BIOGRAPHIES

Union County Arkansas Genealogy Trails

JERE S.  AND MRS. HOGUE


Contributed by Barb Ziegenmeyer

Jere S. Hogue. A resident of this section of the state since the close of the Civil war.  Jere S. Hogue is reckoned as one of the human landmarks, if that term may be employed, of Winfleld and vicinity. He is the pioneer manufacturer of pottery of this place, one of the largest as well as one of the pioneer peach growers of the district, and may safely be said to be the maker and parent of the town. He came here as a young man, fresh from the long civil strife of the early sixties, and this region has since been his home and the center of his many activities.
Born in Union County, Arkansas, on December 29, 1847, Mr. Hogue is the son of James and Margaret (Hines) Hogue. The father was born in Alabama on May 1, 1809, and he was a son of a middle class farmer of Georgian birth, John Hogue by name. This John Hogue fought in the war of 1812 and in the war with the Seminoles in the Everglades of Florida, serving under his brother-in-law, Colonel Foster, in the former conflict. He passed triumphantly through his busy and eventful life with little education beyond that he gained as a result of experience and observation, and he died about 1860, when he was eighty four years of age. He married Polly Foster, who died in Union county, Arkansas, and their children were as follows: William, who died in Texas; Sallie, who married William Cornish and died in La Fayette county, Arkansas; James, the father of Jere S.; Holland, Hattan and Arthur, who spent their lives in Union county, Arkansas, save Hattan, who died as a Confederate soldier; and Sena, who married J. G. Gatlin, also of Union county, Arkansas. John Hogue had brothers Holland, Hattan and William, and one sister. Holland passed his life in Mississippi and Hattan, like his brother, came to Arkansas.
James Hogue upon reaching manhood took his place in life as a modest farmer. He had no part in the slave traffic, and stoutly espoused the cause of the Union as opposed to secession. He consistently urged his neighbors against the latter action, and during all his life was an influential force in local Democratic politics. He took his place among his fellows as a natural leader, was captain of elections and officiated at other responsible official functions throughout his life. In 1860 he was a Douglas partisan and advised his friends to support that candidate for the presidency instead of Breckenridge, pointing out to them the probable result of Lincoln election. In 1846 he married Margaret Hines, a daughter of William Hines, of Alabama. She died in Tarrant county, Texas, in 1908, and her husband died in 1869. They became the parents of eight children. Charles, the first born, was a Confederate soldier and is a farmer of Tarrant county, Texas; Jeremiah S. is the subject of this review; Emma married Francis Denney and lives in Tarrant county; Mary died unmarried; Rosa is the wife of A. L. Tinker, of Lubbock county, Texas; Sarah died in Titus county as Mrs. J. D. Lassater; Nannie J. is the widow of I. H. Davidson, of Titus county, Texas; and Chloe married Charles Winters and lives in Clay county, Texas.
Jere S. Hogue passed his youth in Arkansas, where he was born, and he had barely reached his majority when the Civil war came on. He entered the Confederate service as a member of Company I, with Captain Matthews, of the Fifteenth Infantry, under command of Colonel Williams. He served in Louisiana and Arkansas without encountering many of the hardships and dangers of the firing line, and was dismissed from the service at Mar­shall, Texas, on May 10, 1865, while on a furlough. He came again to Texas in the autumn following the close of the war, possessing but little capital that might be applicable to a successful career. His military experience and a sound and vigorous body seemed his chief material assets, and he applied himself miscellaneously to work of varied nature until he saw an opening to enter the pottery business for himself in 1866. The presence of a bed of clay at what is now Winfield, but at that time unnamed and not designated on the map was known to exist at that point, but what its commercial value might be had never been determined. Its availability for commercial usage and for the development of a living industry were thus left to him to decide and exploit. He opened the deposit of fire clay, out of which immense quantities of brick were subsequently made and out of which crocks, jars and jugs, whose capacity would aggregate millions of gallons, have since been made and placed upon a ready market. Mr. Hogue purchased the right to make use of the material here found ready and waiting just such a man of enterprise as he proved himself to be, and his first move was to put in a one wheel factory and engage a potter. Thus was established the first pottery at this point. He himself learned the trade under various experienced potters whom he employed at the works, and for several years he sold his product to local consumers. His growth to an eight wheel shop was slow but gradual, being reached after a period of twenty five years of steady business activity. In 1900 he sold the plant, which is now incorporated as the Winfield Pottery Company, with a capital of $30,000, and is known as one of the few potteries of Texas.
