Willis Bagley

W.G.C. Bagley served as Treasurer of Iowa from 1939 to 1943.

Biography

Bagley was born Willis Gaylor Clark Bagley on October 29, 1873 to Shepherd Stephen and Louisa Bagley in Magnolia, Wisconsin. On May 15, 1895 he married Winifred Bogardus. He died on October 20, 1943.

Native of Magnolia Succumbs Wednesday

Willis Bagley Whom Dillinger Tried to Kill Passes in Des Moines, Iowa.

Willis Gaylord Bagley, 69, son of the late Shepherd Stephen and Louisa Cain Bagley, who died Wednesday in Des Moines, Iowa, was born in Magnolia township October 29, 1873. The family moved away from Magnolia when he was about four years old. The deceased was a cousin of Warren and Arthur Cain, Mrs. Willis Griffith and Ray Broughton.

Mr. Bagley, banker in Mason City, Iowa, most of his life, was also state treasurer for Iowa for several years. Gangster John Dillinger once tried to kill him during a bank robbery.

A lifetime of public service to his community won him a place in "Who's Who In America," but the incident in 1934, when Dillinger shot at him and missed during a bank robbery of the First National Bank of Mason City, Ia., of which Bagley was president, brought more publicity.

The gang proceeded to raid counters and vault of $52,000, and swept out of town, taking unwilling ciitzens along on the running boards of their cars as hostages. all members of the gang subsequently were killed or captured.

October 21, 1943, Evansville Review, p. 5, col.3, Evansville, Wisconsin