Edgar Hager

Hager's father was Samuel Patton Hager, who worked as a lawyer in Ohio and later moved to Charleston, West Virginia to run a coal corporation.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21153546/new_law_firm_formed_in_ashland/|title=New Law Firm Formed in Ashland|newspaper=Portsmouth Daily Times|location=Portsmouth, Ohio|date=30 March 1923|page=14|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}|quote=Hon. Edgar B. Hager, noted Kentucky orator and attorney, today announced the completion of a new law firm, in which John S. Fullerton and James P. Adamson will be associated with Mr. Hager who is a son of S. P. Hager, of this city, where he practiced law for many years prior to connection with a large West Virginia coal corporation which has necessitated his residence in Charleston for the past few years.}} Hager came to Ashland with his parents in April 1881, becoming a student at Beech Grove Academy in 1884.

Hager went on to graduate with an AB from Kentucky Wesleyan College in June 1888 as a Phi Delta Phi.{{cite book|title=Directory of the Legal Fraternity of Phi Delta Phi|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-yzPAAAAMAAJ|first=George Anthony|last=Katzenberger|year=1909|via=Google Books}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pgdGAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA81|title=Directory of the International Legal Fraternity of Phi Delta Phi|via=Google Books|last1=Phi|first1=Phi Delta|year=1909}} After graduation he worked as a superintendent of schools in Catlettsburg, Kentucky then resigned to pursuit law studies. In June 1891, he graduated simultaneously with an LLB from Boston University School of Law and an AM degree from Wesleyan. In August 1891 he was admitted to the Kentucky bar.

Hager became a prominent criminal lawyer in Ashland, Kentucky and in Chattanooga, Tennessee, working across several other state boundaries. As a lawyer, he was noted for his oratory abilities.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21152948/hager_may_run_messengerinquirer/|title=Hager May Run For Congress in Ninth District; Friends Urge Him|newspaper=Messenger-Inquirer|location=Owensboro, Kentucky|date=23 July 1906|page=7|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}|quote=Hager is a lawyer by profession, gifted, highly educated and an eloquent and convincing speaker. He is popular with all classes and all parties. He has had wide experience on the stump. His friends who are urging him to make the race have every confidence that if nominated he will win the election by a handsome majority.}}

In 1907, he was appointed state auditor's agent by his cousin, state auditor Samuel Wilber Hager.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21153006/|title=Edgar B. Hager is Appointed Auditor's Agent|newspaper=The Owensboro Messenger|location=Owensboro, Kentucky|date=7 Mar 1907|page=1|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}}}{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21153032/edgar_hager_new_auditors_agent_the/|title=Edgar Hager New Auditor's Agent|newspaper=The Courier-Journal|location=Louisville|date=7 Mar 1907|page=1|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}}}

In 1929, Hager was designated special judge in a case in the Floyd Circuit Court between J. H. Nunnery and the Pike Floyd Coal Company when the regular judge, C. B. Wheeler, was disqualified.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21153638/|title=Edgar B Hager Named Special Judge in Floyd|newspaper=The Owensboro Messenger|location=Owensboro, Kentucky|date=15 March 1929|page=4|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}}}

