Palo Pinto County Biographies

A HISTORY OF TEXAS AND TEXANS, Vol 3 - By Francis White Johnson, Published by The American Historical Society, 1914

Hugh F. Wagley, M. D. Northern Texas has its due quota of able and honored representatives of the medical profession, and a prominent and popular one of this number is Dr. Wagley, who is engaged in the successful practice of his profession in the thriving and attractive little city of Mineral Wells, Palo Pinto County. He is enthusiastic in advocating the efficacy of the splendid mineral waters that give the town its name, and believes that they constitute a sovereign remedial agent in the treatment of many of the ills to which humanity is heir. His loyalty to the Lone Star state is fortified also by his appreciation of its manifold advantages and resources as well as by his recognition of its salubrious climate. He controls a large and representative practice in the county in which he resides and his admirable professional attainments combine with his sterling personality to give him inviolable place in popular esteem.

            Dr. Wagley was born in Sabine Parish, Louisiana, on the 16th of February, 1865, and is a son of Benjamin F. and E. S. (Armstrong) Wagley, both of whom, now venerable in years, maintain their home at Marthaville, Natchitoches Parish, Louisiana, where they are held in high esteem by all who know them, the father being seventy-six years of age at the time of this writing, in 1913, retaining marked mental and physical vigor. Benjamin F. Wagley was long numbered among the representative planters of Louisiana, where he owned a large landed estate and owned numerous slaves prior to the Civil war. When this great conflict between the states of the north and south was precipitated he showed his distinctive loyalty to the cause of the Confederacy by enlisting as a member of a Louisiana volunteer regiment. With his command he participated in a number of important engagements marking the progress of the war, and in one of those battles he received a saber wound in the face. He continued in active service until the close of the war and he manifests his abiding interest in his old comrades in arms by maintaining affiliation with the United Confederate Veterans' Association.

            The third in order of birth in a family of four sons and three daughters, Dr. Hugh F. Wagley was born in the year that marked the close of the Civil war, and his father, like so many other representative men of the south, suffered severe losses through the ravages of the great conflict, though the family fortunes were retrieved by earnest and well-ordered effort. The Doctor gained his rudimentary education in the common schools of his native parish and was favored in the fortuitous influences of a home of distinctive refinement. He applied himself diligently until he had acquired a liberal academic education, and in preparation for his chosen profession he entered Louisville Medical College, a representative institution in the metropolis of Kentucky. In this excellent college he was graduated in February, 1891, and from the same he received his well-earned degree of Doctor of Medicine. His novitiate in the practice of his profession was served at Marthaville, Louisiana, and he continued in active general practice in his native state until May, 1906, when he came to Texas and established his home at Mineral Wells, where he succeeded in building up a substantial and representative practice and where he has gained secure prestige as one of the leading physicians and surgeons of Palo Pinto county. He is indefatigable and self-abnegating in fair devotion to his humane calling and his abiding human sympathy transcends mere sentiment to become an actuating motive for helpfulness. At Marthaville, Louisiana, he likewise controlled a large practice, and he served about eleven years as health officer of that place, a position which he resigned at the time of his removal to Texas. He has found his new field of labor altogether satisfactory and is firm in his belief in the still greater progress and prosperity of the Lone Star state, the while he is known and honored as a loyal and public-spirited citizen. He is unwavering in his allegiance to the Democratic party and has given effective service in the promotion of its cause. He is identified with the Texas State Medical Society and the American Medical Association, and he keeps in close touch with the advances made in both medical and surgical science. Mineral Wells has wide reputation as a health resort, and its fame is constantly expanding, in consonance with the increasing recognition of the great remedial value of the waters of its mineral wells. The town attracts health-seekers from points far distant as well as from all sections of the state, and Dr. Wagley's practice is thus augmented materially from such outside sources. He is one of the alert and progressive citizens of Mineral Wells, where he is a valued member of the Commercial Club, and he is affiliated with the Masonic fraternity and the B. P. O. E.

            On the 7th of February, 1892, was solemnized the marriage of Dr. Wagley to Miss Rena E. Brasher, who likewise was born and reared in Louisiana, her parents, C. P. and W. A. (Berry) Brasher, having been residents of Marthaville, that state, at the time of her marriage and now maintaining their home at Monroe, that state. Mr. Brasher has been a prominent and influential farmer and lumberman and is one of the highly honored citizens of the state in which he has lived and labored to goodly ends. Dr. and Mrs. Wagley have three children—Everett F., Myrtle A., and Rena G., all of whom remain at the parental home. The only son, who will attain to his legal majority in 1914, is studying medicine under the preceptorship of his father and gives to the latter valuable assistance in many parts of his work.

            The lineage of Dr. Wagley is traced back to stanch Scotch-Irish stock, and both his paternal and maternal ancestors early settled in the southern section of the United States. Representatives of both families are numerous in both Louisiana and Texas at the present time, and both families were slaveholders prior to the Civil war, in which all members manifested unfaltering loyalty to the cause of the Confederacy. Dr. and Mrs. Wagley are most popular factors in the leading social activities of their home city, and their attractive residence is known for its gracious hospitality.