Having summarily abandoned his trade Mr. Hogue sought employment for himself and his capital in the fruit industry, then being pushed for the first time in these parts. He planted a few hundred trees on cotton land he owned in an adjoining town and nursed them to the bearing age with some little anxiety. His crops encouraged him to extend his orchard area, and his net results soon showed the wisdom of his undertakings. From his farm in 1912 Mr. Hogue picked nine cars of fruit, and his fine orchard of 2,000 Elberta peach trees, 1,400 Arpbeauty, 1,000 Slappys and 350 Early Wheelers promise returns that will justify every atom of energy expended in their behalf. Having acquired a leadership in his community among the fruit growers he came to be depended upon for the provision of a proper market, and he has been instrumental in bringing about excellent market conditions for his community.
He encouraged the organization of the State Bank of Winfield and was made a director of it upon its organization, since which time he has kept close to its management and is familiar with its policies and methods. A Democrat, he was at one time one of the active local managers of the party in Titus county, and as chairman of the county committee he called the first primary election held in that county. He was always and still is a believer in voting the ticket as nominated and held to the principle of party regularity through all the presidential campaigns. In the primary contest of 1912 for presidential candidates he first evinced interest in Har­mon, then settled on Mr. Wilson, and found solace in the first official acts of the new Democratic president.
In 1874 Mr. Hogue was married in Titus county, Texas, to Miss Belle Hanks, a daughter of James and Caroline Hanks, of Marshall, Texas. The only child of Mr. and Mrs. Hogue is a son, James C, of Winnsboro, Texas, a prominent pottery manufacturer of that place. He married Maggie Killingsworth and is the father of three children. Howard, Mabel and Lois. Mrs. Belle Hogue died April 28,  1880.
Mr. Hogue has always maintained the most personal interest in Winfield and her fortunes, and ever since the days when the town "was first planned, and in the making of which he achieved a victory of the utmost import to the locality. The railroad company passing through the location had established station facilities on either side of the pottery, and the situation looked ominous for the future commercial life of the little hamlet that Mr. Hogue had established. He took the matter in hand and gave every energy to his task of bringing the officials controlling the establishment of sidings and stations for the Cotton Belt, and secured from the company a contract embracing a concession of one half the lots, the right-of-way and ten acres of land for depot facilities for the aid of the company in withdrawing its interest at this point. Mr. Hogue first proposed to call the new station Barrett, in honor of an esteemed family of pioneers upon whose ground the town was located, but the idea was ultimately abandoned on account of a town called Bassett a few miles away and the similarity of names. It was next called Carr, and eventually the present name of Winfield was given to the place. In making the preliminary surveys and in preparing the necessary details of the transaction, Mr. Hogue did all the effective work that led to the establishment of his favorite town, in which he has made his home for something like half a century. He is at the present time chairman of the Prohibition party of precinct No. 8 of Winfield.
On the 30th of June, 1881, Mr. Hogue was married to Miss Linnie Turner, a daughter of Judge Joseph and Rhoda (Turner) Turner. Judge Turner was a resident of Tennessee and came to Texas in about 1844. Mrs. Hogue is now the only living member of her father's family. She is a member of and an active worker in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
Source:  A HISTORY OF TEXAS AND TEXANS, by Frank Johnson, 1914.