BIRTH: 16 Sep 1915, Roseburg, Oregon, USA
DEATH: 18 Jan 2009, Santa Cruz, California, USA
FATHER: Richard Lesley Staggs, Sr. (1888-1965)
MOTHER: Ella Blanch Wareham (1888-1982)
SPOUSE: Jeanne Wilma Sammons (1919-1959)
When Harold Wareham Staggs was born on September 16, 1915, in Roseburg, Oregon, his father, Richard Lesley Staggs, Sr, was 27 and his mother, Ella Blanch (Wareham), was 27. He married Jeanne Wilma Sammons on March 14, 1942, in Chicago, Illinois. They had four children during their marriage. He died on January 18, 2009, in Santa Cruz, California, at the age of 93.
His own story
The following is an excerpt from Staggs Genealogy – Harold Wareham Staggs – His Book
So, I’m next in your line. Born the year the Lusitania was torpedoed. I don’t remember much about our 30-day trip from Brookings, Oregon to Valpo, Ind. I know that we camped on the grounds of the capitol building in Sacramento, California then followed the old Lincoln Highway east. Dad found out that the old stage road wasn’t meant for a car. He had to fill in holes and roll rocks until we got to Nebraska. I remember a storm, balls of fire on the horns of cows and water so deep on the road that the car couldn’t move and we spent hours on top of the car until the water went down. But we got there and then moved to Chicago.
Read Harold’s accounts of leaving Oregon in 1919 and growing up in Chicago in the 1920’s
The depression, school and then, in high school, I met Jeanne. We knew that I’d be in college for six years, so it was a long wait before we married in the summer of my final year.
Load the wagons, we’re on our way.
Jeanne and I planned that she would buy a car with money she would save from the pay she received while working in a plant where they made torpedoes. We had married the summer of my last vacation before I graduated. 1 would order drugs to be sent to General Delivery, Milan, Missouri; and meet her at the train station there at noon on the Sunday after my graduation. Neither of us had ever been in Milan before but as it had no veterinarian, we felt that it would be a good place to practice. Milan was a small town; less than two thousand people. When I arrived at the station where I was to transfer to the local train to Milan, I was told that there was no train to Milan on Sundays. Great! I was about fifty miles from my bride and no way of letting her know I was stranded. I could just see her, the first bride left at a railroad station rather than the church. The station agent found a man who felt pity for me and he loaded me and my gear into his car and took me to Milan. It was about three o’clock when we came down into the station at Milan, and, gad, how wonderful it was to see Jeanne sitting in the Ford patiently waiting for her wayward spouse.
We spent our first winter in debt and with cold feet. The drugs we were to have paid for in thirty days were finely paid for after three months. Everyone was kind, even the woman we rented from told us not to worry when we were unable to pay the rent. But once the farmers decided that the college kid could be trusted, things turned around, and we started eating a little higher off the hog.
The country was cold! One night Jeanne forgot to empty the water pitcher and the next morning we found that the glass had broken but the still stood on the table in the perfect shape of the pitcher. The honeymoon was over, we put on more clothes than we took off when we went to bed. Getting through drifts of snow was a problem, I used horsedrawn sleds at times and when one was not available would walk.
When spring came it brought mud and I used buggies or a tractor to get to farms located off the main road. But we enjoyed it and yet decided to move to Cassville where the roads were much better.
Cassville was about as big as Milan, so we soon knew about everyone, and they too were nice people. I remember the old bachelor who would call me out each fall to do his yearly vet work then invite me to stay for supper. Always the same meal, yams and a nice young roasted racoon, which had grown fat eating his field corn. We would eat by lamplight with the fireplace keeping us warm until our jaws gave out.
As money was in short supply, a number of our clients paid us in trade. One time, remember that Jeanne was a big city girl, Jeanne met me at the door when I came back from a call and, with a puzzled look on her face, asked me just what in the world were we to do with four bushels of cucumbers. “Make pickles” I said. “From cucumbers?” she gasped. So, we got a mess of Mason jars and went to work making ice-box pickles. Now, anyone can make ice-box pickles, you just can’t go wrong. For years we were so proud of the racks of jars of beautiful green pickles stored down in the basement. Too bad we couldn’t eat, them but they tasted more like an ice box than a pickle. As far as I know they may still be there – we left them when we moved.
I remember the time Mr. Wilson left two crates of young guinea hens and one of the Boy Scouts left the barn door open. Each time we wanted to eat a guinea hen, I had to get out the rifle and hunt one down in the woods behind the house.
There was one time in the summer when everyone, including .us, was trying to give away tomatoes from their gardens and dear old John Bates bought two bushels of them and left them after telling Jeanne that they were part payment of his bill. Jeanne wanted to know how much to credit his bill. I told her that as bookkeeper that was her problem. So, she got smart-aleckey and cancelled his entire bill. May have saved us from getting God knows how many more bushels of tomatoes, smart gal, Jeanne.
