Miss Pauline Wagner at age 102, wrote of her family's coming to America in 1886. As in many pioneer stories, circumstances, rather than planning, brought them to western Kansas and Nebraska. The Wagner and Crabtree families settled in the same area in Cheyenne County, Kansas. Mary (Wagner) Freehling was a sister of Miss Pauline. The Dan Rath sisters were friends of some Wagner relatives.
"They had been to Cheyenne County through the Lincoln Land Company and were planning to move there. It was through the Raths, who came by covered wagon, that we decided to go west (from Aurora) also. We came by train to Haigler, where we were met by the Raths and taken to their home until we moved on the preemption. Later father also homesteaded as did my Grandmother Hahn. When I was of age I also took a homestead. Our land joined. We all lived in dugouts. My dugout was near the schoolhouse where I taught my first term. The schoolhouse was a mile from our home. Occasionally one of the pupils would stay all night with me in the dugout."
Miss Wagner lives alone in St. Francis, Kansas. She recently participated in St. Francis centennial celebration.
-- Taken from The 1986 Haigler Centennial book , p. 216
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