In days of yore the region of Los Estados Unidos that was once called El Estado Libre y Soberano de Coahuila y Tejas was led by stalwart gentlemen.1 These included such worthies as J. Pinckney Henderson, George Tyler Wood, Peter Hansborough Bell, James W. Henderson, Elisha M. Pease, Hardin Richard Runnels, Sam Houston, Edward Clark, Francis Lubbock, Pendleton Murrah, Andrew Jackson Hamilton, James W. Throckmorton, Elisha M. Pease (that's twice), Edmund J. Davis, Richard Coke, Richard B. Hubbard, Oran Milo Roberts, John Ireland, Lawrence Sullivan Ross, and James Stephen Hogg. They all hailed from regions as varied as North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, Connecticut, Mississippi, Virginia (again), Louisiana, South Carolina, Alabama, Alabama (again), Tennessee (once more), Connecticut (twice), Florida, Virginia (that's thrice), Georgia (yet again), South Carolina (twice), Kentucky, Iowa, and Texas.
Footnote
Of course, there have also been stalwart women sitting in the First Chair of Texas. Miriam Ferguson was elected Governor in 1925 and in 1933 and so served two non-consecutive terms. More recently Ann Richards was Governor from 1991 to 1995.
Hold on there, pardners! You mean out of the first twenty2 Governors of 
all but one was born outside of that August State? And it wasn't until James Stephen Hogg was elected in 1890 that a 
assumed the chair? Not even the Great Sam Houston could claim such a distinction. Sam, it seems, was born in Virginia.
Footnote
Although you will read that Jim Hogg was the 19th Governor of Texas, this reckoning counts Elisha M. Pease only once. But Elisha was governor in non-successive terms, once from 1853 to 1857 and again from 1867 to 1869. Between the two terms there were seven other holders of the office.
Usually if an elected official serves non-consecutive terms these are counted separately. For instance Grover Cleveland was the US President from 1885 to 1889 and he was followed by Benjamin Harrison from 1889 to 1893. But then Grover was elected again after Benjamin. So he is considered the 22nd AND 24th President. By this modus counterandi Jim was Number 20.
Not even Sam.
(Click to zoom in and out.)
Indeed.3
Big Jim - he tipped the scales at 275 pounds (the same as football great Bubba Smith) - was born on March 24, 1851, in the East Texas town of Rusk, a city well-known for its native-born citizens of exceptional ability, talent, and intelligence4. Jim's parents were Joseph Lewis Hogg and Lucanda McMath. They were married in 1832 and ultimately had six boys and one girl.
Footnote
Usually Jim's birthplace is said to be "near" Rusk. Strictly speaking this is true since at that time the city limits were less extensive than today. Now, though, the city covers the part of the Hogg plantation where the main house was located.
Joseph was quite well-to-do and the Hogg plantation covered 2500 acres - almost 4 square miles. As a landowner and lawyer of influence he was elected to the State Secession Convention in 1860. Joseph cast his vote to join the Confederacy and ultimately rose to the rank of brigadier general. Then on May 16, 1862, he died during the First Battle of Corinth in Mississippi.5
Footnote
Some sources say Joseph was killed in battle. However, the Battle of Corinth is usually referred to as the Siege of Corinth. The town was surrounded by Union forces under Major General Ulysses S. Grant on April 29, 1862, and finally surrendered on May 30.
The actual battle casualties were low as there had been little fighting. However, deaths from disease were high. In particular the water had become polluted and many men, including Joseph, died from dysentery.
Jim's mother died the next year and the Hogg children continued to run the plantation (the oldest were in their twenties). Jim, though, seems to have elected to eschew the agricultural life and had actually spent some time going to school in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Then after he returned to Texas at age 16, he began working as a typesetter for a newspaper.
Jim's older brother, Tom, had become a lawyer like their dad and the family gradually began selling off their lands. But Jim seems to have considered returning to a life tending the soil. Or at least he took a turn at sharecropping. But he quickly found that the $10 for six months' work was not d'accord with his ideas of proper remuneration.
