Person Page - 69

     Named in grandfather's (Samuel Iden) will, signed in1797 and executed in 1800.¹ Nancy Ann Hoge was born on 20 February 1761 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, America.¹ As of 27 November 1779,her married name was Nichols.¹ She married George Nichols on 27 November 1779 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹ Nancy Ann Hoge died on 31 May 1829 at age 68.¹

     George Nichols was born on 25 December 1756.¹ He married Nancy Ann Hoge, daughter of Solomon Hoge Sr and Ann Rawlings, on 27 November 1779 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹ George Nichols died on 10 June 1812 at age 55.¹

     Isaac Hoge was Received Friens' certificate on 29 Feb [sic] 1802, granting their removal from Goose Creek MM, Loudoun County, Virginia to Short CreekMM, Northwest Territory, Ohio. This family settled in Jefferson County, Ohio - Short Creek not made a MM until 1803 and members certificates had to be deposited until then with Concrod MM in Belmont County, Ohio.¹ He was born on 30 January 1763 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, America.¹ He married Elizabeth Nichols on 29 April 1784 at Goose Creek MM, Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹ Isaac Hoge died on 20 September 1838 at Belmont County, Ohio, USA, at age 75.¹

     Elizabeth Nichols was born on 15 October 1767.¹ As of 29 April 1784,her married name was Hoge.¹ She married Isaac Hoge, son of Solomon Hoge Sr and Ann Rawlings, on 29 April 1784 at Goose Creek MM, Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹ Elizabeth Nichols died on 9 July 1836 at age 68.¹

     Mary Hoge was born on 7 March 1765 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, America.¹ She died after 1811.¹

     Hannah Hoge was born on 7 March 1767 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, America.¹ She died on 18 January 1769 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, America, at age 1.¹

     Tamar Hoge was born on 22 April 1769 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, America.¹ She died on 22 February 1770 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, America.¹

     Rebecca Hoge was born on 11 December 1770 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, America.¹ As of 28 April 1791,her married name was Kenworthy.¹ She married William Kenworthy on 28 April 1791 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹ Rebecca Hoge died on 26 July 1837 at Loudoun County, Virginia, USA, at age 66.¹

     William Kenworthy was born circa 1765.¹ He married Rebecca Hoge, daughter of Solomon Hoge Sr and Ann Rawlings, on 28 April 1791 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹ William Kenworthy died in 1837.¹

     Lydia Hoge was born on 26 September 1774 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, America.¹ As of 1 May 1800,her married name was Gregg.¹ She married Joshua Gregg on 1 May 1800 at Goose Creek MM, Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹ Lydia Hoge died on 2 February 1853 at Fairmount (now Bethesda), Belmont County, Ohio, USA, at age 78.¹

     Joshua Gregg was born on 25 May 1774.¹ He married Lydia Hoge, daughter of Solomon Hoge Sr and Mary Nichols, on 1 May 1800 at Goose Creek MM, Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹ Joshua Gregg died on 25 July 1854 at age 80.¹

     William Hoge married (?) Sarah Nixon.¹ William Hoge was born on 23 November 1776 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹ He married Mary McGeath on 11 December 1809 at Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹ William Hoge died on 11 January 1842 at age 65.¹ He was buried circa 13 January 1842 at Goose Creek Cemetery, Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹

     Her married name was (?) Hoge.¹ (?) Sarah Nixon married William Hoge, son of Solomon Hoge Sr and Mary Nichols.¹ (?) Sarah Nixon was born circa 1775.¹ She died after 1811.¹

     Mary McGeath was born circa 1780.¹ As of 11 December 1809,her married name was Hoge.¹ She married William Hoge, son of Solomon Hoge Sr and Mary Nichols, on 11 December 1809 at Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹ Mary McGeath died after 1842.¹

     Joshua Hoge was born on 8 February 1779 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹ He married Mary Pool on 29 June 1801.¹ Joshua Hoge died on 25 December 1854 at Loudoun County, Virginia, USA, at age 75.¹

     Her married name was Hoge.¹ Mary Pool was born between 1775 and 1785.¹ She married Joshua Hoge, son of Solomon Hoge Sr and Mary Nichols, on 29 June 1801.¹ Mary Pool died on 4 September 1871.¹

