Peter Joseph Wagner was the son of Joseph Wagner and grandson of Colonel Johan Peter Wagner, Revolutionary War officer. In 1805 the family moved to Fort Plain from Wagner’s Hollow. His father purchased land that extended from the Otsquago Creek to West Street to Mohawk Street and River Street to Wagner Street. Peter graduated from Fairfield Academy and after attended Union College in Schenectady graduating in 1816. He passed the NYS Bar in 1819 and began to practice law in Fort Plain. In 1839 he was elected to the 26th Congress US House of Representatives as a member of the Whig party where he served as Chairman of the Committee on Expenditures Department of War. Returning to Fort Plain in 1841 he resumed his law practice until he retired in 1873. Peter Joseph Wagner is probably the most notable of persons buried in the Fort Plain Cemetery