While in Cassville we were blessed by the births of Barbara, 1946, and Steve, 1950, two of the best.
While in Cassville, I met a big black bull who didn’t understand that I was trying to help him. He got me down and after I got out of the hospital I used a leg brace for three years. Unable to stay in large animal practice, we moved to Sacramento and worked first for the Federal then the State Government. While in Sacramento we found David, born 1956.
The world came down on us when Jeanne died, but we went on as she would have wanted us to. All the children went through their schooling in great style and I’m proud that for four generations the Staggs in our line were able to go to college. I’m very thankful that I’m the father of these three fine people. I have been so rewarded for what little I’ve done just by being able to watch them grow into the individuals they are today.
Jeanne would have been so proud of you and how she would have loved her grandchildren.
Steve married Karen and they have three wonderful boys and a beautiful girl. Brandon Lee, born 1975, Cory Hudson, born 1976, Duston Gregory, born 1978, and Sara Jeanne, born 1982.
These four will do well in this world and we’ll be proud of them.
Just a few memories regarding my children:
Barbara bravely rowing across the lake while David and I watched from the shore wondering why she didn’t pull in the anchor. Steve, then David, having Barbara pin on their Eagles. Barbara receiving the Curved Bar. Fruit flies all over the T.V. screen. Actors performing daring circus feats in the yard and caroling at Christmas. Steve and Randy singing the fame of Old Blue. Barbara telling me that my little girl was going to fly, alone, to Mass. to work all summer and my ulcer saying, “Oh, No!”: David and Steve when they swam the mile and my ulcer saying, “Oh, No!”. Barbara showing me her report card and sweetly telling me that I owed her sixty-four, but she would be happy to take half. Our regal disregard for one-way streets, garage doors and neighbors’ windows. Barbara interceding when she felt I was hard on her little brothers. Steve going up the ladder at Winton. Leeks’ wood fairy. P.L.’s and S.P.L.’s I have known. The mellow sound of an English horn from a bedroom. Our Barbara cleans the kitchen floor. We buy a new floor. The sound of my-dog-has-fleas. A black dog who thought she was a boy. David building a fire in the fireplace. The firemen putting out a fire on the roof. Barbara’s “stuff”. Barbara a waterfront director. Steven’s spaceship designs. David baking corn bread. The troop at attention, the sound of David’s bugle as the flag comes down, campfires.
Barbara graduates from high school and someone in the audience upsets her. David fails to prove the power of the pyramid. Steve blacks out the bathroom, and we learn the meaning of self-control. Steve, number one in the Academy, David graduates with honors. Barbara graduates with honors. Someone pours milk over my head. Barbara vetoes the use of paper other than napkins at the dinner table.
We went a-wandering, we went a-wandering, we went a-wandering to old Mexico. Dad, how do we use this “toilet?”. Senorita Timida, aqui esta la moneda para la comida.
This could go on and on, so I’ll let them tell the stories of their lives.
And you, don’t forget to add the histories of the new lines! If you don’t, I’ll come back as a rabbit and eat every darn flower in your garden!
Education
Harold graduated from Lindblom High School in Chicago, Illinois. At Lindblom High School in 1936 he was the Cadet Lieutenant Colonel, commander of the corps, and president of the officers’ club.
Harold studied at Kansas State College for a year then transferred to the Agriculture and Mechanical Engineering College of Texas (Texas A&M), where he earned his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Degree on September 17, 1943.
Military service
Harold served three years in the 108 Comb. Eng., 33 Infantry Division. Illinois National Guard, and then the 124 Field Artillery, 33 Infantry Division, a horse unit. He was honorably discharged on September 15, 1936.
Career
In October of 1943 he formed a partnership with Dr. A. W. Koester in Milan, Missouri as a “Graduate Veterinarian.” Harold was licensed to practice veterinary medicine in the state of Missouri on February 15, 1944. He later began his large animal veterinary practice in Cassville, Missouri. In 1952 Harold suffered a severe leg injury and was unable to continue his practice.
In 1953 Harold moved to Rio Linda, California and worked for the United States Department of Agriculture as inspector in meat and poultry processing plants. In 1956 he began working as a Staff Veterinarian for the newly formed Bureau of Poultry Inspection at the California Department of Food and Agriculture (his wife, Jeanne, saw an advertisement in the paper that they were looking for someone to set up the bureau and told him he could do that. She was the force behind the man.). He became its Assistant Chief and was the author of the inspection standards for the bureau.
In June of 1973, Harold retired from the State of California.
Public Service
Harold was active as an adult leader in the Boy Scouts of America for 21 years. He was scoutmaster and explorer advisor in Cassville, Missouri for five years; a troop committeeman for one year and scoutmaster of Troop 100 in Rio Linda, California for two years; and scoutmaster of Troop 34 in Sacramento, California for eight years.