     George Hoge was born on 23 May 1781 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹ He died on 6 January 1782 at Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹

     Margery Hoge was born on 28 December 1783 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹ She died on 18 March 1823 at age 39.¹

     Jesse Hoge was born on 2 April 1785 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹ He was Both Jesse and his wife were disowned by the Quakers this date.¹ He died on 20 September 1828 at age 43.¹ He died on 20 September 1878 at age 93.¹

     Nancy Hoge was born circa 1788.¹ She died in 1794.¹

     Amey Hoge was born on 25 May 1788 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹ She died on 10 July 1794 at Goose Creek, Loudoun County, Virginia, USA, at age 6.¹

     From 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

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.² William Hoge II was born circa 1698 at Bucks County, Pennsylvania, America.¹ He married Mary Pancoast on 2 February 1723 at Bucks County, Pennsylvania, America.¹ William Hoge II died in 1789 at Loudoun County, Virginia, USA.¹ He left a will on 13 July 1789 at Loudoun County, Virginia, USA; I William Hoge senior of the County of Loudoun and the State of Virginia being far advanced in years yet mercifully favoured with a good Degree of soundness in both mind and memory do hereby Make and commit to writing this my last will and Testament in manner and form following that is to say

Imprimis It is my will that all my Just debts and funeral charges shall Be paid Item it is my will that my brother JAMES HOGES children he hath by His first wife shall have thirty pounds equally divided amongst them Share and share alike
Item it is my will that my daughter in law HANNAH BOONE shall have one half of my pewter besides the negroe Girl lill of age and all the other things I have put in her possession since Her mothers death
Item it is my will that my step daughter SARAH PANCOAST shall have my hen Feather bed and all the furniture belonging thereunto besides the bed cloaths (sic) and other things which I have already Given her since he (sic) Grandmothers decease
Item it is my will that my grandson MORGAN HOGE shall have ten pounds
Item it is my will that my own son JAMES HOGE shall have ten shillings besides what he has already had
Item it is my will that my son WILLIAM HOGE shall have all the Interest money he owes forgiven Him and be only required to pay up on the Principal--
Item it is my will that all my land and the Appurtenances where I lately lived on Siglon branches shall be sold by my hereafter Named Executors the first suitable opportunity that presents after my decease to dispose of it to advantage together with all my other Effects not otherwise ordered and all the clear money that can be raised therby collectively with all the money due to My Estate by bonds Bills notes book debts or any way whatsoever When gathered and collected or lest to wait for the whole to be Collected should too long procrastinate my intentions being Carried into execution it is my will and appointed purpose That as soon as the amount of the whole so disposed of and Put into a proper medium for distribution can with conveniency be ascertained it shall be divided into six equa; parts and my son SOLOMON HOGE senr is to have two of the said six parts and all my wearing apparel he first paying and clearing my Estate from the payment of the one hundred and twenty pounds bond and every part therof which I formerly gave His father in law ISAAC NICHOLS in his behalf and also Paying and fully defraying all he may hereafter and doth Now owe to my Estate by bill bond notes Book accounts or Otherwise The double portion of two of the six parts which I here appointed him I think him justly entitled to on account of his not yet having his Proportionate share and My having been and the apparent likelihood of my continuing to be a further incumberance to him and his family
Item it is my will that my grand daughter SARAH GORE shall have one of the six parts above mentioned
ITem it is my will that my grandson SOLOMON HOGE weaver who is My son JAMES HOGE's own son and my grand daughter NANCY JENKINS widow shall have one single share of the six equally divided between them share and share alike
Item it is my will that daughter NANCY HAYS wife of WILLIAM HAYS shall have one single share of said parts For the use of herself and the heirs of her own body
Item it is my will that my two sons GEORGE and ZEBULON HOGE shall have the remaining share or six part equally divided Between them share and share alike and I do hereby appoint ordain and constitute my trusty son SOLOMON HOGE and his son in law JOSHUA GORE to be my Executors of this my last will and Testament to act Jointly or seperately as the case may require by Reason of sickness death or other inability that may happen and I do also herby revoke and entirely disannul all former Wills and Testaments be me before this time made ratifying and confirming this and no other to my last will and Testament In Witness whereof I Hereunto set my Hand and affixed my seal this thirteenth day of the fourth month in the Year of our Lord one Thousand seven hundred eighty nine. 1789
Signed Sealed and published
Declared by the Wm Hoge to be
his last Will and Testament in the
Presense of us
Wm Kinwerty
Joseph Shields
Rebekah Hoge

