Grundy County IL Archives Biographies.....Hoge, Family ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Deb Haines ddhaines@gmail.com April 29, 2006, 2:00 pm Author: 1883 US Bio Dictionary The Hoge Family Morris The Hoge family in this country are a numerous, wealthy and respectable people. A genealogical tree of the family, prepared by Miss Lucina Hoge, a member of it in Ohio, representing nine generations, contains 3013 names. The family name is variously spelled Hog, Hogg, Hoag, Hoge, and Hogue. Its first representative in this country was William Hog, who came from Scotland during the sixteenth century, and settled in Pennsylvania. He married Barbara Hume, a relative of the historian Hume. His son, William, was the first Quaker in the family, and removed from Pennsylvania to Virginia in 1754. He had a family of seven children: Solomon, James, William Joseph, George, Zebulon and Nancy. The descendants of Nancy alone now number over one thousand persons. Solomon, with whom the genealogical tree referred to begins, was born May 2, 1729, at High Bucks county, Pennsylvania, and died March 7, 1811, in London county, Virginia. He was married twice, and was the father of eighteen children. Ann Rollins, his first wife, bore him eleven, and his second wife, Mary Nichols, seven. The children of the first wife were Sarah, Joseph, David (died in infancy), Solomon, David (the second), Ann, Isaac, Mary, Hannah, Jane and Rebecca. The children of the second wife were Lydia, William, Joshua, George, Margery, Jesse and Amy. Joshua, his third child, was born in London county, Virginia, February 8, 1779, and died April 25, 1854. He was a farmer, and the owner of a large property, about fifty miles from Washington. His wife was Mary Poole, by whom he had ten children: William, Rebecca, Samuel, Amy, Solomon, Mary, Isaac Stanley Singleton, Lucinda, Ann and Amanda. The Hoges, from the time of William the Second, were all wealthy Quakers, and as such took no part in the revolutionary war, or the war of 1812. In the latter war, however, a tax of $80 was levied on the head of every Quaker family whenever a call for troops was made, which stood as an equivalent for service in the army. Although he lived and died in the Quaker faith, Joshua married “out of meeting”, and was expelled in consequence. This incident, followed by the perusal of the works of Thomas Paine, resulted in his whole family becoming deists. After his family grew up and left home, Joshua purchased some slaves to carry on his large estate of 400 acres, to the great horror of his Quaker relatives and friends. After his death in 1854, they fell to the heirs, who still remained in Virginia, who permitted them to do as they pleased, and practically gave them their freedom, but they were not legally emancipated until the proclamation of President Lincoln. His widow survived him till September 4, 1871. Although never active in politics, owing, somewhat, doubtless, to their early training, yet the Hoges are all republican in principle, and during the war of the rebellion were stanch Union men. The family of Joshua, with whom we have particularly to do, came into Illinois at an early day, and have all become very wealthy land owners and stock raisers. Their families, old and young, now number 134 persons. They own a total of 24,000 acres of the choicest land in the state, and raise annually vast herds of cattle, horses, sheep and swine. This family and the Holdermans intermarried, and together have owned a not inconsiderable share of Grundy county, besides large tracts in the adjoining counties. In person the Hoges are large and powerful men, both intellectually and physically. Their educational advantages were extremely limited in youth, and their acquirements at school generally ended with a slight acquaintance with reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic. Nevertheless, they have become men of broad, general and varied intellectual acquirements. As practical farmers and business men they have few superiors, and have achieved a reputation for probity and square dealing. In manners, they are true types of the genial, hospitable, kindly Virginia gentleman of the old school, and manage to make their visitors extremely comfortable. William Hoge, the eldest son of Joshua, was born in Loudon county, Virginia, July 5, 1801. His youth was spent on his father’s farm, and his school days in a little log school house where the three R’s covered the curriculum, viz., “reading, riting and rithmetic”. In November, 1826, when twenty-six years old, he married Rachel Bowles, and in 1829 came west in company with his father, into Illinois, on a prospecting tour. He came on horseback via Indianapolis and Covington, Indiana, to the country where now stands Joliet. He brought with him about $2,000, belonging to his father, to invest in canal lands, which were then surveyed and in market. After making a general survey of the country, he decided to locate on the great thoroughfare between Chicago and Saint Louis, and selected a section and a half of choice level land lying along Nettle Creek, which, rising a few miles to the northeast of Ottawa, empties into the Illinois River at Morris. His location gave him timber, water and prairie, and cheap transportation by way of the canal and river to