During his service as scoutmaster of Troop 34 the troop became known as the Troop of the Eagles with 26 scouts earning the rank of Eagle Scout. The Eagle Scouts included his two sons, Steven and David.
Harold received “Silver Bear Award” for Distinguished Service to Boyhood from the Boy Scouts of America Golden Empire Council on October 24, 1964.
He also received the “Silver Beaver Award” for Distinguished Service to Boyhood from the Boy Scouts of America Golden Empire Council on January 18, 1968.
See photographs from Troop 34.
Obituary
Harold “Doc” Staggs, born September 16, 1915, in Roseburg Oregon., died on January 18, 2009, in Santa Cruz, California of a cerebral hemorrhage. Doc served as scoutmaster of Sacramento’s troop 34 from 1964 to 1968 and inspired many young men through his stories and wilderness camping expeditions throughout his 21 years in scouting. Harold was a kind, thoughtful man who treated others honestly and compassionately. Doc’s devotion to scouting has given many local men a solid base of experiences on which they have built their lives. He cherished the memories created through scouting as did all who were fortunate to be part of them.
Harold, one of a family of five boys, was born in the Oregon wilderness, raised in Southside depression-era Chicago, and spent much time as a young man on the family farm in Missouri. He married his high school sweetheart, Jeanne, and together raised a family of three in Missouri and later California. Jeanne’s death in 1959 was a tragic blow to the family but Jeanne lives on through her three loving children Barbara, Steve, David, and their descendants.
Harold earned a degree in veterinary medicine at Texas A&M and served as a large animal veterinarian in Missouri for ten years. Harold then served in both Federal and California state service. By 1974, Harold had provided each of his three children a college education and was able to retire and live his dream of traveling throughout the U.S. Harold later settled in Felton California with his loving daughter Barbara and husband Si, where he lived the remaining 6 years of his life.
Harold lovingly recorded, in amazing detail, the history of our family in a document that will continue to speak to us and future generations. Our grieving family cherishes and celebrates the life of Harold W. Staggs, a fine man with a generous spirit – devoted to his children Barbara, Steven, and David, grandchildren Brandon, Cory, Dustin, and Sara Jeanne, and great-grandchildren Nathan, Daniel, Aurora, and Gregory.
Research by Harold Wareham Staggs
- First book on Staggs Genealogy 1979
- Staggs Genealogy – Harold Wareham Staggs – His Book
- New family history material 2001
- For Our Newest Generation – for his great-grand children
- Descendants of Thomas Staggs and letters written by different ancestors
- Family letters compiled and sent to his Granddaughter, Sara
Legacy of Harold Wareham Staggs
Parents
Father: Richard Lesley Staggs, Sr. (1888-1965)
Mother: Ella Blanch Wareham (1888-1982)
Married
Jeanne Wilma Sammons (1919-1959). Married March 14, 1942 in Chicago, Illinois.
Children
- Barbara Jeanne Staggs (1946- )
- Infant (female) Staggs (1948-1948)
- Steven Barry Staggs (1950- )
- David Randolph Staggs (1955- )
Documents
- Birth Records
- None
- Records supporting September 16, 1915 date of birth:
- World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 > Harold Wareham Staggs > Date of birth: September 16, 1915; Place of Birth: Roseburg, Oregon
- U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 > Name: Harold Wareham Staggs; Birth Date: 16 Sep 1915
- Marriage records
- Marriage License Chicago, Illinois, March 14, 1942
- Death records
- U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014 > Name: Harold Wareham Staggs; Social Security Number: 319-16-0472; Birth Date: 16 Sep 1915; Issue year: Before 1951; Issue State: Illinois; Last Residence: 33590, Holiday, Pasco, Florida, USA; Death Date: 18 Jan 2009
- Obituary Notice, Sacramento Bee
- Census Records
- 1920 United States Federal Census > Oregon > Curry > Brookings > District 0129
- 1930 United States Federal Census > Illinois > Cook > Chicago (Districts 501-750) > District 0580
- 1950 United States Federal Census > Missouri > Barry > Cassville > 5-9
- Other
- Honorable Discharge, September 15, 1936.
- World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 > Harold Wareham Staggs
- Doctor of Veterinary Medicine Degree Texas A&M, September 17, 1944
- Veterinary Medicine License, State of Missouri, February 15, 1945
- Silver Bear Award Boy Scouts of America Golden Empire Council, October 24, 1964.
- Golden Beaver Award Boy Scouts of America Golden Empire Council, January 18, 1968
- California State Assembly Resolution for 21 years in Boy Scouting, May 7, 1970
Gallery
Additional photographs with his children
Relation of Harold Wareham Staggs to Steven Barry Staggs: Father
Page last updated January 21, 2026
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