Return to the Land

In July, 1921, he was called upon to resume his educational services when elected County Superintendent of Schools for a term of four years. He had under his supervision thirty-four schools, forty-eight teachers, and a scholarship enrollment of 1,500. Doctor Wagner owned a modern home in Bland, a neat store building erected in 1923, and was proprietor of the old Fannon Hotel Building. He was a Democrat, a steward of the Bland Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and was active in fraternal affairs, being a member of Bland Lodge No. 201, Ancient Free and Accepted Masons; Bland Chapter of the Order of Eastern Star, Bland Lodge of Odd Fellows; Crab Orchard Council; Junior Order United American Mechanics; and Bland Camp of the Modern Woodmen of America. He was a member of the Virginia State Teachers’ Association and of the Medical Society of Virginia. Doctor Wagner was a director in the Bank of Bland County. During the World War he was on the Advisory Examining Committee for Wythe and Bland Counties, and after the war he acted for several years as local examiner in Bland County for disabled soldiers. On February 10, 1881, in Kimberling valley, he married Miss Josephine Miller, daughter of Dr. John L. and Martha (Bird) Miller, both now deceased. Her father for a great many years carried on a large practice as a physician. Doctor and Mrs. Wagner had two daughters. Miss Naomi was a graduate of Martha Washington College, Abingdon, Virginia, and for a number of years was a teacher in the Bland High School and other schools in this and surrounding counties. She died March 31, 1957. Effie, the second daughter, also finished her education at Martha Washington College, taught for several years, and married John C. Mustard of Mechanicsburg, a farmer. Mr. And Mrs. Mustard had eight children – Marie, John C. Jr., Garland, Wayne, Josephine, Albert, Andrew and Kermit. Since the death of her husband, Mrs. Mustard resides at Bland, Virginia. Doctor Wagner, in his practice of medicine for 41 years and serving as Superintendent of Bland County Schools for 21 years, in addition to the civic duties that he performed and the interest that he took in the church, the Sunday Schools, the Men’s Bible Class, the Singing Association, and the other Christian organizations earned for himself the rest under the shade of the tree of God. The many beautiful tributes that have been paid to him and the large crowd of approximately 2,000 people who attended the funeral showed the esteem and love that the people of Bland County and other communities had for him. His unselfishness, his integrity, and his forgiveness for those who trespassed against him in life made him the general that he was. 28

28 Bland County Centennial Corporation, History of Bland County (Virginia) (Radford, Virginia: Commonwealth Press, 1961), pp. 182-185.

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