These stories can also be heard on Sunday mornings around 10 am on WILD 102’s “Look Back in Time” program. Each week’s radio story will be posted here on our website.
Weekly radio stories are researched, compiled, and read by Sheila Winstead, RCHS Board Member.
January 26, 2025
I’ll continue reading the story I started last week about Anton Hagen, Pioneer and Village Official, from the book
“Remembrances of Roseau County”.
At the end of sixteen years serving as Roseau County Clerk of Court, the doctor advised a warmer climate so the
move was made to Portland, Oregon. It was at that time that Anton Hagen took training in insurance work. At the
end of the year the family moved back to Roseau where he started the Hagen Insurance Agency which remained in
the family for fifty-two years.
Anton Hagen remained in the insurance and farm management business until his death in December of 1947. His
daughter had returned to Roseau from her teaching position at the University of Minnesota and joined him in the
business during his ill health and after his death carried on the firm. Carol Hagen, his daughter, married Chris
Schwichtenberg in 1951 and he also entered the insurance business in 1953 and they changed the name of the firm
to Schwichtenberg Insurance carrying the sub-title of Hagen Insurance. The firm remained in the family until it was
sold in 1973 to the Roseau Agency.
During these years in Roseau he contributed time and travel working for the betterment of the Roseau area and
especially for better roads. Many trips were made to the State Capitol to meet with the state officials and engineers
in planning better roads for the county and in particular farm-to-market roads. He also spent two terms at the State
Capitol as secretary to A. M. Landby, State Senator for this 67 th District. Anton was appointed U. S. Commissioner of
Customs during which ten-year period he heard cases of illegal border crossings from Canada and the smuggling in
the various items but in particular a number of cases of smuggling liquor or egret feathers which were highly prized
by movie stars of the time; he was Justice of the Peace for twenty years during which time he heard cases of civil or
criminal complaint which were referred to a higher court of sentence pronounced if of a less severe nature. Anton
served on the Roseau school board and was an active member of the Odd Fellow Lodge.
Anton Hagen and his wife had the unique experience of helping organize and being charter members of two
churches – and she of two ladies’ aids. First, while living in Wannaska they aided in organizing the present Riverside
Lutheran Church, then a congregation of the Norwegian Synod. After moving to Roseau, they aided in organizing
the Roseau Norwegian Lutheran Church – the present Messiah Lutheran Church. Anna Hagen was a charter
member of the Wannaska Ladies Aid and also the Roseau Ladies Aid of the Norwegian Lutheran Church. The ladies
of both Wannaska and Roseau Aids met in members; homes until their church was built. Those were well-attended
meetings and the husbands and children came to the gatherings also or arrived after their day’s work and enjoyed
the late afternoon “lunches” which consisted of a meat dish, vegetables, pickles, cake, cookies and pie and, of
course, much Norwegian coffee. Intense devotion and contributions of time and money, family participation and
large meals or lunches characterized the meetings of Sunday School and Ladies Aids in those days.
The Roseau County Agricultural Society was incorporated on July 18, 1904, with the first fair held in 1906. Anton
was among many other young men who worked to put the Roseau County Fair on a firm foundation physically and
financially. Heavy rains before the first Roseau Fair found a veritable river running over the entranceway to the
already swampy fair grounds. The horse and oxen-drawn wagons and buggies were going to have to wade through
this uninviting water entrance. With no money available for culverts, the young county attorney and Anton made a
night visit to a piece of state land where the Highway Department had left a culvert to partly rust. They brought it
in and installed it during the night so on opening day the visitors were able to enter the fair grounds.
Besides many other fair duties Anton was Superintendent of Decorations since that office was established and up
to the date of his passing away. The “Avenue of Flags” at the front entrance was used in 1938 and on and has been
a trademark of the Roseau County Fair although an evergreen spruce between each flag pole was discontinued in
1968 due to a lack of funds. Anton borrowed the idea from the “Avenue of Flags” used at the Chicago World’s Fair
in 1937. Anton’s daughter was Superintendent of Decorations for a few years after he died and then his son-in-law,
Chris Schwichtenberg, was Superintendent of Decorations until his passing in December of 1977.
Anton Hagen passed away on December 28, 1947 and his wife passed away December 15, 1961. They had one son,
Odin Lee Hagen, who was Superintendent of Secondary Roads for the State of North Dakota, and made his home in
Bismarck, North Dakota. He and his wife had a daughter – Joan (Hagen) Butterfield. Their daughter Carol was
married to Chris Schwichtenberg and they had two children – Cheryl (Schwichtenberg) Eisenhut and Wilson. Wilson
and his wife have two children – Chris and Kay Schwichtenberg.
Thank you to for letting us share our county’s history with your listeners by donating air time, studio time, and production staff every week.