John Grant and Margaret Mary Jane Bagley
Information comes from Elaine Keetch in the History of Bear Lake Pioneers. This story has been condensed from the original.
John Grant Bagley, the son of Edward Cyrenus Bagley and Julian Ann Grant, was born 30 Apr 1836 in Southampton, British America (now Canada) At the age of eight, he first heard the gospel when two Mormon missionaries came to New Brunswick. They started a branch there and his father and mother received the gospel at that time. Elder Brown was beaten one night and left for dead, but came to got his companion Elder Crosby and was administered to and the next day held a meeting and prophesied that their crops would be cut off, even their potatoes would spoil in the field and the head of the mob would believe the Gospel, join the Church and gather to Zion. It was fulfilled in the next eight years.
John Bagley's personal narrative: "When I was sixteen, Elder Jessie Crosby came to our place again. He stopped with one of the neighbors and asked me to stay with him. I went to the place where he was stopping after dark and before I got to the home, there was a bright light went before me, passed the house and went into an unfinished home about two hundred feet from where I stopped. I was surprised everyone was there. I was baptized the next morning, 6 Nov 1852, and then I understood the light and it has guided me through many a dark moment of my life. I left New Brunswick in May 1854 and arrived in Ft Leavenworth two weeks later.
Cholera was everywhere and many died on the way to Salt Lake but I arrived there 4 Oct 1854. I worked on the Salt Lake Temple until President Young called for some lumbermen to go open up and build mills in Big Cottonwood Canyon. I worked there seven years helping build roads and hauling lumber. In August 1857 I received word to be in Salt Lake City to go in the army. I went to Ft Bridger and our orders were to burn wagons, drive off stock and burn the grass, but never take a human life."
John Bagley married Margaret Mary Jane Allen, born 6 May 1819 in Waidsboro, Kentucky, the daughter Andrew Jackson Allen and Delilah Bennett Andrus, 27 Mar 1861 in Draper Utah. They lived in Draper for two years then moved to Bear Lake. He started to Paris from Draper 16 Mar 1864 and it stormed for 17 days of the trip. He put in a crop and lost it for want of water, returned home the first of July to move his family to Paris.
The winter of 1865 the family went to Salt Lake City where he worked at a Grist Mill and then moved back to Paris. They moved to Montpelier in 1871. Margaret Bagley was an active teacher in Sunday School for seven years and was appointed as an aid to the Presidency of the Relief Society in 1893. In June 1899 she was appointed counselor in the stake Relief Society and together with President Julia Lindsay and counselor L M Hart, they organized the Star Valley Stake and visited all the Relief Societies in Bear Lake Stake once a year. She was in ten years. She died 2 Sep 1914 in Montpelier.
John was active in the Church until the latter part of his life when after two operations on his eyes, he still lost his eyesight and was blind for 25 years. He died in Dingle at his daughter's 13 Feb 1923 and was buried in Montpelier.
Children of John Bagley and Margaret Mary Jane Allen
1. John Allen Bagley b-16 May 1862 in Draper
Utah; d-9 Oct 1941 in Salt Lake City; m-Sarah Lawson
2. Martha Ann Bagley b-4 Feb 1864 in Draper; d-9 May 1867
3. Cyrenus Jackson Bagley b-16 Mar 1866 in Draper; d-18 Dec 1935 in Fairview
Wyoming
4. Edward Andrew Bagley b-22 Feb 1868 in Paris; d-27 Oct 1888
5. William Henry Bagley b-23 Mar 1870 in Paris; d-19 Sep 1889
6. Parley Bagley b-2 Apr 1872 in Montpelier; d-14 Jan 1890
7. David Bagley b-5 Mar 1874 in Montpelier; d-26 Nov 1928
8. Prenecy Mae Bagley b-13 Aug 1876 in Montpelier; d-13 Apr 1943
9. Mary Delilah Bagley b-27 July 1878 in Montpelier; d-15 Aug 1946 in Soda
Springs Idaho
10, Charles Allen Bagley b-19 Nov 1880 in Montpelier; d-1888
11. George High Bagley b-13 July 1883 in Montpelier; d-21 Apr 1964 in Blackfoot
Idaho
12. Thomas Coleman Bagley b-5 Feb 1886 in Montpelier; d-1 Oct 1924
13. Lawrence Arley Euvernae Bagley b-14 Jan 1888 in Montpelier; d-10 Nov 1966