Administrative/Biographical History
H. H. Wagner was born in LaSalle County, Illinois in 1847. He came to DeKalb in 1863 and began working as a clerk for the W. & F. Winship mercantile business. In 1864 Wagner joined the United States Army enlisting in Company K, 132nd Regiment of the Illinois Volunteers. After serving 100 days, Wagner returned to DeKalb and entered the employ of R. K. Chandler, one of the early dry goods merchants of DeKalb. When Mr. Chandler died in 1875, H. H. Wagner established his own dry goods business.
The H. H. Wagner Dry Goods Store became one of the best known mercantile businesses in DeKalb County. Mr. Wagner’s previous experience qualified him to conduct a business offering a quality and varied line of merchandise to his customers. When the building in which the store was housed burned down in 1897, Wagner built a new brick building at the same location and continued to provide retail services to his clientele until his death in 1914. Wagner’s son, Harry Hough, chief assistant in the business, purchased the entire store from it’s stockholders in 1915, but because of financial difficulties, was forced to close the business in 1919. In April of that same year, Michael Malone reopened the store and the business still is in operation under the Malone name today.
