My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE JEAN MAGER, a retired merchant and eminent citizen of Cortland, is a fine example of a man who has risen by his own industry and thrift to a position of prominence and standing among his fellow-men. Mr. Mager had few advantages in life with which to start except a strong body, a quick mind and a willingness to take hold of and perform thoroughly any duty that came to hand. True he came from a nation whose watchword is thrift and whose prosperity is the wonder of the world, but his success has been attained in a land, where many new obstacles have to be met and overcome in order that failure may be averted. Mr. Mager is a son of George Mager and Annie Marie (Vogt) Mager, both born in Robertsau, Department du Bas Rhin, near Strasbourg, France. This was also the birthplace of our subject, who came into life, May 8, 1837.

Mr. Mager’s ancestors were true Frenchmen and soldiers. His paternal grandfather Valentin was a warrior of the Empire under Napoleon the Great, and at the ever-memorable battle of Waterloo lost his left limb. His life aside from his military career was spent in the peaceful occupation of tilling the soil in the province above named, at a point near the city of Strasbourg. He and his family were Lutherans in religious belief. George, a son of Valentin Mager, and father of our subject, received the usual school training and followed in his father’s calling until 1852, when, for the purpose of bettering his condition, and at the same time relieving his growing sons from the long and arduous military service sure to be demanded from them, he migrated with his family to America. On his journey he started from home February 27, arrived at Paris on the 29th, at Havre on the 1st of March, and left from that sea-port on the 5th of the month, and finally after a stormy and perilous sea voyage of forty-two days landed from the sailing vessel, “Avalanche,” in New York City, April 16, 1852. After some little time spent in the city, Mr. Mager continued his travels up into Lewis County, where in the town of New Bremen he on May 11, 1852, bought a tract of fifty acres of wooded land, which with the help of his sons he began to clear. Mr. Mager continued there for some years, but finally in March, 1871, removed to a larger and better farm at Adam’s Basin, Monroe County, N. Y., where he ended his days April 14, 1888. The mother died December 9, 1893, and both are interred at Spencerport, N. Y. Through life, Mr. and Mrs. Mager were members of the Presbyterian Church and regular attendants upon divine worship. His family consisted of four boys and two girls, and they were named: George J., our subject; Madelaine, who wedded John Shaffer; Phillip; Charles F.; Emilie, the wife of William H. Briggs; and Theodore. Three sons are dead. Charles F. Mager was a member of the 117th Reg. N. Y. Vol. Inf., and died in Balfour Hospital on the 12th day of July, 1863; he was buried in the National Cemetery at Norfolk, Va., where his remains now rest.

George J. Mager as a lad attended the French and German schools of the Department in his native country, and then through the influence of his last teacher secured when but a youth a position where he could, free of charge, learn the art of lithographing, stone and steel engraving. This situation was in the large publishing house of Madame Veuve Levrault et Cie at Strasbourg. It is a noteworthy fact and a sure indication of the kind of material the lad was made of, that he walked three miles every morning and evening from his home to the publishing establishment and back, while learning his art.