Ala (?) Court held for Loudoun County July 13th 1789 This will was proved by the oaths of JOSEPH SHIELDS to REBEKAH HOGE two of the subscribing witnesses thereto and ordered to be recorded And on the motion of SOLOMON HOGE and JOSHUA GORE the Executors therein named who made oath according to law Certificate is Granted them fr obtaining a probate thereof in due form Giving Security whereupon they with TIMOTHY HOWELL and J NICHOLS entered into and acknowledged their bond int he penalty of twelve hundred pounds conditioned as the law directs.
Teste
Chas Binns.³

     William Hoge I left a will; William Hoge died before August 8, 1749. On that day his will was filed and recorded in the Frederick County clerk's office, but was not probated. His widow, Mary Hoge, declined accepting the provisions thereof, and claimed her dower. The land came into the possession of the Rev. John Hoge, the heir-at-law, he being the eldest son of his father John, who in turn was the eldest son of William. On this land stands the old Opequon Presbyterian Church, organized by the Rev. James Anderson in 1737, and which, except for one or two short periods, has served that denomination to this day. In 1745 William Hoge conveyed to the trustees of this church two acres for a burying ground, but did not as frequently stated, donate the church lot, which was purchased in 1795 by the trustees from Adam Kern and Christina, his wife, who at that time owned most of this old patent. On the site of the original home of William Hoge stands the large mansion house, now the home of Mrs. Hardy Grim, and which was built about 1850 by Stephen Pritchard, whose family owned the tract for many years. In the graveyard west of this house are buried many of the Hoges and Pritchards.² He lived at Scotland.³





WILLIAM HOGE I (1660-1749)
[6G-Grandfather of William Clark Hilles]

William Hoge I was born in Musselboro (currently Musselburgh, in Midlothian, in the environs of present-day Edinburgh). He was the first American ancestor of this family. He emigrated to the Colonies about 1682 because of religious persecutions in Scotland under the Stuarts. Sailing on the ship Caledonia, those aboard experienced an outbreak of pestilence in the overcrowded ship. On this voyage, he met his future wife, Barbara Hume, who suffered the tragedy of losing both parents during the trip to America. William became her protector, and delivered her and her property to the hands of an uncle, a physician named Johnson, who was already in NY. He traveled a bit further to Perth Amboy, NJ to make himself a home in his new land. , those aboard experienced an outbreak of pestilence in the overcrowded ship. On this voyage, he met his future wife, Barbara Hume, who suffered the tragedy of losing both parents during the trip to America. William became her protector, and delivered her, those aboard experienced an outbreak of pestilence in the overcrowded ship. On this voyage, he met his future wife, Barbara Hume, who suffered the tragedy of losing both parents during the trip to America. William became her protector, and delivered her and her property to the hands of an uncle, a physician named Johnson, who was already in NY. He traveled a bit further to Perth Amboy, NJ to make himself a home in his new land. , those aboard experienced an outbreak of pestilence in the overcrowded ship.[The Family of Hoge, James Hoge Tyler, 1927] Perth Amboy had been settled in 1683 by English merchants and incorporated as a city in Middlesex County in1718. Scots and French Protestants found the religious freedom and the harbor to their liking.

