From the Matagorda County History & Genealogy page
Joseph Ralph Wagner wascborn on May 16, 1870, in Newman, Illinois, was the son of Dr. John Marquand (Marquin) and Sarah Ellen Wagner.
He attended public school in Newman, and was graduated from Rush Medical College in Chicago.
He began his practice in 1895 in Newman.
About 1902, he moved his family to Crowley, Louisiana, and farmed rice for a couple of years.
In 1906, they moved to Palacios and bought a farm, intending to raise rice.
He soon found that Palacios needed a doctor, so in June, 1907, he took the Texas Medical Examination and opened practice.
In the early days Doc had an ad each week in the Palacios Beacon, “DR. WAGNER’S PHONE IS #13,” and, of course, his phone number was very important to a lot of people!
Doc was a typical “country doctor” of the era, beginning his practice with a horse and buggy, but advancing to an automobile in 1909.
At times his car would not go where he was needed, so someone would meet him with a buggy to take him over muddy roads to the sick person.
He said, “All of the roads around here were muddy in those days, and I have been stuck in every danged one of them.”
He practiced in the days of the “house calls,” and for much of the time, without the benefit of a hospital.
Often he was paid with gratitude and admiration instead of cash.
He said, “I’ve had a lot of success with medicine, but I’m a financial failure. If I had it to do over again, I would pay more attention to business.”
But, as stated by John H. Moore, a Houston Post correspondent, “everybody who knows “Doc,” and that means everybody in this vicinity, knows that his remarks about wishing he had paid more attention to making money are just so much hot air.”
In the winter of 1928, Doc was called to deliver a baby of a woman who lived more than 20 miles in the country at that time there were few hard surfaced roads in the county, and certainly none to the house to which he was called.
He drove as far as he could in his car. A friend of the expectant family met him, with a buggy, at the end of the good road and carried him, piggyback, across the muddy areas to the buggy.
Doc liked to arrive as clean as possible when he was to deliver a baby!
The child, a boy, was named Ralph Wagner in his honor.
Doc practiced medicine 54 years.
During those years he delivered some four thousand babies.
In November, 1949, about one hundred of these “babies” joined friends and patients in paying tribute to Doc for his long years of patient, faithful, service to the people of the Palacios area. Of the “babies” present, Estelle Elder Alley was the oldest, and the six-month old son of Mr. and Mrs. Martin Ragusin was the youngest.
John H Moore writes of him, “It is doubtful that anyone enjoys just plain everyday living more than “Doc” Wagner.
“He enjoys talking to his cronies, and listening to the radio, and eating, and traveling, and puffing on cigars—he enjoys everything he does. His hobby is poker—stud, draw or deuces wild—and he enjoys it whether he wins or loses. He is almost never seen without a cigar stub sticking out of the corner of his mouth.
“He has another way of smoking cigars around the house. He filters the nicotine through a long-stemmed pipe, stuffing the cigar into the bowl as if it were a pipeful of tobacco. This method of smoking a cigar is fascinating to watch once one gets used to it.”
Dr. Wagner was a member of the First Presbyterian Church and a charter member of the Rotary Club.
For thirty-nine years, he served as City Health Officer
He was a Mason for sixty-seven years, becoming one at the age of twenty, which required a special dispensation.
He served as a school board trustee.
He was married three times, first to Mary “Minnie” Isabella Wagner (March 2, 1874-May I, 1911), who is buried at Palacios Cemetery Their children were: John Thomas Wagner (July 10, 1903- July 15, 1984) who is buried at Palacios Cemetery; Helen Wagner, who married first Lum Twilliger and second Roy Bell, and lived in Houston, and Ina Wagner, who married Carl Nelson.
Dr. Wagner’s second marriage to Harriet B. Jennings ended in divorce.
His third marriage, in 1918, was to Emylee Bonner Wagner (September 27, 1889-December 26, 1983), who is buried at Palacios Cemetery.
Emylee had previously been married to Harley Bonner and had two children, John Harlan Bonner and Opal Bonner Williams. Emylee’s mother was Emily H. Jones (May27, 1840-January4, 1931) who is buried at Palacios Cemetery. Doc died on May 28, 1957, at Bay View Hospital in in Palacios and is buried at Palacios Cemetery.
In 1960 a new hospital was built in Palacios.
The town voted to name it Wagner General Hospital in honor of “Doc.”
Historic Matagorda County, Volume II, pp. 547-548