When the family reached New York City, Mr. Mager, then a lad of only fifteen years, met, by previous appointment by his late teacher, a former employee of the Levrault Co., who offered him an opportunity to go on with his vocation in New York City. The family would not listen to leaving one of their number alone in the new and strange city, so the lad went along with his parents and brothers and sisters to Lewis County, and worked by the side of his father at the arduous labors involved in clearing a new place. Their first dwelling was a rude old log house to which all their earthly possessions were conveyed on stone boats, dragged by an ox team. Nearly all their furniture was of the simplest character, and much of it was hewn from the primeval forest. The hardships and privations endured by the family while clearing the heavily timbered land were many and serious, and at this date seem almost incredible. He also worked out as a farm-hand at $10.00 per month. Because he was unable to do the heavy work incident to that kind of farming, he was apprenticed when not quite seventeen, on January 24, 1854, to David Mill to learn shoemaking. With him he worked for three years, receiving for the first year’s work his board and $20.00, for the second a cash remuneration of $30.00, and for the third $40.00. He learned the trade in two and one-half years and on August 1, 1856, began working at his trade for postmaster George S. Case of Lowville, N. Y., who also ran a boot and shoe store, at the salary of $10.00 per month and board. While working on the bench, he spent much of his leisure time in improving his penmanship, and in the study of La Langue Anglaise, an English and French volume presented to him by his associates in the Levrault establishment before his departure from France. This, together with his general deportment and exemplary habits, eventually attracted the attention of one of the largest and most prominent merchants in that village, and on June 4, 1857, with shoe-wax still clinging to his hands, he was taken into the dry goods and grocery store of Hon. Albert G. Dayan on trial in the capacity of clerk, on a salary of $75.00 per year with board. At the same time another young man was given a place in the same store, the idea being to select the one who was found to be the most satisfactory. Our subject’s competitor had all the benefits of a college education and was withal a bright young fellow, but at the end of four weeks, our subject, who had never attended school in America, and has not to this day, won the permanent position. Mr. Mager’s advancement was steady and on October 12, 1858, he was made bookkeeper and confidential man by Dayan & Easton, as the firm was at that time styled. Much of this rapid advancement and success was due to the assistance and encouragement given him by the wife of his first employer, a noble and saintly woman, a sister of the late Governor Caleb Lyon of Idaho. On May 11, 1858, he united with the Episcopal Church, being confirmed by the Rt. Rev. Bishop DeLancey. He was made a Mason by the Lowville Lodge, No. 134, F. & A. M., receiving the Master Mason degree January 13, 1S60. His first vote was cast in the preceding November election. The Trinity Church of Lowville elected Mr. Mager a vestryman April 21, 1862. In 1866, he was still farther advanced in Masonry by being made a Royal Arch Mason of the New Jerusalem Chapter, No. 47, R. A. M.; this occurred at Owego, N. Y., March 19. He was one of the charter members of Lowville Chapter, No. 223 of R. A. M. He also became a Sir Knight of the Malta Commandery, No. 21, Knight Templars, at Binghamton, N. Y., May 18, 1866. On the 5th day of March, 1867, he led to the altar Miss Florilla B. Howell, daughter of William and Electa Howell, and made her his wife. One month after this event, Mr. Mager formed a partnership with Amasa S. Stoddard, and under the firm name of Stoddard & Mager they opened a dry goods and grocery store at Lowville, N. Y., and the business prospered exceedingly well. Just before removing to Cortland, Mr. Mager took a prospecting tour to the far West, and during his absence acted as correspondent of the Watertown Daily Times, having been furnished a free complimentary pass by the management of that journal. Mr. Mager came to Cortland in 1883, and with Calvin P. Walrad conducted an extensive dry goods and carpet business. Mr. Walrad retired May 17, 1887, and the firm became Mager & Stoker. They continued together until July 26, 1890, when the name was changed to G. J. Mager & Co. Thus the enterprise was conducted until the spring of 1897, when, after forty years’ experience in the dry goods business, Mr. Mager decided to retire, and has since been winding up his mercantile affairs as expeditiously as possible. Besides his work in connection with his own business matters, Mr. Mager is at present the co-executor of the estate of Benton B. Jones, the late publisher of the Cortland Democrat, a leading paper of this section. Mr. Mager has always had an aptitude for newspaper work, and quite frequently does considerable editorial writing. He was at one time, along with his other duties, in editorial charge of a paper at Lowville, N. Y. In politics he has always been a Republican, though he does not in his busy life find much time to devote to political matters. As a citizen, and in the life of the community, Mr. Mager has always been a potent factor. He has always taken a live interest in agricultural affairs, and was at one time secretary of the Lewis County Agricultural Society, and as its representative entertained Gov. Flower of New York, Ex-Gov. Luce of Michigan, and Hon. F. C. Schraub, Commissioner of Agriculture for New York State, who were speakers at the Fair. He is also a life member of the New York State Agricultural Society. In Masonic circles he stands, as has been shown before, very high, and has held many responsible positions in the order. He is a director of the National Bank of Cortland, and is a member and vestryman of the Episcopal Church of the same place. He was a very active member of the building committee at the time the new church edifice was built. He was a member of the board of directors of the Cortland Opera House, and was a director of the Cortland and Homer R. R. Co. He was, too, a director in the Cortland Omnibus and Cab Co., and is at present a member of the Cortland board of education.

All his life through Mr. Mager has had little leisure. Events have crowded one on another, and he has had the capacity and ability to handle well all that has come in his direction. He is a man of very broad mind, well supplied with funds of varied information. He keeps in touch with the world in its progress, and though he saw the light first in a distant land, there exists nowhere a better or more thorough-going and loyal American in all that that appellation implies. Handicapped by many adverse circumstances, he overcame them all, and in the race of life has outstripped many who had a long start ahead of him. All the prosperity which he enjoys has come to him fairly earned, his high standing wherever he is known is well deserved, and to-day he stands as a fair but most encouraging example to many young men, who, with far better prospects and greater advantages, have fallen aside in the race of honorable existence. Through patience, economy and perseverance he has risen, single-handed and alone, from abject poverty and obscurity to a fair competence and a life of usefulness and prominence rarely excelled under like conditions. To his many friends and well-wishers it will be a decided pleasure to view Mr. Mager’s portrait*, which appears on a preceding page in proximity to this.

*A portrait was included in the original printed volume.