William soon returned to New York to marry Barbara Hume about 1684, and the couple made their home in Perth Amboy, NJ, where their first son John was born. They subsequently moved to a part of Pennsylvania that eventually was incorporated into the state of Delaware. At the time that area was in Chester Co., PA, where he was taxed on land he owned in East Nottingham Township (1718-1730). Then 1730 they moved to the Cumberland Valley (Lancaster Co., newly formed from Chester Co.) in Pennsylvania, where they spent a few more years – until the 1730s. [Hoge, James Fulton, Ed. The Family of Hoge. His will was written in April 1729 (when he admitted to being "very sick and weak in body) -- though he lived on for another twenty years.

Historical documents vary in listing the names and number of their children. The 1927 Tyler volume, The Family of Hoge states that they had seven sons and two daughters. Other documents indicate that they had five sons. William Hoge's will indicates that William and Barbara had five sons -- John, William, Alexander, James, and George and three daughters Margaret, who married Dr. Robert White; Nancy, who married Robert Wilson, and Joreber. It should be noted however, that the only reference found to Joreber was in William Hoge's will when it was written in 1729; I found no other historical document that mentions her name. She may have died before the will was probated. Solomon and Zebulon, listed as William and Barbara's children in the Tyler account, appear actually to be their grandchildren, sons of William Jr. and his wife Ann.[Cartmell, T. K. Shendandoah Valley Pioneers and Their Descendants. Berryville, VA: Chesapeake Book Co., 1963]

Little is known as to William's occupation, but apparently he accumulated considerable resources through his working years. The fact that William and Barbara were respectively 75 and 65 years old when they embarked on their Virginia adventure is worthy of emphasis.

Joist Hite (an anglicized version of his Alsatian name "Hans Jost Heydt" [Dohme, Alvin. Shenandoah: The Valley Story. Washington, DC: Potomac Books, 1972]), a German immigrant, purchased 40,000 acres of Shenandoah land from John and Isaac Van Meter, who had secured the original land grant from Governor Gooch of Virginia, an officer of the King. [White, H.M. "A Historical Paper prepared by Rev. Henry M. White, D.D., Pastor of Opequon Church, and read by him October 30, 1897, the date of the dedication of the New Church." Document in the Handley Library, Winchester, VA.] A mill owner in Pennsylvania, Hite had gathered a number of families -- mostly German and Scotch Irish -- to join him and settle the Shenandoah lands. The initial party arrived in Virginia in 1731; Originally published Chicago 1890. Reprinted Berryville, VA: Virginia Book Co., 1972.] Subsequently, a dispute arose about the ownership of land claimed by Lord Fairfax and settled by the Hite party, and in 1736 Fairfax initiated a lawsuit against Joist Hite and his partner William McKay for trespass. The case evolved into one of the most protracted and complicated cases in legal history, lasting a full 50 years before the final judgment was made in favor of Hite and McKay in l786, some 30 years after William and Barbara had passed.

In 1735 William Hoge I, and his family -- except for John, who remained in PA, and was soon to establish the town of Hogetown – joined the Hite party in Virginia. [Norris, J.E., Ed. History of the Lower Shenandoanh Valley]. William and Barbara lived to develop a fruitful life in Virginia. Indeed, it appears that William had a vision and agenda for his latter years, and he set to work on it as soon as he reached his new settlement. He claimed title to his land through a grant independent of Hite, and controlled a large 411-acre tract. He sold parcels there from without question as to his title. The homestead was due west from the Opequon Memorial Church.

In 1736 Hoge devoted a portion of his land to establish a church, and he had the first log meeting house built at his own expense on two acres, and a burying ground on another two. [Gordon, C. Langdon. A Sketch of the Historic Opequon Presbyterian Church, Winchester, Virginia, 1984] In 1745 he donated to the church the parcel of land that included the meeting house, an adjoining burial ground, and a schoolhouse.[Kaine, D., Uniontown, PA. Letter to F.L. Hoge, Wheeling, WV, Augurst 31, 1980. Document in Handley Library, Winchester, VA.] This was the first organized church in the Shenandoah Valley and the first known Presbyterian- congregation west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. In 1755 John Hoge, William and Barbara's grandson through their son John, be came the first settled Pastor of the church. It is said that from 1754 to 1757, while stationed at Winchester, General George Washington worshipped at Opequon; frequently after the worship service he would dine at the home of Robert and Nancy (Hoge) Wilson. [Pearson, Lennart. "Historic Opequon Church." Unpublished manuscript in Handley Library, Winchester, VA, 1964.]. A sketch of the historic church is pictured here.

