“The young lady’s name attracts attention...”

The “Ima” stories refused to go away. Imagine how Ima must have felt as she grew older.

         Gov. Hogg of Texas, who is visiting New York, is a man with a large sense of humor. He has two daughters, one of whom he named Ima Hogg and the other Ura Hogg. He wanted to name his son Bea Hogg, but his wife put a stop to that.

--The Penny Press [Minneapolis], July 7, 1894.

         Gov. Hogg, of Texas, who is making a tour of the Eastern States, is accompanied by his daughter. The young lady’s name attracts attention wherever she is introduced. It is certainly a queer combination and those who hear it for the first time usually refuse to believe that it is her real name.

         It is true, however, that Ima Hogg is the only name the lady has ever had. Her mother found the name Ima in a novel that she was reading when Miss Ima Hogg was a baby. She admired the name and so did her husband and it was given in baptism to the infant before the parents realized that the Christian and surname made a rather queer combination.

         “She is satisfied with it now,” says her father, dryly, “but she may possibly change it some day.”

--The Penny Press [Minneapolis], September 15, 1894.

        

         When the editor of a Chicago paper [The Chicago Record] wrote to Hogg asking about his children’s names, Ima’s father replied on November 12, 1896:

         “I beg to advise you that the names of my children are William, Ima, Mike and Tom—three boys and one girl—whose ages are, respectively, 21, 14, 11, and 9 years. . . . The names of Ura, Hesa, Shesa, Harry, and Moore Hogg are the mythical creatures of campaigners who failed to beat me for office.”

         Ex-Governor Hogg of Texas takes the trouble to write to a Chicago paper that he has no children named Ura, Hesa, and Sheesa, but admits that he has a daughter named Ima. This seems to give his whole case away, says the Atlanta Constitution.

-- Fayetteville [North Carolina] Observer, December 5, 1896.

But a legend had been born, and it refused to die.