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Wagner Family Photographs

 

 

The Second Generation:




Phillip Wagner, early 1900s.
Son of Johann and Anna.  He was born near Samara, Russia, in 1869, and came with his parents and younger brother George to the United States aboard the MOSEL in 1876.

(Photograph courtesy of Sherry (Pearce) Hartline of Oklahoma, descended through Phillip and his first wife Rhoda (Freiholtz) Wagner.

Click here for information on the line of descent from Phillip and Rhoda (Freiholtz) Wagner to the Smith, Burke, and Pearce families.
George Wagner, c. 1895.

Son of Johann and Anna.  He was born near Samara, Russia, on 24 Jun 1875, and was brought with his parents and older brother Phillip to the United States aboard the MOSEL in 1876.
He played the cornet — and as more than a hobby, as he was a member of the Kansas City Musicians Association for many years —(see his 1942 City Directory listing under this website's Census tab).  He was originally, however, a journeyman leatherworker, specializing in horse harnesses and collars — but when that field collapsed at the dawn of the automobile age, he became a machinist.  George died in Kansas City [Wyandotte] Kansas on 5 Jan 1958.
Brothers  Phillip and George Wagner,
a formal portrait probably from around the turn of the 20th Century.

(Below:  Frederick Wagner,
third son of Johann and Anna, probably taken in the early 1890s.

Photographs provided (June 2011) by Robert Wagner of Mission, Kansas,
via his nephew Frederick Briuer of Vicksburg, Mississippi.

(Phillip, George, and Frederick were Robert's great-uncles.)

     



Lura May Williams married George Wagner on 14 Apr 1897 in Kansas City, Missouri.  On the marriage certificate, her name is spelled Laura.

She died in a tragic accident:  a merchant had mistakenly supplied "white gasoline" instead of kerosene, and when a table lamp was filled and lit, there was a fatal explosion.

(Left photograph, Lura in 1898; right, c. 1910.)

These photographs are from the collection of Frederick Briuer of Mississippi, great-grandson of George and Lura.  The one on the right may have been "mirror-imaged" in reproduction — here, it is reversed to what appears to be its proper orientation.
(Note her naturally arching right eyebrow.)

     

Lula Belle (Beck) Wagner, (standing, far left),
George Wagner, (seated);
standing on the right are Edna Estelle Beck, Lula's younger sister, and Elmer Otto Wagner, George's son by his previous marriage. — c. 1915, Kansas City, Kansas.

Lula Belle and George were married on 27 Dec 1913 in Olathe [Johnson] Kansas — a second marriage for each.  Elmer Otto Wagner, standing on the right above, was George's son by his first wife, Lura (Laura) May (Williams) Wagner.


George Wagner, c. 1935.

He played the cornet, and was sufficiently adept to be a member of the Kansas City chapter of the Musicians Association from before World War I until his death in 1958.

His second wife, Lula Belle (Beck) Wagner, played the mandolin — but we doubt they performed duets!


George and Lula Belle (Beck) Wagner,
late 1940s, Kansas City, Kansas.

This may have been taken in 1950, when Lula Belle was beginning to show signs of the illness to which she succumbed in 1951.  Her earlier pictures show her generally more robust . . .
George Wagner, 1951,
outside his home at 4100 Booth Street, Kansas City [Wyandotte] Kansas.

Considering his formal, somber, and cold-weather attire, this was likely taken during the week of his second wife's funeral — she (Lula Belle [Beck] Wagner) died 16 Jun 1951.

(This photograph is a single frame extracted from 8mm home movie film taken by his son, Billy Eugene Wagner, and digitized (DVD) by his grandson, Billy Eugene Wagner II.)