Back to Ima's 1918 Notebook

       At in the summer of 1918, Ima Hogg was full of plans as she set off with friends on a vacation in New York and New England. She began jotting things in a  little steno notebook. Here is the first page:

Summer

1918

[She seems to have been happily scouting for antiques that summer. These names and addresses are probably dealers.]

Mrs. E. La Ferriere

         146 N. Main

         Mechanicsville, N.Y.

   oxen wagon double chairs

[Had Ima heard that these were available? Was she planning to buy some?]

Springfield Economy Rug Co.         

     17 Taylor St. Springfield        

(Thomas Mailiff)

Alice Brown - Shelburne Falls Mass.

Pecan hearts .85 Butternuts 1.00

[Here she made note of candy she bought!]

Mark L. Miner Greenfield

Mrs. Louise Phelps Greenfield

[So far, so good. She was now in Massachusetts.]

Ima’s War Diary: A Good Read

“Ima Hogg in Europe, 1914: A Texan Experiences the Beginning of the Great War,” Southwestern Historical Quarterly, CXIX, No. 3 (January 2016).

 

James Stephen Hogg Goes Deer Hunting

It’s deer hunting season now, or soon to be,  in some Texas counties. This news item has no identification and no date: Someone (perhaps Ima?) clipped it from a newspaper in the 1890s.

Here is a readable version:        

JIM HOGG PINCHED FOR POACHING

         An immigrant from another good old East Texas county--Cherokee--is Miss Viola Dickinson of 232 Emerson. She tells us about a historic big game hunt of the gay nineties in that county, which was Jim Hogg’s native heath.

         During his administration as governor, Hogg went back there for a deer hunt with his boyhood friend, Judge E.C. Dickinson of Rusk, the county seat. Two other lawyers of that town joined in the hunt: District Judge James I. Perkins and County Judge James P. Gibson.

         They hunted on horses provided by Judge Dickinson, the host. As the governor was a very fat man, a heavy bay horse--also named Jim--was chosen for him. Jim’s cruising gait was a jogging trot, and the uncomfortable bobbing of the gigantic, jovial Jim Hogg in the saddle amused his companions.

         At the southeastern county border the party sighted a deer. Judge Dickinson got a shot at the buck and brought him down. The hunters dismounted and were admiring the game and congratulating the lucky deerslayer when seemingly from nowhere there materialized a game warden        

         He informed the legal lights that they had violated the game law, as they were across the line in Angelina County where the hunting season was not yet open.

         The game warden felt that he had achieved a distinction in arresting and hailing into justice court the great governor of Texas and three court judges. Steep fines were imposed and paid. the guests of the occasion had the deer skin treated and presented to Judge Dickinson as a rug for the floor of his office.

Happy Holidays!

Look for more Ima posts in 2016.

Ima Hogg: The Books!

Good Christmas gift! Ima Audiobook! Or in paperback. 

And THE HOGGS OF TEXAS: LETTERS AND MEMOIRS OF AN EXTRAORDINARY FAMILY, 1887-1906. 

All available on Amazon.com.

Ima's Mysterious Illness

         A telegram to Will Hogg on July 11 about his sister’s condition led Will to consult physicians in New York in July and August, and talk of a “rest cure.” 

         At first, Ima evidently resisted this suggestion. Is this when she crossed out the pages in her notebook? Something was happening, but the notebook offers no clues.

         Finally she yielded to advice from her brother and the medical experts in New York, and agreed to seek help.

         From October 1 to December 4, 1918, Ima Hogg was “resting” at an upscale sanitarium in Kerhonkson, New York.

        On October 31 her brother Mike, still soldiering in France, sent her a telegram at her Houston address on Rossmoyne Street, reassuring her that he was “WELL AND HAPPY.”

        Mike did not know his sister was far from being well. He did not know that she was ill and in a sanitarium. 

       After a stay at her brother Will’s Park Avenue apartment, Ima came home to Houston on Christmas Eve. 
       
       She was home, but she was not happy.

         

        

         

More Notebook Clues: Midsummer 1918

         Ima’s little notebook of “Summer 1918” has clues yet to be uncovered. From several pages of notes detailing her questions about symphony orchestras in various cities, there is a sudden change: an excerpt from Robert Browning’s 1841 verse drama, Pippa Passes. Ima copied out (or recalled from memory?) a passage about a golden sunrise.

         

         On the next few pages, detailed lists of furniture, art, and antiques, with prices---all with large X marks across each page, as if that project had been cancelled.

         A following page, with the entry upside down, is an excerpt from Mary Fisher’s 1909 book, The Journal of a Recluse......        

         What had happened to the pleasant summer vacation?

         

The Fateful Summer of 1918: Clues from a Notebook

         It all began so hopefully, with a little stenographer’s notebook. On the first page, Ima wrote, “Summer 1918.” She had many things on her mind: Long before she became a noted collector of early American art and antiques and gave her home, Bayou Bend, to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Ima Hogg was searching out antiques. On the first page of her notebook, under “Summer 1918” is a list of 14 names and addresses of dealers in New York. In Mechanicsville, NY, she made a note about an “oxen wagon double chair.” 

         Antiques were not her only interest that summer. The Houston Symphony, which she had helped to found in 1913, was never far from her thoughts. She had been elected president of that organization in 1917, and she planned to do some research on her travels. A sample page of her notebook:

        

         Chamber of Commerce--relationship various cities--

         Organization of orchestra--

         How many men?

         Day or night?

         How financed?

         Average pay by rehearsal?

         Average pay by salary per week?

And so on. It promised to be a pleasant and useful summer vacation.

        

         But as the notebook shows, something happened to darken that summer forever.