Clifford H. Wagener

My parents Claude and May Wagener moved from Wapakoneta to Colton in the spring of 1914. Mother brought me and my two older brothers Roy 10, and Andrew 9 on the train. I was an infant and don't remember the trip. I've been told we somehow missed connections in Napoleon and had to ride in the caboose of a cattle train to Colton.

Dad brought our household goods by wagon. He had to make a second trip for the livestock. It took 2 days for each round trip.

We moved into a house just east of Heath Cemetery on County Road V. Roy, Andrew, and I went to a school across the road, on the corner.

A few years later we moved to a farm on Road 2. We went to Roach School. My Dad was a blacksmith there for several years. Mother was in the bread business. She would be up in the wee hours of the morning. The yeasty aroma of the bread rising filled the house. The big black wood stove in the corner of the kitchen turned out big golden loaves. Roy and Mother delivered the bread to customers in the Liberty, Colton area with an old pickup truck.

Submitted by C. H. Wagener