Chicago and Saint Louis. His commission on this purchase for his father was his choice of a quarter section of the land he bought. This he selected and returned to Virginia. Two years later he was prepared to move his family, and in the latter part of October, 1831, reached his new home. A great Pennsylvania wagon, drawn by four horses, carried his household stuff, while his wife and three children, accompanied by a young woman, his wife’s cousin, rode in a two-horse covered buggy. His brother, Solomon, came with him to help him get settled, and together they made the long, tedious journey. Through Ohio they got along very well, but when they struck the state of Indiana the bottom seemed to have fallen out, and they were left to flounder in bottomless quagmires the whole breadth of the state. Gurdon S. Hubbard had given him the landmarks on the route from Covington when he came out in 1829, and following the Indian trail and Hubbard’s directions he came through at last without serious mishap. The journey consumed seven weeks, and the weather began to be cold before they could put up a shelter. A huge log, fronting the south and east, against which they leaned a row of short poles, and covered them with bark and thatched with hay, served as kitchen and dining- room till a cabin could be erected. The big wagon, divided into two compartments, did excellent service as sleeping quarters. The cabin, built hastily out on the prairie, was more exposed, and proved at first not half as comfortable as the camp in the woods, and the women and children thought seriously of retreating to their sunny shelter behind the huge log, but a little mud soon stopped the cracks and shut out the wind, and they passed a comfortable winter. The following spring they put another half story on the cabin, hewed the logs inside and out, fixed it up and improved it in various ways, and lived in it happily for many years. This cabin, the second one built in Grundy county, still stands a silent witness to their early labors, their joys and sorrows, their disasters and successes. In May, 1832, the Sac war occurred, and Mr. Hoge, with the rest of the white settlers, fled to Ottawa. He started before day for Ottawa, twenty miles away, to get a plowshare sharpened, but, learning of the outbreak before he reached the place, he returned in hot haste to save his family. Solomon had gone to Holderman’s Grove to help them plant corn, and had there received warning with the rest, through Peppers, the young Pottawattamie Indian, and reached home before William. Rachel and the young woman were singing gaily, happy as larks, when Solomon suddenly burst among them with the command to bundle up the children without delay and start for Ottawa. After a few words of hurried explanation they all sprang on the horses, and carrying the children before and behind, lost no time in getting out of danger. Subsequent events, however, proved that the family were really in no danger. They and all they possessed were singled out to be spared from the general massacre ordered by Black Hawk. The reason of this discrimination affords a fine illustration of the Indian character. Some time previously a company of five Pottawattamies came to Hoge’s cabin, and by signs and urgent manifestations of distress informed them that a companion was in trouble about five miles away in the woods, and besought the white men to aid him. With some trepidation, for they were as yet ignorant of the Indian character, they followed them down Nettle Creek to the neighborhood where Morris now stands, and found an Indian writhing upon the ground in great pain. He had fallen from a tree while coon hunting, and had broken his arm above the elbow and dislocated his shoulder. The Indians had splinted up the fracture nicely, but could not set the joint, a most difficult thing to do at any time. When in Virginia, William at one time had occasion to assist in such an operation, and the surgeon had taken pains to instruct him how it was to be done. A large ball of yarn or other hard substance was to be pressed with much strength into the arm-pit while the arm was lifted away from the body. The arm brought back again as a lever over the fulcrum of the ball, the joint would slip into its place with a snap. William had no ball, but putting his arms around the Indian from behind he put his left fist into the pit of the arm, and clasping it with his other hand, he furnished the proper fulcrum, while Solomon, using the broken arm for a lever, pried it with much skill and care into its place. When the crack came and the job was done the overjoyed red men raised a shout, and executed a bear dance around the whites, hugging them and shaking their hands in turn, and when the whites left them to return, the Indians insisted on loading them with such presents as they had at hand. The influence of this skillful act of kindness saved their lives, as the Indians had been camped several days in the timber on Nettle Creek, only about two and a half miles from Hoge’s place, and had them completely in their power, but as a Pottawattamie informed him afterward, they had received orders from Wauponsa to spare them on that account. The Quaker family had moreover, true to their principles, observed the strictest regard for honesty and fair dealing in all