The Hoggs of Texas: Letters and Memoirs of an Extraordinary Family, 1887–1906

Part II At Home and Away1892–1895

Part II At Home and Aw ay 1892–1895 P olitics was meat and drink to Jim Hogg, and his appetite was as large as his person. He relished the crowds he attracted and the speeches he gave, in Texas and elsewhere. In his second term as governor and the year after he left office, he traveled constantly , and his family missed him. When he was at home, receptions and dinners, Sunday evening songfests, and visiting nieces and nephews made the Governor’s Mansion a lively place, with a doting paterfamilias presiding. That is how it was in Ima’s memoirs, composed many years later. But there were shadows in this glowing family portrait. In the fall of 1892, Will began his freshman year at Southwestern University, but for reasons that remain unclear did not return there for the spring term. Anna Hogg, mother of five and widow of Hogg’s eldest brother, died. Sallie Hogg’s health continued to decline. From September 1893 to February 1894, no family letters have been located. Tom contracted typhoid fever in the spring of 1894. Will left Austin to work for a time at the Southwestern Insane Asylum in San Antonio. In June 1894, Governor Hogg took Ima with him and twentythree prominent Texans on a tour of major U.S. cities to promote investments in Texas. Ima, age twelve, was the only female on the tour.1 An ailing Sallie reminded her husband not to forget about his eldest son, then nineteen. Hogg, caught up in politics and business ventures, wrote dutiful letters when he traveled, but often seemed oblivious to family concerns. In March 1895, Hogg left Austin on an extended business trip to New York and Boston. In April, Sallie was diagnosed with tuberculosis . In May, she and Ima left Texas to seek a cure in Colorado. Mike and Tom went to stay with the Stinsons, and Will stayed in Austin, studying for a law degree at the University of Texas. Jim Hogg did not return to Texas until June. He did not see Sallie and Ima until August, when he took Will, Mike, and Tom with him to Colorado to be at her bedside. All of the family was reunited at last in the late summer of 1895, but Sallie was very, very ill. •฀฀฀฀•฀฀฀฀• In August 1892, the Democratic Party had nominated Jim Hogg again for governor, but he could not count on an automatic win in November. George Clark had formed his own party, the Jeffersonian Democrats, and Thomas Nugent was running on the Populist Party ticket. Hogg would have to keep on campaigning until election day. He was already exhausted from months of traveling and speaking. In August, when the Democratic convention in Houston was over, he The Hoggs of Texas 82 came home to Austin and was confined to his bed for about ten days with what he called “something like a bilious attack.”2 But he was soon able to write to his sister Julia’s son, James McDugald, about attending the University of Texas. Sept. 6, 1892 Dear Jimmie: While my finances are low and necessarily must so remain while I am in office, I shall nevertheless take pleasure in doing what I can to aid you in completing your education through the University here, in obedience to your expressed wish by favor of the lst inst. I can at least furnish you board, books and stationery for the next year, by which, on proper application eschewing theatres, balls and frolics of all kinds, you can graduate in the law department with distinguished honors. You possess fine abilities, good character, a splendid constitution and elements of greatness, which if cultivated will lead you to success. I am proud of you and will be glad to render you such assistance as my limited financial condition will permit. So, you can pack your trunk and come to my house at any time before the beginning of the fall session and buckle yourself down to work. Your Uncle, J. S. Hogg3 Sallie wrote to Will, who was beginning his freshman year at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. Sept. 8th, 1892 My dear boy— Knowing you are a little “cranky” about hearing from home once a week, I will proceed to enlighten you as to our condition at this time. We are all as well as usual. Nothing unusual has occurred to change things. . . . Annie said...