B. F. Hagler, a merchant of Erin, was one of a family born to the union of William Hagler and Delilah Pegrim. His father died when he was but about three years old, and his mother, when he was about twelve years old. He then lived with an uncle to the age of fifteen, when he began his own support, having had very limited educational advantages, his schooling being only what he earned himself. After attending a two-years’ term of school he began teaching and continued till the war, when he enlisted in Company B, Fourteenth Tennessee Volunteers, C.S.A., where he served till the fall of 1862, when he became physically disabled. In the winter of 1862 he entered the cavalry service and continued therein till the surrender. He received a gun-shot wound in the left elbow, at Franklin, Tenn. After the war he engaged at general carpenter’s work for two years, and then at railroad bridging for about eight years. Since then he has pursued his trade, farmed, and sold merchandise. He established his present business in 1883. September 2, 1872, Callie Rauscher became his wife, who lived to be the mother of two children: Guy L. and Blanche C., and died October 29, 1876. He chose and wedded his present wife, Bettie (Pollard) Hagler, February 12, 1878, the result of this union being three children: Rooke, Daisy and Grover C. Mrs. Hagler is a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Politically Mr. Hagler is a firm Democrat, and he is a good citizen of Houston and a self-made man.

Transcribed by Susan Knight Gore

Source: Goodspeed, Weston A, and John Wooldridge. History of Tennessee from the Earliest Time to the Present: Together with an Historical and a Biographical Sketch of Montgomery, Robertson, Humphreys, Stewart, Dickson, Cheatham and Houston Counties. Nashville: Goodspeed Pub. Co, 1886.