Hager ran in the Democratic primary for the House of Representatives in Kentucky's 9th congressional district three times, in 1906, 1908,{{cite news|page=4|newspaper=The Bourbon News|date=12 May 1908|publisher=Champ & Miller|location=Paris, Kentucky|access-date=27 June 2018|title=Hon. Edgar Hager Announces for Congress|url=http://eris.uky.edu/catalog/xt76dj58dr9g_4|via=Kentucky Digital Library|archive-date=27 June 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180627091419/http://eris.uky.edu/catalog/xt76dj58dr9g_4|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|date=6 June 1908|newspaper=The Cincinnati Enquirer|title=Six Candidates in the Ninth District|url=https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86069849/1908-06-06/ed-1/seq-8.pdf|page=8|via=Chronicling America|access-date=26 June 2018|quote=Col. Edgar B. Hager of Ashland a Democratic candidate for Congress has just completed a tour of Greenup county in the interests of his candidacy. In the interests of his candidacy. There are now six candidates in the field, [...] and Col Hager.}} and 1910. In 1908, he was defeated by later US Representative James Nicholas Kehoe.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21153146/hager_pusing_campaign_the_bourbon_news/|title=Hager Pushing Campaign|newspaper=The Bourbon News|location=Paris, Kentucky|publisher=Champ & Miller|date=15 July 1910|page=4|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}|access-date=26 June 2018}}{{cite news|newspaper=The Big Sandy News|publisher=Webb & Ferguson|location=Louisa, Kentucky|date=14 August 1908|via=Chronicling America|url=http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83004226/1908-08-14/ed-1/seq-4/|page=4|title=The Vote|access-date=26 June 2018}} In 1910, Hager was beaten by William J. Fields, who went on to become Governor of Kentucky.{{cite book|title=A history and genealogy of the Garreds, Jarretts of Kentucky, and many related families|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4GhVAAAAMAAJ|page=154|first=Ulysses Victoria|last=Garred|year=1957|quote=Edgar Hager ran for Congress three different times and was beaten by W. J. Fields each time. At the time of his death he was Mayor of Ashland, Ky.|via=Google Books}} In 1918, during the final days of WWI and its immediate aftermath, Hager traveled to France with the YMCA.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21153321/overseas_for_ymca_work_the_big_sandy/|title=Overseas for YMCA Work|newspaper=The Big Sandy News|publisher=Webb & Ferguson|location=Louisa, Kentucky|date=4 October 1918|page=8|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}}}{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21153290/letters_from_hon_edgar_b_hager_the/|title=Letters from Hon. Edgar B. Hager|newspaper=The Big Sandy News|publisher=Webb & Ferguson|location=Louisa, Kentucky|date=15 November 1918|page=1|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}}}

In 1932, at the age of 64, Hager was elected mayor of Ashland, Kentucky. Immediately after becoming Mayor of Ashland he reached out to neighboring cities across state lines, such as Portsmouth, Ohio, to forge closer relationships.{{cite news|via=Newspapers.com|title=Urges Harmony Between Cities|quote=Council Receives Communication From New Mayor Of Ashland, Ky. In an effort to promote the relationship and more closely knitted harmony in tri-state cities Mayor Edgar B. Hager of Ashland, Ky., has taken the initiative step. Members of city council at their meeting Wednesday night were agreeably surprised when the following self-explanatory letter was received from Mayor Hager, who assumed the mayoralty duties of Ashland, Jan. 1.|newspaper=Portsmouth Daily Times|location=Portsmouth, Ohio|date=21 January 1932|access-date=17 June 2018|page=5|url=https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/56749297/}} Hager engaged in the purchase of a police radio system, funded by Ashland's merchants.{{cite news|newspaper=The Portsmouth Times|via=Newspaper Archive|date=8 November 1933|access-date=29 June 2018|page=6|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/portsmouth-times-nov-08-1933-p-6/|title=Ashland Gets Radio System|location=Portsmouth, Ohio}} In 1933, he became the fifth person to be elected president of the Kentucky Municipal League, succeeding City Manager Paul Morton of Lexington.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21269716/messengerinquirer/|title=Want State Placed Under Southern Textile Code|newspaper=Messenger-Inquirer|location=Owensboro, Kentucky|date=19 November 1933|page=3|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}|agency=Associated Press|quote=Mayor Edgar B. Hager of Ashland was elected president.}} Hager, who had previously served as vice president of the league under Paul Morton, started his term on January 1 of 1934. Hager was succeeded as president of the Kentucky Municipal League by (also Democrat) Mayor Edward G. Scott of Paducah. Hager served as Mayor of Ashland until he died in office in December 1935.

