Kagey attended the Polytechnic Institute in New Market. He then went to the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, graduating from there with a law degree in 1898. He then moved to Kansas and began practicing law in Hays City. In 1899, he was appointed county attorney of Logan County. He then spent two years in Russell Springs. In 1901, he moved to Beloit and began practicing law there. In 1904, he formed the law firm Kagey & Anderson, which practiced all over the state, served as the local attorneys for Union Pacific Railroad and Missouri Pacific Railroad, and was general counsel for the Scott City Northern Railway Company. He was an active member of the Republican Party and was considered as a possible Republican candidate for Kansas Attorney General in the 1910 election but he declined to be a candidate.[2]
In 1921, President Hoover nominated Kagey as American Minister to Finland.[3] He resigned as Minister in 1925[4] and returned to Beloit. In 1931, he moved to Wichita[5] and became a member of the law firm Kagey, Black & Kagey.[6]