Agen family papers, approximately 1920-1980

John Bernard Agen (1856-1920) was a wealthy entrepreneur in Seattle in the early 20th Century. He came to Seattle shortly after the Great Fire of 1889. He started the Mount Vernon Milk Company in the Skagit Valley, and soon began exporting condensed milk to the Far East and Alaska, in addition to operating the John B. Agen Company in downtown Seattle at First Avenue and Marion Street. Later, John B. Agen sold the Mount Vernon Milk business to the Carnation Company. Agen married Florence Ryan in 1900 and they had three children: Katherine, Florence and James.

John Agen's daughter Katherine (1901-1991) married into the Baillargeon family in 1923, who were another powerful and wealthy entrepreneurial family in Seattle. Her husband Cebert Baillargeon died in 1964. In her lifetime she helped establish the Seattle Art Museum, was a member of the National Council of the Metropolitan Opera, and served as co-chairwoman of the Met's first auditions in the Pacific Northwest. She was a trustee of the old Seattle General Hospital, a president of the Junior League, a prime supporter of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and member of the Sunset Club, the Highlands Orthopedic Guild, the Seattle Garden Club and the Country Club of Seattle on Bainbridge Island.

During World War II, Mrs. Baillargeon was active in French War relief, and was later awarded the Medaille de la Reconnaissance Francaise by the French government. Mrs. Baillargeon also was a volunteer supervisor of the U.S. Army's Pacific Northwest interceptor command, based in the King County-City Building.

[Information obtained from Katherine Baillargeon's Obituary in The Seattle Times]