their intercourse with the Indians, and were much esteemed by them on that account. And we desire to place it upon record, though it has been often stated to the contrary, what all the old settlers of this region concur in testifying, that the Pottawattamies and not the Sacs were guilty of the massacres which took place in this part of the country. The young braves of Wauponsa’s band had been frequently made drunk by the white man’s fire water, and then plundered, cheated and kicked out by them, and they could not be restrained from seizing the opportunity for vengeance. It is stated that not a house was burned by the Indians where some of them had not been thus maltreated. The Hoges did not, however, know of their security, but fled to Ottawa with the rest, and assisted in building the rude log fort for protection. They afterward also went to Pekin, and remained late in August before venturing to return. When the storm was over, however, they were left to develop their farms in peace. Mr. Hoge began in a small way to raise cattle, buying cows and raising the increase, and was soon able to purchase more land. This he did as fast as his means allowed, mostly government lands at $1.25 per acre, and canal lands at from $7 to $12. Corn was his principal crop, and beef cattle his principal stock, and between them both he grew rich. Nine children, four girls and five boys, grew up around him, and soon became a great help. As the country settled up they married and settled around him, until all have left the homestead but one, Albert E. Hoge, who, at the age of forty, is still unmarried, and takes charge of the large estate and its interests. In 1843 Mr. Hoge buried his wife, and during the rebellion lost one son, Hindley, who was killed in the battle of Franklin, Tennessee. His estate now covers thirty-two hundred acres of land. It is mostly in one body around the old homestead, and is composed of tracts of fine timber, prairie, pasture and meadow, and is watered by several artesian wells and Nettle Creek. His house and farm buildings stand in a fine grove near the original spot on which his cabin was erected. Very near the center of the estate is as lovely a sylvan paradise as Grundy county can boast. About two hundred and fifty head of neat cattle, with horses, sheep and hogs, constitute the supply of stock always on hand. The early disadvantages under which Mr. Hoge labored in matters of school education did not prevent him from becoming a fast friend of schools, and he erected at his own expense, in 1835, the first school house in Grundy county. It is a log cabin 12 x 14 feet, with clapboard roof, and still stands where it was first put, only a few rods from his house, just in the edge of the timber. Large trees two feet in diameter at the butt have grown up around it, where only a hazel brush thicket grew when it was built. Marie Southworth, now an old lady, and a widow, Mrs. Marie Whitney, were its first school ma’ams. As before stated, Mr. Hoge is a stanch republican in politics, but takes no active part. He has held nearly all the usual town offices, but has always had an ambition for the quiet and peace of his family and home, and prefers to leave to others the turmoil and thankless labor of political life. In religious sentiment he has become a deist, and believes that he can serve God no better than to serve his fellow-man. Many efforts have been made to convert him, but all have so far failed. At the age of eighty-one he is in the full enjoyment of all his faculties; is in sound health, and though a little stiff from rheumatism is remarkably active. Unlike many old persons he has not become soured and misanthropic, but is genial, pleasant, mild- mannered, hospitable, warm-hearted and companionable. His house, once so full of young company, is not so merry now, but his latch string always hangs out, and a visitor or stranger is warmly welcomed. There are times, however, when his eight living children, thirty-six grandchildren and three great- grandchildren fill every nook and cranny of the old homestead with laughter, and all is merry as of yore. Samuel Hoge, the second son of Joshua Hoge, was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, October 28, 1805. His early youth was spent in his native place, where he worked on his father’s farm till he attained his majority. When twenty-one, his father gave him $1,000 in cash, and in company with Handley Grigg, his sister Amy’s husband, he went to Belmont county, Ohio, and started a store. After five years spent in trade, he sold out to his brother-in-law, and came west into Grundy county, Illinois, where his brother, William, had already became established. This was in the fall of 1834. He brought with him about $2,000 in money, and at once invested it in government land. His first purchase was of a quarter-section in the Illinois River valley, about three miles west of Morris, where he erected a log cabin, and soon after entered a full section at the head of the timber on Nettle Creek, west of his brother William. For five years he made his home in William’s family, but, May 23, 1839, married Matilda, the daughter of Abram Holderman, Sr., and set up housekeeping in his log cabin, near Morris. There he remained a year, during which he put up another house on Nettle Creek, to