Person:Phillip Hager (1)

A tradition among the Spurlock family that a Dr. Spurlock settled on the Island at Logan and that the Hager family came there and settled among the Indians with the Spurlock family is far fetched. I do however believe that a Dr. Hager lived on an island in the Holstein-Clinch River section of what is now Tennessee. It is possible that our Hager ancestor migrated north or northeast into south West Virginia instead of moving down thru the Valley of Virginia to that area. Also Dr. Robert Garrett lived on an island in the Guyandotte River at now Huntington. He and the Hagers seem to travel together. Was he the long forgotten Doctor mentioned by the Spurlock family? (Excerpted from Justin Del Hager's entry in the 1990 Boone County History published by the Boone County Genealogical Society, Inc.)

SOME EARLY THOUGHTS ON THE HAGER FAMILY

by Janet Barker Hager

The Hager family is a large family that settled in southern West Virginia while it was still part of Virginia. The first mention of Hager, shows Philip Hager, Jr. and Michael Hager on the 1798 personal property tax list of Kanawha County, Virginia. This tax list may be identified wrong and may be a list as late as 1802. They definitely are on the 1806 personal tax list. They later appear on the 1809 and 1810 tax list of Cabell County, Virginia.

Phillip Hager, Sr, their father, (along with Phillip Jr. and Jacob) first appear in Southwest Virginia in 1793 being on the personal property tax list of Wythe County, Virginia that year. He and his sons signed numerous petitions to form Tazewell County Virginia up until 1799. At the present time I have no idea from where this Phillip Hager came, but Jacob Hager who came about the same time, may have come from Maryland. Phillip Hager, Sr. disappears from the records about 1806-07 and I assume he died about that time in Tazewell County, Virginia.

Update --- Found Philip and Jacob Hager receiving land in Wythe County, VA. September 1790. They did not perfect a title. Abstractor abstracted name as Yauger but it is our Phillip and Jacob Hager. Phillip Hager, Jr. later purchased land on Wolf Creek in Wythe later Tazewell Co. Va, which he sold in 1827 while living in Logan Co. (W)VA. The only land I have ever found Michael Hager owning in VA/WV is the land he and James Hager patented on Six Mile Creek in now Boone County, WV in 1812. He did own land in Ross County, Ohio which his heirs sold after his death. Benjamin Hager, a grandson of Phillip Hager, Sr. says his father was born in Germany. If this is so then Phillip Jr. and Michael were probably brought to America by their father between 1780 and 1790. Phillip Hager, Sr. may have came here to fight in the Revolutionary War and stayed on after the war. A lot of research remains to be done on this family.

John Hager who came from Germany settled in Amherst County, Virginia and fought in the Revolutionary War, and then settled in Floyd County, Kentucky. He states that two brothers came with him. One was killed in the Revolutionary War the other disappeared and he did not know what happened to him. I sometimes wonder if Phillip Hager, Sr. and John were brothers. If they were then I think John knew where Phillip was because Rosanna Hager daughter of Phillip Hager, Jr. went to Floyd County, Kentucky to marry Isom Mullins. I can't think she traveled that far to get married without knowing some one there. I think she went there to visit, met Isom while there and stayed to marry him. Years from now after this book goes to press someone will find out if I am right or wrong.

Jacob Hager also settled in Wythe County, Virginia but ended up in Tazewell County, Virginia when that county was formed in 1799. His wife Sarah lived until 1865 (aft. 1870), and in the 1850 Census of Tazewell County, she is shown as being born in Maryland. I do not know the identity of the wives of Jacob and Phillip Hager, Sr. or of Phillip, Jr. and Michael. It is said that Catherine Vannatter daughter of John Vannatter of Maryland and Pennsylvania married Phillip Hager. I am not sure if she was the second wife of "Ol Phillip" or the first wife of "Young Phillip". After about 1815 she appears as head of her own household until her death. For these reasons it is hard to place some members of the Hager family in the proper household. Hopefully some day an answer to this and other problems will be found. I believe that Catherine was the first wife of Phillip Hager, Jr. and that they divorced about the time Benjamin Hager was born. There is a slim chance that she was a sister of Phillip Hager, Jr., but I am not inclined to believe that. She was probably a daughter of James & Elizabeth Finatta/Vinatta/Vannatter of Wythe/Tazewell Co. VA. and sister of John Vannatter who came to Boone County.

Phillip Hager, Jr. purchased one of the Dingess and French surveys on Spruce Fork. Because the wives of Dingess and French did not join in the first deed a corrective deed was made and the description of the land was reversed in the corrective deed, causing a dual entry on the land books of Cabell County. One of the entries sold for delinquent taxes and some of the people living near the mouth of Crawley Creek in Logan County bid the land in at a tax sale and received a deed for it. This is probably the reason that the tale started about Phillip Hager settling at the mouth of Crawley Creek. As far as I can tell Phillip Hager never lived anywhere but on Spruce Fork of Little Coal River after he left Wythe Co. VA and is probably buried on Ramage Hill at Ramage, WV. He never lived in what is now Lincoln Co. (since 1867) although his son John and Grandson Phillip did live in Lincoln Co. WV.

1793 Wythe County, Virginia Tax List

                            Tithes    Horses

Hager, Phillip, Sen . 1 2 Hager, Phillip, Jun . 1 2 Hager, Jacob 1 1

1800 Wythe County, Virginia Personal Property Tax List.