Bagley was born in Medina, New York to John and Mary M. Bagley. Bagley was initially raised in Lockport, New York. However, at the age of eight, he moved with his family to Constantine, Michigan. At age thirteen, he moved, this time to the opposite side of the state – to Owosso, Michigan. Bagley moved to Detroit, Michigan in 1847 as an apprentice and starting his working career in a small chewing tobacco shop of Isaac Miller. Bagley bought out Miller after seven years and renamed his store the Mayflower Tobacco Company, turning it into an industry leader that competed against other Detroit tobacco brands–at the time, tobacco was a major industry in Detroit.
Politics in Michigan
In 1855, he won election to the Detroit Board of Education, a position he held three years, by which time he had helped found the Republican Party. He also served as an alderman in Detroit. On January 16, 1855, he married in Dubuque, Iowa to Frances E. Newbury, daughter of Rev. Samuel Newbury, a pioneer missionary of Michigan. They had seven children together. Bagley also served on the Detroit Common Council from 1860 to 1861, and was a member of the Detroit Board of Police Commissioners from 1865 to 1872. Bagley helped to organize the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Company and served as its president from 1867–1872. During that time, he was also chairman of the Michigan Republican Party from 1868–1870. Bagley served as Governor of Michigan between 1873 and 1877. He encouraged the establishment of a state commission to regulate railroads, dealt with the matter of juvenile delinquency, and led the effort to establish the state Board of Health and the state Fish Commission. Bagley, a Unitarian, was an enthusiastic supporter of prohibition and passed the liquor-tax law.
Retirement and death
Bagley died in San Francisco from tuberculosis, three days after his 49th birthday. He was interred in Woodmere Cemetery of Detroit, Michigan. In 2019, his once believed to be lost statue was discovered in storage at the Detroit Institute of Arts
