At age fourteen he started his first job as an office boy, and gradually he worked through positions at a grain and transportation business.
[1] At the annual election for the presidency of the Consolidated Stock and Petroleum Exchange on June 11, 1900, Wagar defeated Charles G. Wilson,[4] who had held the role for fifteen years.
[2] According to The New York Times, "the contest was the most closely fought in the history of the Exchange, the total number of votes cast being 793.
Samuel Armstrong Nelson wrote in 1909 that Wagar's "three years of work as head of the institution were marked by great activity and progressive results of a character that advanced the Exchange's interest in almost every department.
[7] When the Consolidated National Bank was organized on July 1, 1902, the fourteen directors included Wagar, George Crocker, John W. Griggs, Henry C. Brewster, and Perry Belmont.
[9] On February 18, 1909, Wagar was named a director of the newly formed National Reserve Bank of the City of New York.
[10] Mortimer Hartwell Wager died suddenly on December 23, 1926, at his residence at 430 West 119th Street, from heart disease.