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JOHN JUDSON BAGLEY
BY GEORGE H. HOPKINS
June 7, 1882
For some months he remained in Dr. Barnes's family, and attended school with his children. Shortly after the Bagley family followed John to Owosso, the father entering business with Mr. Rufus Colter, and John being engaged as clerk in the store of Dewey &. Goodhue.
When about sixteen years of age he decided to leave Owosso and seek for himself a business engagement in Detroit. Friends and acquaintances he had none there, but what mattered that to him ? Employment was the one thing he then sought, confident that all else desirable would soon follow. Who was to be his employer, or what his employment, were matters of secondary moment. The main thing was an opportunity to work. He had a strong hand, a willing heart, and love for toil—capital, without which few succeed, with which few fail. Arising in the morning from his humble
lodging, he went at once to the foot of Woodward avenue for a view of the river and spent some time there admiring the beauty of the stream, to him almost a lake in extent. As he watched the evidences of thrift, trade, and successful business there and in the city behind him, he said to himself, "This is the place for me; I'll find something to do here. " Turning on his heel, before he had reached Jefferson avenue, two streets away, he found what he sought—labor. Stopping in front of the store of Isaac S. Miller, looking at the display by the open door, the proprietor accosted him with, "Young man, what do you want?" He replied, "I want work Mr. Miller invited him into the store, and before leaving it he had engaged for a year, and did not leave the employment of Mr. Miller till, five years- after, at the age. of twenty-one he entered upon business for himself.
Michigan
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