History of Lee County, Illinois - Bushnell Historical Society

280 HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY
At the end of two years he purchased the property which he now
owns. He has one hundred and sixty-eight acres on section 3,
Bradford township, and he has improved this with substantial
buildings and modern machinery, making the place productive
and valuable to a high degree. He makes a specialty of raising
and feeding stock and he has important interests of this char-
acter.
Mr. Wagner married Miss Mary Krug, a daughter of John
Krug and a native of Bradford township. They have become the
parents of a daughter, Alta L., who was born November 22, 1899,
and who is now a student in the Ashton high school. Mr. Wagner
is a republican in his political beliefs and has held various posi-
tions of public trust and responsibility, serving for two years as
collector. He is now in the twelfth year of his able service as
county supervisor and is at the present time chairman of the
boai'd. A resident of Bradford township during his entire life,
he has become widely and favorably known here and his influence
has been a tangible force for good in the community.
MARK CLANCY KELLER.
Mark Clancy Keller, city attorney of Dixon since 1909 and
recognized as one of the ablest members of the bar of Lee county,
was boin in May township, in February, 1873, and spent his boyhood
and yonth upon the home farm, his time being divided between
the work of the fields, the duties of the schoolroom and the
pleasui'es of the playgroimd. Like many other young men, how-
evei', he did not care to follow agricultural pursuits as a life
work and witli a view to entering upon a pi'ofessional career, con-
tinued his education in college. He was 2:raduated with hi2;h hon-
ors f I'om the Chicago Business College and afterward took u]i the
profession of teaching, which he followed in the common schools
and colleges of Lee and Bureau comities foi' six years. He had
convinced himself within that ]ieviod that he preferred the prac-
tice of law and in the fall of 1897 he began prepai'ation for the bar,
completing his studies in the Northern Illinois College of Law
in 1900, at which time the LL. M. degree was conferred upon him.
Immediately afterward he was admitted to the bar and has since
practiced in Dixon with marked success. On the 20th of April,
1909, he was elected citv attornev and has since most intelligently