Agee, Raymond and Hazel 36

Lea County Families and Histories, Then and Now, Vol II

Agee, Raymond and Hazel

By: Raymond C. Agee 

The first immigrant was Mathieu DeAge (pronounced Dahzhay) who had served in the Army of William of Orange., He was given a large land grant in Virginia and came there in 1692. He assumed the English equivalent of his French name, as found in II Samuel, 23:11, in the Bible.

His son, John, migrated to Popular Bluff, Missouri and started a boot and she factory. One of John’s sons fell into disfavor by marrying and Italian girl, Sereni Tempii, daughter of Guiseppe Tempii.a carpenter. The sons name was William Franklin Agee, a blacksmith and a gunsmith. William Franklin moved with his family to Cedar County, Missouri, where he opened a shop. His son, Sanford, was born there, and married Mary Margaret Gossett (called Maggie), a daughter of James F.Gossett, a Union veteran of the Civil War. He was also of French descent. They were married in Mary’s home, February 6^th, 1896. Two children were born to them in Cedar County, The y moved to Nevada, Missouri, where there third child was born.

They moved to Gas City, Kansas, in 1902, which was the largest gas field in the world, then. Raymond and his sister and brother (children of Sanford and Mary Agee) attended school there. The two eldest graduated from high school in Gas City.  Raymond attended high school his freshman year there, but graduated high school in Iola, Kansas in 1918. His interest was divided between history and electricity. To help finance his university education, he worked in an electric shop. He volunteered for the Army, but World War I ended, leaving him with 88 days of service. He worked at the electric trade 46 years, and received his Electrical Engineer’s degree by correspondence.

Raymond met Hazel Ophelia, nee Hazel Dunn, in 1939 and they were married eight weeks later. She had one son and one daughter, while he had two sons and one daughter. They left Cartharge, Missouri, and started for the west coast, but the stopped in Pampa, Texas, where he entered the employ of Skelly Oil Company. He was transferred to Eunice, New Mexico, in 1951, where he remained until his retirement in 1965, after 19 ½ years of employment. He purchased the house when the company sold the camp houses. 

Raymond and Hazel are member of he First Baptist Church, Eunice, and he was assistant teacher in the Spanish Speaking Sunday-school class until its end. Hazel does secretarial work in the Sunday school. He is Past Noble Grand of the Eunice Lodge of Odd Fellows, while Hazel is Past Noble Grand of the Rebecca Lodge.

Hazel’s son is a Captain on Western Airlines, while her daughter is a retired L.V.N. (Licensed Vocational Nurse). Raymond’s son is manager of Prudential Life Insurance Company in Minnesota. Raymond’s eldest son passed away in 1954, leaving a son and a daughter. We now have 14 living grandchildren and 33 great-grandchildren.