Henry O.  Ager

Henry O.  AGER, of Liberty, has been identified with the drug business at this place as a merchant for thirty years, although he has been a resident of this place for ten years longer. Coming here at the time when the little town entered upon a period of most remarkable growth in numbers and expansion of business, he took a hand in its busy life, has grown in fortune and business experience with its growth, and has lived to see this become one of the most prosperous little municipalities of the eastern part of the great Lone Star state. Mr. Ager was born at Patterson, St. Mary's Parish, Louisiana, October 18, 1852, and is a son of William and Euphemia J. (Bourg) Ager. His father, William Ager, was born in the state of Maryland and as a young man migrated to Louisiana. He was a descendant of English stock and had the following brothers and sisters: Margaret, who married a Mr. Stover and spent her life in Ohio; Mary, who became the wife of Mr. Yant, of Ohio; John, who reared his family in Indiana; Isaac, who was also long a resident of the Hoosier state, and Henry, who brought up his family in Adams county, Wisconsin. At the age of thirty-four years William Ager was married to Euphemia J. Bourg, of Patterson, the daughter of a farmer of French and English descent, and they became the parents of the following children: Margaret, who married W. D. Hayes and died in Louisiana; Sarah H., who married W. S. Jones and resides at Patterson, Louisiana; Mary Camilla, who married A. H. Rentrop and resides in Louisiana; Henry O., of this review; John F., who died March 9, 1914, and William J., who resides in Louisiana. William Ager had no official or political connection with his locality, nor had he any military history, having been content to pass his life in mercantile pursuits. He passed away in Louisiana in 1879, when sixty-eight years of age, while the mother died in December of the same year, having reached her fifty-fourth year. Henry O. Ager received only a country school education and on completing his studies applied himself to learning the drug business. He was twenty-two years of age when he first came to Liberty and for a few years worked as a clerk, then returning to his Louisiana home. He had recognized the possibilities of this growing section of Texas, however, and had determined to establish himself here in business at the first favorable opportunity, and accordingly in 1884 came back to make a place for himself among the business men here. He was possessed of ambition and determination, but these qualities about comprised all of his visible capital, for he had but $150.00 in money with which to enter the competition of a fast-growing community. However, nothing daunted, he invested his means in a small stock, of drugs and located in a one-story frame building and this formed the nucleus for his present handsome establishment, although grass is now growing on the spot where the first little building stood. He has done business here for thirty years without interruption, save for a fire which destroyed his store in 1909, and in that year he erected his present establishment on a conspicuous corner, a two-story brick structure, 25x60 feet, which is equipped with all modern improvements and houses a finely assorted stock of drugs, medicines, toilet articles, etc. Through the years Mr. Ager has taken an interest in banking and in 1907 became one of the owners of the First State Bank of Liberty, an institution with $20,000 stock, of which he is president and a member of the board of directors. He is also president of the school board here, being interested in the cause of education, and has been a member of the board for six years. A Democrat in his political views, Mr. Ager in the early part of his career here served in the capacity of city treasurer of Liberty, and in 1894 was elected county clerk of Liberty county, serving one term as the successor of B. F. Cameron, and being succeeded in turn by E. B. Pickett, Sr. A man of few words and deliberate movement, he is careful in his judgment, although quick to recogniie and grasp an opportunity. At all times he has demonstrated his ability as a business man and his worth as a citizen, and his business associates and the public at large have every reason to place the utmost confidence in him.Mr. Ager was married at Elroy, Wisconsin, February 4, 1903, to Miss Bridget E. Garrity, a daughter of James and Catherine (McGowan) Garrity, who came to the United States from Ireland. Mrs. Ager was one of a large family of children. Two children have been born to Mr. and Mrs. Ager: Henry O., Jr., and John W. The family is identified with the Catholic church. In 1905 Mr. Ager erected his family home, the best residence in Liberty, a two-story house of ten rooms, following the Colonial style of architecture.

[Source: "A history of Texas and Texans", Volume 3, By Francis White Johnson, Ernest William Winkler, 1914 - Submitted by K. Torp]