After a long, fruitful life William and Barbara died, she in 1745 and he four years later. Both are buried in the cemetery at the church which they were so instrumental in developing.



William Hoge's Last Will and Testament (filed 8 Aug 1749, but not probated in Frederick Co., VA):

In the name of God Amen. This eighteenth day of April in the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and twenty nine. I, William Hoge, of Nottingham in ye County of Chester and Provence of Pennsylvania lands, a farmer, being very sick and weak in body, but of perfect mind and memory, Thanks be given unto God therefore, calling unto mind ye mortality of my body and knowing yt it is appointed for all men once to dy, do make and ordain this my Last Will and Testament, yt is to say principally and first of all I give and recommend it to ye earth be buried in a Christian like and decent manner, at the descretion of my Executors. Nothing doubting but at ye general Resurrection I shall receive ye same again by ye mighty power of God and as touching such worldly (goods) wherewith it has pleased God to bless me in this life, devise and dispose of ye same in ye following maner form--.
lmprimus my will is yt all my just debts and funeral charges be paid as soon as conveniently they can after my decease Secondly my will is yt Barbara my will beloved wife shal have ye benefit of ye plantation whereon I now live during her life Thirdly my will is yt my son John Hoge shall fully be possessed of yt tract of land yt I made over to him by Deed of Gift Fourthly is yt my son William Hoge shall have yt 100 a. of land whereon he now lives which is secured to him by a bill of sale Fiftly is yt my will is yt my son-in- law Noal Thomson shall have 100 a. of land whereon he lives during his life and at his decease to be his wife and her heirs forever Sixly that my son in law Robert White shal have 5 shillings Sevently my will is yt my sons Allexander, James and George shall have ye remainder of my land to be equally divided amongst them by men of their own choosing yt there is no difference between them nor go to law one with another about it Eightly my will is yt my daughter Joroter Hoge will have 50 pounds in money or value thereof leveyed out of ye stock and what debts is due to me and if that will not be so yt ye remainder be raised of ye plantation Ninthly and lastly. I likewise constitute make and ordain George Galassbey of newcastle County and Barbara my well beloved wife Executor and Executrix of this my last will and testament. And I do hereby utterly disallow revoke and disanull all other forms testaments wills and legacies bequests executors by me in any way before this time named willed and bequeathed, Ratifying and confirming this and no other to be my last will and testament, In witness whereof I have here- unto set my hand and seal ye day and year above written; William Hoge [seal] Signed sealed published pronounced and declared by ye William Hoge to be his last Willand Testament in ye presence of us subscribers, We: John Ruddoll, Enoch Job, William Rogers Admitted for probate Wednesday Nov. 15, 1749, in Frederick County, VA.⁴


William Hogue (Hoge)was of the Hite party, and settled on a branch of the Opecquon and called it Hogue Run. He erected his cabin at the fountain head, and continued to live there until his death. He clamed title through agrant independent of Hite; and controlled a large tract, and sold parcels therefrom without question as to his title.
The homestead was due West from the Opeckon Memorial Church, and in full view. It changed hands several times after the emigrant's death - Stephen Pritchard and family one of the first owners - the home now of Chas. H. Grim family. The brick mansion now on the old site, was built about 1850 by the Pritchard family. Stephen Pritchard's wife was Mary Cartmell. William Hoge settled on his grant about 1735. They were living in Chester County, Penn., in 1734.
They had five sons: John, William, Alexander, James and George. John remained in Pennsylvania, and died at Hogestown 9 miles West of Harrisburg. The other sons and daughters accompanied the father to his Virginia home.
William Jr. afterwards married a quakeress, and removed to what is now Loudoun County, and left many descendants. James settled near Middletown. Alexander became a lawyer;lived near Winchester; was a member of the first Congress of the U.S., and also of the Virginia Convention that adopted the first Constitution of the U.S. James the fourth son, was the father of the first Rev. Moses Hoge, who was a direct ancestor of several preachers of that name - found afterwards in many parts of the country - Notably Rev. Moses D. Hoge, D.D., of Richmond, Va. Rev. John Hoge, who has been mentioned as the first regular pastor of Opecquon Church, was the son of John. George the fifth son, was a member of the first courts of Frederick County; subsequentlyhe changed his residence to N. Carolina. one of the daughters, Margaret, married Dr. Robert Whitea surgeon in the British navy. A grandson ofSolomon Hoge marriedMary Glass,granddaughter of Samuel Glass, the emigrant.Through this line, the Hoge family of Berkeley County, Va., descends.⁵ From 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

