Logan County, West Virginia Biography of JAMES ABNEY HOGG This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: ********************************************** ***The submitter does not have a connection*** ********to the subject of this sketch.******** ********************************************** This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume II, pg. 570-571 Logan JAMES ABNEY HOGG. Ever since the first white settle- ments were planted in the Kanawha and Ohio valleys, under the protection of military force and against the open hostility of the Indians, members of the Hogg family have played their part here, as soldiers, as home-makers, as engineers and in many other avenues of service. Obviously it would not be possible here to give an account of the family in all interesting detail. The member named above was born at the original seat of the family in Mason County, but his business interests brought him some years ago to the great mining district of Logan. He is the present mayor of that city. Mr. Hogg'g ancestry begins with Capt. Peter Hog, spelled with one "g" at that time, a native of Scotland, who came to America and settled in Augusta County, Virginia. He was an officer of the crown in the Dumnore war on the western side of the Allegheny Mountains, and was an intimate friend of George Washington and fought in the Revolution. His son Peter came West to occupy a land grant of 8,000 acres given by King George. This land was located at the month of the Great Kanawha River, in what is now Mason County, West Virginia. His son, Thomas G. Hogg, was born in 1800, was a land sur- veyor, and was a prominent pioneer in this western region. Many members of the Hogg family have been civil en- gineers. The mayor of Logan was named for his grand- father, James Abney Hogg, who was born in Mason County, was a thrifty farmer, and he married Lucy Ball, daughter of Capt. James Ball, who settled in Mason County about 1785. Among the sons of James Abney Hogg one was the late Charles E. Hogg, one of West Vir- ginia's greatest lawyers and legal authors. He studied law while teaching school, and while in practice handled some of the most important cases in the State and Federal courts. Lawyers knew him as author of several important works, found in nearly all law libraries, and he also im- parted his abilities and character upon the legal profession by his work as teacher of law and as Dean of the College of Law of West Virginia, a post he took in 1906. The father of Mayor Hogg was Thomas G. Hogg, who was born at Clifton in Mason County, July 26, 1856, and is now living at Huntington. He married Matilda Robinson, who wag born in Mingo Connty, Ohio, February 14, 1857, and died February 12, 1919. Thomas G. Hogg followed the profession of civil engineer and also was a farmer and teacher, and for twenty-seven years was active in the work of the schools of Mason County. All the family had been democrats. James Abney Hogg of Logan is the second in a family of six children. His sister Daisy is the wife of Cleo Fox, foreman in the Chesapeake & Ohio Shops at Huntington. Ray is a public accountant at Oklahoma City. Edna lives with her father at Huntington. John has to his credit a service of sixteen years in the United States Marine Corps, in which he holds the rank of lieutenant, was in service in Mexico and later in the World war and is now located at San Diego, California. The youngest of the family is Harry. James Abney Hogg of Logan was born at Point Pleas- ant in Mason Connty, February 9, 1879, and graduated from the Point Pleasant High School in 1904. For thir- teen years he taught school in Mason County, and taught the same school which had been conducted by his father. While teaching he studied law, but has never been ad- mitted to the bar. While not teaching he also employed his time in the profession of civil engineering, and he surveyed lands and mines along the Tug Fork of Sandy River in West Virginia. His chief professional work for a number of years has been as a public accountant, and he did work in that line at Huntington. In 1916 he came to Peach Creek, Logan County, representing the E. R. John- son coal mining interests. At one time he was accountant for the Jones interests at Charleston. Mr. Hogg has been a resident of Logan since 1919, and here continues his practice as an auditor and public accountant. He was elected mayor of Logan in 1921, and is now in his second term of a very successful municipal administration. In 1907 he married Merlia Waybright, daughter of Columbus Waybright, of Ripley, West Virginia. Their two daughters are Elizabeth Harding and Evelyn Way- bright. Mr. Hogg is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, is a member of the Masonic Lodge at Point Pleasant, Logan Lodge, Knights of Pythias, and the Elks Lodge at Charleston.