THE HOGGS OF TEXAS--Out at last!

 In 2008 (the year of Hurricane Ike) I began working on an edition of the Hogg family letters. It grew, and grew, with nearly 400 letters from collections in Austin and Houston, and Ima’s memoirs of country life in East Texas, student days at the University of Texas, and New York at the turn of the century. 

For this blog, a blurb from the book’s back cover:

“During the 1890s, Governor James Stephen Hogg headed what could be called the “first famiy of Texas”--himself, his wife Sallie, their sons Will, Tom, and Mike, and their daughter, Ima. (No, contrary to numerous stories there were no children names ‘Ura’ or ‘Sheza’ or anything of that sort.) Virginia Bernhard has skillfully edited family letters and memoirs to let the Hoggs tell their own story from 1887 until the death of Jim Hogg in 1906. Readers will find themselves being drawn into and through these years with the Hoggs, experiencing the hopes, joys, successes, and sorrows of a special Texas family. It is a fine read.

         --Randolph B. Campbell, Lone Star Professor of Texas History, University of North Texas, and Chief Historian, Texas State Historical Association