VT BIO - Windsor Co - AGAN, Frank W.

Genealogical and Family History of the State of Vermont: A Record of the 
Achievements of Her People in the Making of a Commonwealth and the Founding 
of a Nation. Carleton, ed. New York & Chicago: Lewis, 1903, p 647-648

Frank W. AGAN, an enterprising mill owner and prominent citizen of Ludlow 
[Windsor County], Vermont, belongs to a family which has been for three 
generations resident in the town, actively participating in its commercial 
affairs and political movements. John AGAN, father of Frank W. AGAN, was a 
son of John AGAN, and was a merchant at Ludlow, where he was extensively 
engaged in dealing in all kinds of produce, and was also a speculator. He 
was a one time in the iron business, operating under the trading name of the 
Tyson Iron Company, and was a practical iron worker himself. He [John AGAN, 
the father of Frank W.] enlisted in the Union army during the Civil War, but 
his family interfered and prevented his going to the front. He was an 
enthusiastic Democrat, affiliated with the Masonic fraternity, and was a 
member of the Universalist church. He [John AGAN, the father of Frank W.] 
married Amanda HENDRY, and was the father of two children: Frank W. [the 
subject of this biography]; and William H., who is engaged in the drug 
business at Ludlow. Mr. [John] AGAN died at the age of thirty-three years, 
and his wife survives to the present day.

Frank W. AGAN, son of John and Amanda (HENDRY) AGAN, was born in 1868 in 
Plymouth [Windsor County], Vermont. His education was obtained at the Black 
River Academy, and at the age of sixteen he entered the Ludlow woolen mills 
for the purpose of learning the business in every detail. Here he remained 
for seven or eight years, during which time he worked in all the departments 
of the mill. Later he went to Gilsum [Cheshire County], New Hampshire, where 
he worked in a woolen manufactory for two or three years, and then removed to 
Ludlow, becoming identified with the Black River woolen mill. In this 
business he was associated for six years with George H. LEVEY, and then 
embarked in the shoddy manufacturing industry. [Shoddy is a type of fabric, 
often inferior in quality, made partly or entirely from reclaimed wool.] In 
1895 he bought the ROBERTS property, originally a listing mill on Jewell 
Brook [in Windsor County, Vermont], remodeled it for a shoddy mill, with 
modern machinery, and has erected other buildings as occasion required, until 
at present he has a floor space of more than [p 648] ten thousand square 
feet. In addition to the water power, a steam power with eighty-horsepower 
boiler is used when needed. Mr. AGAN employs a force of about fifty people, 
and manufactures from 600,000 to 800,000 pounds of shoddy annually. In 1900 
Mr. AGAN built the Verd Mont Mill in South Ludlow, and afterward organized a 
stock company, of which he was elected president, a position he still holds. 
The business employs from seventy-five to one hundred people. 

Mr. AGAN takes an active interest in everything pertaining to the welfare of 
the community in which he resides. He is president of the Ludlow Telephone 
Company, and is interested in the Red Cross Medical Company, which promises 
to develop into a very extensive business. [Perhaps his brother, William H., 
engaged in the drug business at Ludlow, is also interested in this company?] 
He [Frank W. AGAN] has been chairman of the board of village trustees, and is 
a member of the board of town school directors. Mr. AGAN exerts himself very 
much in the cause of local option, and is president of the Local Option 
League of the state, by which he was nominated in 1902 for the office of 
lieutenant governor, Percival W. CLEMENT, of Rutland, being the candidate for 
governor, through whose united efforts the local option law was passed. Mr. 
AGAN is a member of Black River Lodge, Free & Accepted Masons; Skitchewanax 
Chapter, Royal Arch Masons; Windsor Commandery, Knights Templar; and Mr. 
Sinai Temple, Mystic Shrine.

In 1896 Mr. [Frank W.] AGAN married Cora A., daughter of the late Major 
Darius J. SAFFORD, of Morrisville [Lamoille County, VT]. The recent death of 
Mrs. [Frank W.] AGAN [Cora A. nee SAFFORD], who was a woman of unusual gifts 
and accomplishments, was universally lamented. Mr. AGAN had not long before 
her death erected a beautiful summer home on Gill Terrace, adjacent to the 
Odd Fellows' Home.

Submitted by Cathy Kubly