Lee and Lucy Jagger did not move to Colorado until after Lee’s retirement in McCook from the railroad, but was a visitor to Colorado kin and mountains. Refer to the earlier section on Lee in this blog.
Will Hardy Jagger (1881-1958) was a son of James and Frances Weidenhamer Jagger. Will’s middle name may have been inspired by his paternal grandmother’s name: Mary Hardyman Jagger. Will worked for 55 years on the railroad, first in Galesburg, then in Alliance, Nebraska, and finally in Denver.
There was a break in his railroad service when Will married Stella Margaret “Margie” Stover before 1907. Will then worked awhile for his father-in-law in hotel management. Margie’s parents Reuben and Carrie Stover ran the Stover Hotel in Edgar, Clay County, Nebraska. Initially, Carrie Stover leased the hotel. One time she was late on a rent payment, & was sued by the landlord for illegally occupying the property. A lower court ruled in his favor, but the Nebraska Supreme Court overturned that decision: Since the landlord had accepted her late payment, he could not also claim that the lease had ended by default.
That issue was settled before the 1900 Edgar census, in which Reuben Stover was listed as hotel keeper. His daughter Margie was age 17 in that census. By the 1910 census of Edgar, the Reuben Stover household had added Margie’s husband W.H. Jagger (assistant hotel proprietor) and their daughters Frances and Elizabeth.
Meanwhile, Will’s brother Jessie Edward “Jess” Jagger had moved to Denver by 1910, & appears there in subsequent censuses. So, Jess pioneered the Jagger sibs’ migrations to Colorado (but was preceded by Jess’ Uncle Albert Weidenhamer). Jess’ first wife Sarah “Sadie” Mattison Jagger had died in 1908. Jess married Carrie Sarah Brown (cousin of Sadie) in Galesburg on April 2, 1910, & the move to Denver was immediately after this. Jess’ & Sadie’s son Charlie Loyd Jagger was killed in 1915 in a railroad accident in Galesburg. Daughters of Jess & Carrie were Dorothy Rose Jagger Drumm and Margaret Jean Jagger Deatherage. The Jess Jagger family appeared in the 1918 Weidenhamer reunion photo in Galesburg. Jess had registered for the WWI draft from Denver.
Before the 1920 census, the Will Jagger family had moved from Edgar, Nebraska, to Wheat Ridge, Jefferson County, in the Denver, Colorado, area. In the 1920 census, Margie’s mother Carrie Stover was now a widow and living with Will & Margie. I’m not sure if the Stover Hotel in Edgar operated, in other hands, as a hotel after the move, but the hotel building survives to this day (2011). Head of household in 1920 Denver was William Jagger, now working for the railroad again as a switchman. All 4 kids (Frances, Elizabeth, James Reuben, & Ora) had been born. Also in that household were Will’s sister Bessie Jagger Westfall, and boarder Elsie White, age 3. Bess was listed as a widow, but family history said that she had divorced George “Ike” Westfall. There is a photo of Elsie in Edna Jagger Muffley’s album, but I don’t know much about Elsie.
Bess Jagger married Clarence Bennett, dentist, in 1925, & they appear in the 1930 census of Denver, along with Elsie White, age 13, and two teenage Picard kid
Will & Margie Stover Jagger divorced some time after 1920. Their daughter Frances gave birth (father unknown) to Phyllis in 1926. Will Jagger was living alone as a boarder in the Harper house in the 1930 Denver census, and was still a switchman. In 1930, his daughter Ora Jagger was age 12, and living as a boarder with a Wilson family. I’m not sure where Will’s ex-wife Margie was in 1930.
The 3 daughters (Frances, Elizabeth, & Ora) of Will & Margie Stover Jagger reportedly all married Filipino men (Antonio, Eliseo, & Gregorio, respectively); the son James Reuben Jagger reportedly married several times, but little is known of him. Tony Amoya and Frances were the parents of Kathleen. The Filipino husband of Ora was Eliseo Esquerra. The Filipino husband of Elizabeth Jagger was Gregorio Parungo, and that was a lasting marriage.
