow Printing Company. Library of Congress number 75-135688. {{DEFAULTSORT:Hagaman, James Manney 1830 births 1904 deaths Kansas city council members Mayors of places in Kansas Members of the Kansas House of Representatives People from Concordia, Kansas Editors of Kansas newspapers 19th-century American politicians