{{Quote box|width=30em |title=Edgar Hager in Polk Johnson's 1912
A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians|One of the most accomplished and cultured men that ever graced the Kentucky bar, Edgar Browne Hager, of Ashland, Boyd county, has won distinguished prestige during his professional career, his vigorous mentality, scholarly attainments and comprehensive knowledge of the law winning for him an enviable record. A thorough master of the legal rules and rulings, his powers of expression are broad, keen and clear, while his judgment is clear and impartial, and his integrity unimpeachable.}}

Edgar Hager had five brothers, of whom two died at an early age, and a half-brother through his father's first wife. He was cousins with Louisville politician and state auditor Samuel Wilber Hager (1858–1918), the father of the journalist and Owensboro Messenger-Inquirer publisher Lawrence W. Hager (1890–1982).{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21152873/speaking_at_grayson_the/|title=Speaking at Grayson|newspaper=The Courier-Journal|location=Louisville|date=15 August 1899|page=2|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}}} Edgar Hager was also first cousins with Judge John Franklin Hager (1852–1933) of Ashland, after whom the city's Hager Elementary School was named.

Edgar Hager married Lucie Vinson Prichard from Louisa, Kentucky on June 21, 1898. Ms. Hager died on January 20, 1902. By then Edgar Hager had two children, Edgar Browne Hager Jr. (1899–19??) and Virginia Patton Hager (1901–1979). In their later lives, Edgar Jr. lived in Ashland, Virginia in Louisa. In his later life, Edgar Sr. married Sylvia "Kittie" Wiley of Lewisburg, West Virginia with whom he had a son, Samuel Patton Hager, II (b. and d. April 10, 1933) and an adopted daughter, Kittie Brown Hager (born 1934).{{cite news|title=Hager, Judge Edgar B.|quote=Judge Edgar B. Hager, 67, mayor of Ashland and widely known in eastern Kentucky, died suddenly at his home in Ashland this morning (Thursday) of a heart attack [...] Surviving are his widow, the former Miss Kittie Wiley, of Lewisburg, VA, and adopted daughter, Kittie Brown Hager, 18 months old, a son, Edgar B. Hager, Jr., of Ashland and a daughter, Mrs. H. L. Webb of Louisa.|newspaper=Big Sandy News|location=Louisa, Kentucky|date=20 December 1935|via=Lawrence County, Kentucky Genealogical & Historical Society|url=http://www.lckghs.com/obituaries/obit_1935.html|access-date=4 August 2018|archive-date=4 August 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180804110020/http://www.lckghs.com/obituaries/obit_1935.html|url-status=dead}}

Hager died December 19, 1935, of a heart attack.{{cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/21269772/ashland_mayor_dies_the_cincinnati/|title=Ashland Mayor Dies|newspaper=The Cincinnati Enquirer|location=Cincinnati|date=20 December 1935|page=2|via=Newspapers.com {{open access}}}} He was buried at Ashland Cemetery. Published in 1912, A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians contains a detailed biography of the lawyer/politician.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aksVAAAAYAAJ|title=A History of Kentucky and Kentuckians: The Leaders and Representative Men in Commerce, Industry and Modern Activities|volume=3|first=E. Polk|last=Johnson|publisher=Lewis Publishing Company|year=1912|location=Kentucky|via=Google Books|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aksVAAAAYAAJ&pg=RA8-PA1311|chapter=Edgar Browne Hager|pages=1311–1312}}

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• [http://www.usbiographies.org/biographies/read.php?370,3811 Hager, Edgar Browne] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180617193443/http://www.usbiographies.org/biographies/read.php?370,3811 |date=2018-06-17 }} at U.S. Biographies Project

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Category:1868 births

Category:1935 deaths

Category:School superintendents in Kentucky

Category:American criminal defense lawyers

Category:Kentucky lawyers

Category:Kentucky Wesleyan College alumni

Category:Mayors of Ashland, Kentucky

Category:Lawyers from Charleston, West Virginia

Category:Lawyers from Chattanooga, Tennessee

Category:People from Paintsville, Kentucky

Category:19th-century American lawyers

Category:20th-century American lawyers

Category:20th-century mayors of places in Kentucky