Mortimer Wagar

Early life and career

Mortimer Hartwell Wagar was born in 1857 in Toledo, Ohio. At age fourteen he started his first job as an office boy, and gradually he worked through positions at a grain and transportation business. At age 18, he was admitted to partnership by his employer, and Wagar joined the Toledo Board of Trade. He left Toledo in 1878 to vacation in Europe, and upon returning to New York, he joined the Produce Exchange. He resigned in 1885 to "engage in business on his own account," and he founded the grain brokerage firm Wagar, Martin & Co. The firm joined the Consolidated Exchange in 1890. In January 1897, he dissolved the grain broker firm Wagar and Moore, with Wagar taking the side of the business focused on the Consolidated Stock Exchange. By early June 1900, Wagar was a member of the Consolidated Stock Exchange, the Chicago Board of Trade, and the New York Produce Exchange, where he maintained an affiliation until his death.

Mortimer Hartwell Wager died suddenly on December 23, 1926, at his residence at 430 West 119th Street, from heart disease. He was sixty-nine years old.