Edwin H. Wagner, of the firm of Edwin H. Wagner & Company, certified public accountants of St. Louis, was born in Laramie City, Wyoming, October 6, 1873, a son of Henry and Susan (Cantwell) Wagner. The father’s birth occurred in Ohio and during the Civil war he served with the Halleck Guards and participated in the siege of Jackson and other important engagements that led up to the final victory that crowned the Union arms. The mother was a grandniece of General Joseph Warren, who commanded -the troops at Bunker Hill, where he gave his life for the cause of independence. Her father was Thomas Cantwell, who fought in the Mexican war and was killed at Resaca de la Palma.
In his boyhood days Edwin H. Wagner attended the public schools of his native city and then entered the State University at Laramie, while later he attended the Jesuit College at Denver, Colorado. He was thus well qualified by a liberal education for life’s practical duties and responsibilities. He next became connected with the auditing department of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad Company but later took up the study of law, spending the years 1897 and 1898 as a law student in the Washington University of St. Louis. Later he was connected with the Columbia Lead Company, with which he continued until the business was sold to the American Metal Company in 1901.
He then became secretary and treasurer of the Madison Lead & Land Company, in which he owned an interest; and he ably directed the business of that organization, contributing largely to its success. He continued to act as secretary and treasurer thereof until 1909, after which he spent four years as auditor and credit manager with the Hanley & Kinsella Coffee & Spice Company. From 1913 until 1919 he was a member of the firm of Westermann Trader & Company, certified public accountants, and on the 1st of July, 1919, he established his present business under the name of Edwin H. Wagner & Company, certified public accountants. He has gained a large clientage in his present connection and is considered an expert in the line to which he is now giving his attention. He likewise conducts a branch of this business at Dallas, Texas, and is also a director of the Starck-Inland Machine Works, His business interests have thus become broad and important and steadily he has worked his way upward to success.
On the 10th of October, 1900, Mr. Wagner was married to Miss Corinne Shevnin, a native of Denver, where her parents settled in pioneer times, having crossed the plains from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Denver in 1861 with ox team and wagon. Mr. and Mrs. Wagner are now the parents of an interesting family of three sons and four daughters: Corinne M., born in St. Louis in September, 1901; Edwin H., born October 4, 1903; Virginia S., born January 15, 1905; Warren S., born September 12, 1907; Margaret Ellen, born March 2, 1909; John Shevnin, born March 5, 1911; and Mary Josephine, born July 15, 1913. All were born in St. Louis. In religious faith the family are Catholics, being communicants of St. Roch’s church.
Mr. Wagner is a member of the City Club, also of the St. Louis Chamber of Commerce and of the Knights of Columbus. His political allegiance is given to the republican party, but he has never been an aspirant for office. He has served as state treasurer of the Missouri Society of Certified Public Accountants and is a member of the faculty of the St. Louis University School of Commerce and Finance. His social qualities make him popular among many friends, while in business circles he has attained an enviable position, developing his powers along a line that has brought him to leadership among the certified public accountants of his adopted city.