Then a couple of years later, he and Tom leased some land in a nearby county. But somehow they got on the wrong side of one of the locals that some references refer to as an "outlaw". The details aren't clear but there seems to have been a real set-to and Jim was nearly fatally wounded after their new acquaintance shot him in the back.
So clearly farming wasn't for Jim and at age 20 he moved to Tyler about 40 miles north of Rusk. There while working on the Tyler Democrat-Reporter he also studied law. Jim later moved to Longview about 30 miles to the east and started his own paper. Longview, though, was a rough town and Jim saw little future there. So he moved his paper to Quitman about 80 miles east of Dallas and just north of Mineola.
Although by now Jim was a scant 22, he ran for Justice of the Peace. Although local JOP's then (as now) didn't need a law degree, two years later Jim passed his bar exam. Then at age 25 Jim ran for the Texas Legislature. He lost that election but he was elected County Attorney. After that Jim never lost another race.
So Jim began his steady climb in Texas politics. In 1886 he was elected as Texas Attorney General and then - in 1890 - Big Jim Hogg ran for Governor.
By now Jim was married to Sarah Ann Stinson whose friends called her Sallie. Jim and Sallie had four children to whom he gave the best advice he could. To his eldest, Will, he said "Exercise freely, sweat often." His other two sons were Tom and Mike. And he had one daughter.
All right. Let's say it once out loud:
Despite the extensive documentation that the Hogg children comprised only the three boys, Tom, Will, and Mike, and one girl, Ima, there are people - even some well-educated Texians - who go into spittle-flinging diatribes when insisting on the veracity of Ima's mythical sister.6 And this hogwash (or is it hoGGwash?) was circulating well before the Internet and the story was being told even during Ima's lifetime.7
Footnote
The story of Ima's sisters continues to grow to increasing absurdity. There is not only the story about a "Ura" but even a "Hoosa". Probably before long we'll hear about her sisters "Wera", "Thera", and "Heesa".
Footnote
Ima was born in 1882 in Mineola and died in 1975 while visiting London. She was a talented pianist and had studied in Europe. When she was grown she became an important patron and promoter of music and the fine arts. Many items from her personal art collection - which included paintings by Picasso and works by other famous artists and sculptors - were donated to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts.
Stories of why Jim picked his daughter's particular name are not consistent. In one telling the name is from a poem that Jim liked about a girl name Imogene. Another is that it was simply a reminder that Ima should be proud to be one of the Hogg family. But we suspect that Jim just thought it was funny8.
Footnote
Although the given name "Ima" isn't that common it is still borne by about 9000 people in the United States. That's also about the same number with the surname "Hogg". However, there appears to be no "Ima Hoggs" currently residing in the United States.
Jim kicked off his campaign for Governor in Rusk (the city, etc., etc.) and in his announcement he spoke for nearly three hours. As were many Texans at the time, Jim was a staunch Democrat and railed against Big Business which included the Big Railroads and Big Insurance Companies. As most Texans were small farmers and businessmen, they cast their votes for Jim and he was elected and then re-elected. Since at that time the governor's tenure was limited to two terms of two years, Jim left office in 1895.9
Footnote
Today the Texas Governor serves for four years and there are no term limits. The longest any one person held the office was 15 years.
Sallie died that year but Ima helped Jim with domestic duties and accompanied her dad on his travels. Among other things she kept everyone on their best behavior. She would even sit at the table and monitor Jim's friends playing poker. Ima said her dad didn't join in the games nor did he drink during these sessions of income leveling. In 1898 she went with her father to Hawaii where they attended the ceremony celebrating the islands' establishment as a United States territory.