Frances Bradder’s daughter Margaret Kathleen had 6 husbands, and several children. It appears likely that Kathleen gave up for adoption at least 3 daughters: One to each of her 2 half-sisters & one to her Aunt Ora. Ora adopted Beverly. Beverly’s daughter Margaret was adopted by Ora. After the suicide of her husband Eliseo Esquerra, Ora married bank owner William L. Johnson, and had a fine home.
There was a Filipino girl baby carried into a restaurant in Denver, likely pre-1961, by Gary Muffley; this was during a visit to Frances Jagger Bradder in Denver by Gary & his mother Frances Muffley. On another occasion, my sister Shirley visited Ora’s house & observed a little girl there.
Frances Jagger married Adolf M. Bradder (Danish) before 1930. Adolf was born at Nysted, Denmark, August 18, 1895. He had migrated at age 16 from Copenhagen, arriving in New York on April 5, 1911, aboard the ship United States. He was listed on the ship roster as a carpenter. During WWI, Pvt. Adolf M. Bradder was in Company F, 109th Engineers, 34th Division. According to www.34infdiv.org/history/wwihist.html the 109th Engineers arrived at Liverpool in the fall of 1918, and then moved on to Cherbourg; the unit returned to Newport News, Virginia in June, 1919.
The 4 kids of Frances are Phyllis (b. Dec. 4, 1926), Margaret Kathleen (b. Nov. 14, 1928), Wallace (b. Dec. 27, 1930), and Eloise (b. Aug. 8, 1932). Adolf was the father of Wallace & Eloise. Adolf & Frances Jagger Bradder were buried at Ft. Logan National Cemetery. Find A Grave memorials numbers 3337826 and 27819410, respectively.
My parents were friends with Frances Jagger Bradder, whom we sometimes visited in Denver. I have a faint memory of meeting Ora Jagger Johnson in Denver. My grandmother Edna Jagger Muffley had close ties with these nieces.
We’ll skip next to the youngest kid of Will & Margie Stover Jagger: Ora Alice Jagger (b. 1916). Ora & Frances are the 2 Jagger sibs that I actually remember; not so with sibs Elizabeth & James Reuben.
I correspond with grandkids of Elizabeth May Jagger Parungo (b. 1909), second of four children of Will & Margie Stover Jagger. Gregorio B. Parungo, future husband of Elizabeth, was born at Macabebe (town on Manila Bay), Pampanga Province, Philippines, shortly before the Spanish-American War reached the Philippines. There was a concentration of Parungo-surnamed persons in Lubao earlier. Only Gregorio’s mother, T. Parungo, was listed by Gregorio when he emigrated in 1920. He applied for an American passport, as America then held the Philippines. Both his passport application & ship manifest indicated an October 3, 1920, departure from Manila aboard the S.S. Katori Maru (apparently a Japanese liner). It was Gregorio’s plan to briefly visit Hong Kong, China, & Japan en route to Seattle. He was listed as a student, intending to go to Columbia, Oregon, & then return to the Philippines within 4 years. Family history said that he was multi-lingual, and came to America to study for the priesthood. However, instead he moved to Denver & married Elizabeth May Jagger. He was also called Gregory B. Parungo.
In the 1930 Denver census, there is a mis-spelled entry for the Gregory B. Parungo family. Listed are Gregory, his wife Elizabeth, son Edward J., Gregory’s brother Francesco, and brother Marciano. Gregory was a hotel bellboy, and both of his brothers were hotel elevator pilots. This Marciano Parungo may be the same guy who died in 1995, according to a Social Security Death Index entry. Gregory and Elizabeth are both entered in that index. Currently, eastern Colorado has a relatively high proportion of the U.S. distribution of the surname Parungo. I wonder which hotel employed the 3 Parungo brothers. Scores of old Denver hotels are gone now, but remaining ones include Brown Palace
