Harold M. Hagen was born in Helena, Montana to Fred and Anna “Kinney” Hagen, May 15, 1909. In 1921, Hagen and his family moved to the Bitterroot Valley in western Montana, purchasing farmland from the Bitterroot Valley Irrigation Company originally settled as a homestead by Peter Whaley in 1877. The Hagen family were amongst the first to plant corn in the Bitterroot Valley and soon began raising dairy cattle, sugar beets, and potatoes.
Hagen graduated from Stevensville High School in 1927, going on to attend Montana State College (now Montana State University), in Bozeman, Montana. In 1939, Hagen married Willie May Sherwin, settling north of Stevensville, Montana. A year later, Hagen took over operations of his family’s farm from his father. Between 1940 and the late 1960s, Hagen became a prominent figure in the farming community of the Bitterroot Valley. It was also during this time that Hagen and Willie May would have two sons, David and Douglas, and one daughter, Helen. In the late 1960s, Hagen’s son David would apply to and be accepted to the University of Oregon Medical School, receiving an M.D. degree in 1968.
Through the mid-1960s and early 1970s, Hagen, with the support of Montana Senator Lee Metcalf, worked to convert his and neighboring farms into a wildlife refuge. Hagen relinquished the final parcel of his land, including his house, in 1974 to the newly established Ravalli National Wildlife Refuge (renamed to the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge in 1978). However, Hagen retained life use rights to the property, and he and Willie May lived there until 1988. The Hagen farm was listed to the National Register of Historic Places as the Whaley Homestead in 1992.
Hagen died February 6, 2007, and is buried in Stevensville, Montana.
The Harold M. Hagen collection contains financial documents, correspondence, and family papers between 1924 and 1965, with the bulk of the collection from 1965. Correspondence details friend and family relationships written to members of the Hagen family. A single college diploma is included made out to Willie May Sherwin as well as a single student employment form by David Hagen detailing his farm work experience. Financial documents highlight the diversity of expenses and incomes to the Hagen farm. Records of income include statements from Golden Creamery Company (Missoula, Montana), Garden City Dairies (Missoula, Montana) and Hagen Potatoes. Records of expenses include a broad category of personal and farm operation receipts as well as a report from the local farmers union on dairy production costs for ranchers in the Bitterroot Valley, Montana.
The Harold M. Hagen collection is arranged chronologically.
Researchers must use collection in accordance with the policies of Archives and Special Collections, the Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, and The University of Montana-Missoula.
Researchers are responsible for using in accordance with 17 U.S.C. and any other applicable statutes. Copyright not transferred to the University of Montana.
Harold M. Hagen Papers, Archives and Special Collections, Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library, The University of Montana-Missoula.
Working to preserve the Whaley Homestead, the Montana State Historic Preservation Officer suggested archiving the documents found on and associated with the property. Erin Holms, refuge manager at the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge, collected the documents that are now the Harold M. Hagen Papers and gifted them to the Mansfield Library Archives and Special Collections in February 2009.
Gift of the Lee Metcalf National Wildlife Refuge, February 2009.
Student class notes and assignments belonging to Thomas “Slick” Sherwin, likely Willie May Hagen's brother, were deemed to not hold sufficient research value and were removed from the collection along with general publications about bookkeeping. Retained materials were foldered.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.