It's hard to believe with today's criteria for the compensation of public figures, but Jim didn't make money while in office. In fact he had to borrow money just to move out of the governor's residence. However, back in private life he set up a law office with his friend James Robertson and he began to speculate in the oil business. In 1902 Jim and three partners formed The Texas Fuel Company located in Beaumont. The organization prospered and soon you could trust your car to the company that Jim Hogg had made the Star. Yep, The Texas Fuel Company soon eventually changed it's name to ...
Well, let's just say the company is still going strong.
Jim died in 1906 at age 51 which was about the median expectancy for the era10. Although his heftiness may have been a contributing factor he was still suffering from an injury incurred the year before. Jim had been traveling from West Columbia to Houston when the train collided with a string of railroad cars. The collision was not very serious in itself - it was termed a "minor" accident - but Jim was thrown to the floor. The fall injured his neck and produced an abscess that required surgery. Jim was never well afterwards, and he died at a friend's home in Houston.
Footnote
Median life expectancy in 1906 was 50 years. However infant mortality was still relatively high compared to modern times which lowers the average. If a person reached the age of 20, he could then expect to make it to 60 or even above.
East Texas, the Land from Which Jim Hailed, boasts a catholicity of entertainments. There are the trails in the piney woods for the hikers and for archeology buffs there are visits to the Caddo Mounds near Alto. History enthusiasts can visit Nacogdoches whose residents boast as living in the oldest city in Texas and where Davy Crockett stopped on his way to the Alamo. For those with more modern tastes there is the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame in Carthage, and animal lovers can visit the Tiger Creek Animal Sanctuary in Tyler. Tyler also extolls its Azalea Trails and its famous Rose Garden.
Jim is much honored in his native state and those who like roughing it can camp out at the Jim Hogg Park near Georgetown which is about 30 miles north of Austin. But then there is THE Jim Hogg STATE Park. This is at the site of the original Hogg Plantation in Jim's home town. A brief turn east off the main route leads you to a roadside marker which proclaims:
MOUNTAIN HOME
BIRTHPLACE OF JAMES STEPHEN HOGG
SON OF LINDA MCMATH HOGG AND
JOSEPH LEWIS HOGG ¬ BORN MARCH 24
1851 ¬ DIED MARCH 3, 1906 ¬ FIRST
NATIVE TEXAN TO SERVE AS GOVERNOR
¬ INSPIRER OF THE PASSAGE OF THE
RAILROAD COMMISSION LAW, STOCK AND
BOND LAW, ALIEN LAND LAW
Erected by the State of Texas
1936
You may hear that there is a legend that if you were born within a mile of where Jim Hogg was born, the Texas Sun will always shine brightly wherever your travels lead. And at night the Texas Stars will guide you on your way.
Is there really such a legend?
Well, if there isn't, there oughta be.
References and Further Reading
James Stephen Hogg: A Biography, Robert Cotner, University of Texas Press, 1959.
The Hoggs of Texas: Letters and Memoirs of an Extraordinary Family, 1887-1906, Virginia Bernhard, Texas State Historical Society, 2013.
Ima Hogg: The Governor's Daughter, Virginia Bernhard, Brandywine Press, 1984.
"James Stephen Hogg: The First Native Governor of Texas", Robert Cotner, Texas State Historical Society, Original Publication Date, 1952, Updated February 21, 2021.
"Jim Hogg Was State's First Native Born Governor", Tracy Gupton, Columbia Historical Museum, Vault of Texas History, March 24, 2024.
"Tale of Ura Hogg Has a Life of Its Own", Ann Landers, Chicago Tribune, May 6, 1998.
"James Stephen Hogg", Find-a-Grave, Find-a-Grave Memorial ID: 6991, November 15, 1999.
"Joseph Lewis Hogg", Find-a-Grave, Find-a-Grave Memorial ID: 10992, July 14, 2000.
"Lucanda McMath Hogg", Find-a-Grave, Find-a-Grave Memorial ID: 52412044, May 15, 2010.
"Mountain Home Marker: Birthplace of James Stephen Hogg, Son of Lucanda McMath Hogg and Joseph Lewis Hogg", Historical Marker Data Base.