Quote:
Originally Posted by topcat61
Those are great! Right during the very beginning on the Hobby too. John D. Wagner is a difficult man to find anything on.He was born in Hegins, PA and tells a great story of how he acquired his first T206s. I know really nothing about his family so this is interesting. He has a draft card from WWI but it dosent look like he went into the service until 1926 -when he would've been 27 or 28? In the mid 30's his occupation says "painter" and he was on active duty in the Army Air Corps from 1941-1956, retiring as a Master Sgt. It looks like he spent most of his time at the Harrisburg Recruiting Center and was able to hop on a plane anywhere in the country and acquire cards. Looks like he was buried at Arlington National Cemetery around 1988-89. Of course I could be wrong on some of this and there are a lot of gaps and a lot as a collector. Was he writing in the Card Collector's Bulletin or known to have assisted Burdick with the Card Catalogs?
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Below is an article about John D. Wagner that was published in the 1983 Sport Americana Baseball Card Price Guide (the annual Beckett Guide). It is primarily about his card collecting history, without much about his personal life. I originally posted it in this thread:
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=207915
As that article notes, Wagner met Jefferson Burdick in 1936 and did write for Card Collector's Bulletin and other early hobby publications. In the 1940s he often had half-page ads in CCB that were hand-drawn and listed cards and sets he needed. He also occasionally wrote articles for Burdick, such as this one from the October 1, 1941 CCB, recounting his meeting with Honus Wagner. I originally posted it in this post:
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=239973
Finally, this post includes some letters from Charles Bray to Wagner, and has links to other Wagner letters that Leon has posted:
http://www.net54baseball.com/showthread.php?t=242090