As seen on Ken Burns’ “The Roosevelts”!

HISTORICAL CHARACTERS FOR 2024

• Glady Mills Phipps (1883-1970): A thoroughbred racehorse owner and breeder who began the Phipps family dynasty in American horse racing. She was known as the “first lady of the turf”. She was also an avid ice skater and an excellent golfer. She won a number of tournaments, including a match play championship at the Newport, Rhode Island, golf course in which she beat her male counterparts. She was, however, first and foremost a lover of horses and bred,
among others, the famed Bold Ruler and Secretariat.

• Archibald Rogers (1852-1928): An engineer, he apprenticed with distant cousins who had established the Rogers Locomotive Works in Paterson, New Jersey. During the course of his career, he built several railroads. In 1880, at New York City, he married Anne Caroline Coleman. They initially went with his work to Milwaukee, but by 1882 were living at Drayton House in Hyde Park near the Pendleton family’s (Archibald’s grandmother’s) former estate, Placentia. Between 1886 and 1889, Archie built Crumwold Hall, where the family would remain until 1942. He was a pioneer of golf and ice-yachting; the first Captain of the Myopia Hunt Club polo team; and co-owned a pack of English hounds with Samuel Colgate at New Hamburgh. In yachting, he headed the syndicate which built the Colonia (and was rumored to have been part of the 40-man crew) that defended the America’s Cup. His other love was hunting and for 24 consecutive years he made 26 trips west to hunt Big Game and for 45 years he regularly went up to his fishing lodge in New Brunswick.

• Unnamed Teacher at the Bard Infant School (1820? – 1900?): She proudly taught at the Bard Infant School established by St. James’ to educate the young children of Hyde Park. It was built on East Market Street in 1834 and was named after Susan Bard, who bequeathed money to support it.

• Agness Irene Noonan Wager (1916-1983) and E. Kenneth Wager (1917-1988): Ken was born in Schultzville in the Town of Clinton. A photoengraver by trade, he became the owner of the Arden Engraving Co. Agness was one of the first real estate brokers in Dutchess County.
Having both graduated from Staatsburg, they wed in 1935. Ken was a veteran of the Second
World War. He was active in the American Legion, the Lions Club and various other community organizations. With several friends, he founded the Rogers Point Boat Club. Agness and Ken had five children, including Dick Wager who has been a longstanding parishioner at St. James’.

• William T. White (1896-1918): A private in the 1st Field Artillery Brigade, 1st Division. He
enlisted in 1917, and was part of the force of Americans that helped turn the tide of battle in
France against the Germans. White died in France of pneumonia on Oct. 14, 1918, probably as a complication of the Spanish flu. Originally interred in France, his body was returned to the
United States in 1921 for burial in the St. James’ churchyard.