which he removed the following April, 1840. Both houses are still standing. The last-named was built principally of oak, and sided with black walnut siding, which, although moss-grown, is as sound as the day it was put on. The location was a good one, in the timber near its western boundary, on a rise of ground not far from the banks of the creek, and a splendid spring of living water near by. The farming land stretched away to the west and south, inviting the hand of its owner to gather the boundless wealth which lay locked in its fertile bosom. Cattle and corn were then, and still remain, the staple products, but moderate droves of horses, sheep and swine received some attention. Mr. Hoge was of robust health, strong and rugged; a man of good judgment, perseverance and tact; unexceptionable in his habits, and in his life pure. In his wife he had, in every respect, a worthy companion. On the one side Scotch and English, on the other German and Irish, blood were mingled in their partnership of marriage, and prosperity flowed in upon them as the natural reward of the industry and virtue which was the daily habit of their lives. Fifteen children came to them as the fruit of their union, nine of whom are still living, and six married and settled, mostly on farms in the vicinity. Mr. Hoge never sold a foot of land, but continued to add to his estate from time to time, till, at his death, he owned nearly 6,000 acres. His wife brought to him, at the death of her father, 560 acres, and by inheritance from her brother, 275 more. In addition to this, she has bought a fractional section of land in Champaign county, of 508 acres, making a total of 1,343 acres owned by Mrs. Hoge. While he lived, Mr. Hoge never deeded any land to his children, but as they married or became of age, he gave them the use of all they could care for. At his death, however, each became the owner of a section, and all have put up fine residences and farm buildings. In 1841 Mr. Hoge began to set out fruit- trees, and continued to do so from time to time, till he had one of the largest and most fruitful orchards in the county. In 1860 he erected a large and fine new residence near the old, and finished it throughout, in keeping with his wealth. For about three years before his death he had been in failing health, which gradually declined without any apparent cause, till March 13, 1881, when he died. His physicians thought a tumor or cancer of the stomach caused his death, but nothing is certainly known. He was buried on his own land in a private cemetery, where also nearly all of the deceased relatives on both sides, who have died in Illinois, lie interred. His wife, now sixty-two years of age, is almost as active as in the very height of her labors, and the strength of her youth. She attends to her business matters, looks after her stock, keeps track of her hired men and tenants, with the judgment and skill of a man of business. Her youngest daughter, Lina M., is a talented and well educated young woman, of twenty-four. She is now completing a very thorough musical education, at Leavenworth, Kansas. Her youngest son, Landy, nearly nineteen, is also attending school at the same place. Charles, the only other remaining member of the family unmarried, is not yet twenty-two, and lives with his mother on the old homestead. The larger part of his inheritance fell to him at Holderman’s Grove, which he rents; but himself farms 80 acres belonging to him, in the neighborhood of the old home. Hendley, the eldest son, is now forty-two years old. He married Miss Virginia Silcott, and has two children. Charlotte married William Reardan, and is the mother of four children. Jane is the wife of John Cunnea, of the firm of Janus Cunnea and Sons, bankers, in Morris, and has three children. Joshua is thirty-two. He married Laura Quigley, and has one child. Isaac is a twin brother of Joshua. He married Mary Peacock, and they have four children. George is twenty-eight years old. He married Ella Quigley, the sister of Laura, his brother’s wife, and has two children. One son, Abraham, died at Holly Springs, Mississippi, during the second year of the war of the rebellion. He never married. It is unnecessary to add, that without exception, these families are among the wealthiest and most respectable in Grundy county. They are all stanch republicans and public-spirited men, but are in no sense politicians. They can generally be depended upon to vote right, but are too busy to bother with office. Solomon Hoge is the third son and fifth child of Joshua Hoge. He was born in Fauquier county, Virginia, September 18, 1809. When his brother William moved west, in 1831, he came with him, and remained till the following spring, till after the Blackhawk war, when he returned to Virginia. After his brothers had all married and established themselves in homes of their own, he remained to care for his aged parents, and two maiden sisters. After the death of his father, in 1854, the entire management and control of his father’s estate devolved upon him. His attachment to his widowed mother and sisters prevented him from marrying until after the death of the former, September 4, 1871, when he came west and took possession of the estate left him by his father in Grundy county. He at once built a substantial