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.³ He married Barbara Hume.¹ William Hoge I was born in 1660.¹ He immigrated in 1682; In additon to other sources of information, we gather from "Foot's Sketches of Virginia" and from a pamphlet entitiled "Historical and Genealogical of the Cumberland Valley, Pa. by William H. Egle, M.D., M.A., the following particulars in regard to the early history of the Hoge Family.
William Hoge, the first representative of this family, distinguished in church and state, came to America in 1682; was the son of James Hoge, of Scotland, who lived in Musselburg, near Glasgow. On board the Caladonia, the vessel that brought him over, there was a family named Hume, consisting of father, mother, and daughter; they were Presbyterians, leaving Scotland to avoid persecution. The Humes were from Paisley, Scotland, and the father was a Knight and a Baron; both father and mother died during the voyage to America, leaving their daughter, Barbara, Barbara, in charge of young William Hoge, who placed her with her relations, the Johnstons, in the city of New York, whilst he decided to make his home inat Perth Amboy, New Jersey, on land owned by a Scotch company, at the head of which was Governor Berkeley, and of which he was a member. Subsequently, William Hoge returned to New York, married the girl Barbara Hume, who had been his protege, and from this rather romantic marriage a long line of distinguished men and women have written their names on history's page. After the birth of their first son, John, William and his young wife made their home in Chester County, Pennsylvania. John, when grown married a Miss Bowen, a Welch woman and settled about nine miles west of Harrisburg and laid out the little village of Hogestown.
The remainder of of Barbara and William Hoge's children moved to Virginia in 1735. Making their home about three miles from Winchester, in Frederick County. In the old graveyard of old Opequon Church, the deed for that land on which the church stands was made by William Hoge.⁶ He was buried in 1749 at Old Opequon Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Kernstown, Frederick County, Virginia; Coords: 39.13938, -78.19494. He died on 8 August 1749.¹

     Barbara Hume married William Hoge I.¹ Her married name was Hoge.¹ Barbara Hume was born circa 1668.¹ She was buried in 1745 at Old Opequon Presbyterian Church Cemetery, Kernstown, Virginia; Coords: 39.13938, -78.19494. She died in 1745.¹

     Mary Pancoast was born circa 1705.¹ She married William Hoge II, son of William Hoge I and Barbara Hume, on 2 February 1723 at Bucks County, Pennsylvania, America.¹ As of 2 February 1723,her married name was Hoge.¹ Mary Pancoast died before 1789.¹

     Ancestor of President of Hampden Sidney College and Rev. Moses D. Hoge, Chaplain of the Congress of the Confederate States of America (1861-1865). Probably remained in Virginia when his parents removed to Pennsylvania.¹ James Hoge was born on 6 December 1724 at Bucks County, Pennsylvania, America.¹ He died after 1789 at Virginia.¹

     William Hoge III was born on 4 January 1726 at Bucks County, Pennsylvania, America.¹ He married Esther Ewing on 12 October 1752 at Richland, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, America.¹ William Hoge III lived in 1759; Removed with family from Pennsylvania to Virginia in 1759.¹ He died after 1789 at Frederick County, Virginia, USA.¹

     Esther Ewing was born circa 1727.¹ As of 12 October 1752,her married name was Hoge.¹ She married William Hoge III, son of William Hoge II and Mary Pancoast, on 12 October 1752 at Richland, Bucks County, Pennsylvania, America.¹