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JOHN JUDSON BAGLEY
BY GEORGE H. HOPKINS
June 7, 1882
His mother was a most remarkable woman. The proper training of her children for lives of usefulness was her constant study and care. She religiously believed that every deliberate act of the child entered into the character of the man. To her it was a sin for the mother to neglect or refuse to correct the child when a wrong, however slight, had been committed. I cannot better show the character of the son than to give you the characteristics of the mother, and some illustrations of the training the boys received. She was not impetuous, but whatever she decided to do, that she did with her might, and put her whole heart into the work, yet there was no appearance of haste. She put great stress upon the bringing up of her boys. She never failed of an opportunity to call their attention to the effect that would follow every act in their lives. They must black their boots every morning, have their collar clean and neat, because every town must have some first-class children in it, and all fine children gave evidence of care. "To black your boots, John, will show you are to be counted among the best, " said his mother.
When he began work as a traveling salesman for his employer, Mr. Miller, a tobacconist, his mother insisted that he take letters from a friend of the family, a clergyman and leading citizen, to the leading men in the towns where he had to stop. He laughed at the idea—going to ministers and deacons, and teachers when traveling for a tobacco house.
Michigan
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