John Hagans

Who was John Hagans?

John Marshall Hagans was a nineteenth-century politician, lawyer and judge from Virginia and West Virginia.

Born in Brandonville, Virginia, Hagans attended the public schools as a child, studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1859, commencing practice in Morgantown, Virginia. He was elected prosecuting attorney for Monongalia County, West Virginia in 1862, 1863, 1864 and 1870, was law reporter for the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia from 1864 to 1873 and was mayor of Morgantown, West Virginia in 1866, 1867 and 1869. Hagans was a member of the West Virginia Constitutional Convention before being elected a Republican to the United States House of Representatives in 1872, serving from 1873 to 1875, being unsuccessful for reelection. Afterwards, he was a member of the West Virginia House of Delegates from 1879 to 1883 and was elected judge of the second judicial circuit in 1888, serving until his death on June 17, 1900 in Morgantown, West Virginia. He was interred there in Oak Grove Cemetery.