residence, and returning to Virginia, married Miss Sally Bashaw, March 17,1872. This lady descended from an old Huguenot family of that name, who fled from France at the time of the massacre, and were people of considerable consequence in their own land. Her maternal grandmother was a relative of the historian Hume. One son, Herman, now a promising boy of seven years, his father’s hope and idol, is the fruit of their union. Immediately after his marriage, Mr. Hoge brought his wife to their new home, where they have resided ever since. With characteristics thrift, Mr. Hoge has greatly improved his property, and added largely to it. He now owns about 720 acres of as fine land as the sun shines upon, and, like his brothers, is largely engaged in cattle raising. His wife’s brother, R. N. Bashaw, assists him in the management of the estate, and his sisters, Kate and Lizzie, enliven their home by their pleasant merry ways, and lighten the cares of the household. With a deeply religious organization, Mr. Hoge, at the age of seventy-three, is still, and all his life has been, a pure deist. The causes which have prevented him from advancing beyond that stage of belief have already been adverted to, and need not be repeated, but we may add that his practical life has thus far been such as to throw no dishonor upon the profession of the most devout Christian. Although he received but a very limited education in youth, yet his life has been one continual school, and he is looked up to by many men of a far more liberal education, and for general information on all subjects has very superiors among ordinary men. In politics he was an abolitionist, an old line whig, and then a republican. His first vote was cast for Henry Clay. During the rebellion, although within the rebel lines, he was a noted and stanch Unionist. Although robbed and spoiled alternately by both contending forces, and his life always in danger, yet his courage never failed, nor did his devotion to the Union cause for a moment flag. Again and again he was compelled to leave home and hide for a time, to save his life. A rebel victory was always followed by threats from his rebel neighbors, and often by efforts to entrap him. On one occasion the little daughter of a rebel neighbor, overhearing her father and others making arrangements to capture him and send him to Libby prison, slipped out unobserved, and ran over to his house, and after giving him warning, returned without being suspected. He wisely heeded it, and escaped, for the attempt was made the following night, but he was out of harm’s way. Moseby, the rebel guerrilla chief, often called upon him, and oftener sent to get northern papers, but beyond laying him under contributions for forage or transportation, or an occasional mule or horse, did him no harm. Union officers were furnished with lists of stanch Union men within the rebel lines, and the name of Solomon Hoge was as familiar to the authorities as that of Lincoln or Grant. In a few instances he was captured by Union soldiers and brought into camp only to be politely returned with an apology by the officer in command. His constant familiarity with danger, and his conscious integrity made him as bold as a lion, and he did not know what fear was. He was at one time returning from Harper’s Ferry on horseback, whither he had gone to get supplies for the household, when he observed a horseman some distance ahead, apparently waiting for him. They rode along some distance together, the soldier, who was heavily armed, but in citizen’s clothes, asking him many questions about the war, and the news first from one side and then the other; finally he asked him directly whether he was a rebel or a Unionist. Mr. Hoge, looking him boldly in the eye declared his fidelity to the Union. Upon this the soldier demanded his horse with an oath. But although entirely unarmed, Mr. Hoge most positively refused, whereupon his companion seized his horse by the bridle, drew his pistol and ordered him to dismount or he would instantly shoot him. Keeping his eye calmly upon the ruffian he declared he would not do it under any compulsion whatever, and proceeding to draw back his horse he drew the fellow to the ground. Upon this he himself dismounted, and the soldier turned the muzzle of his pistol to the ground, exclaimed, “I too, am a Union soldier, and would not shoot you for a thousand worlds. I believe you are the bravest man on earth. What is your name?” It was a Michigan soldier. Mr. Hoge is not, and constitutionally cannot be a politician. He is of the same type of humanity as John G. Whittier. Calm, gentle, philosophic, poetic, a student, a humanitarian, a noncombatant, it is as absurd to look for him in the stormy sea of politics as to expect to find a turtle dove among carrion crows. page 524-534. Additional Comments: Source: The United States Biographical Dictionary and Portrait Gallery of Eminent and Self-Made Men, Illinois Volume; Chicago and New York: American Biographical Publishing Company, H. C. Cooper, Jr. & Company, Proprietors, 1883 Photo: http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/grundy/photos/bios/hoge104gbs.jpg File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/grundy/bios/hoge104gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/ File size: 27.1 Kb