Page 616

 

W. D. HOGG

 

Iowa is preeminently an agricultural state.  Its broad undulating prairies, formed of a rich, alluvial soil, offer splendid opportunity to him who is adapted for the work of general farming.  Stock raising, too, goes hand in hand with the tilling of the soil and the state has not only established its reputation as the leading corn-producing center of the world but is also making an equally creditable record of its live-stock interests.  Those who are working along these lines in Taylor county are on the whole winning success and the number includes W. D. Hogg, who resides on section 35, Gay township.  He raises and tends stock and his excellent judgment concerning cattle, horses and hogs enables him to make good investments and profitable sales.  His home place comprises two hundred acres on section 18, Gay township, and he is also cultivating the old Ballou farm of two hundred and forty acres.

 

Almost half a century has come and gone since W. D. Hogg arrived in this state, for in 1861 he took up his abode in Jackson county and through the intervening years has been an interested witness and cooperant factor in the growth and development which have occurred.  A native of Pennsylvania, he was born August 27, 1856, and is a son of William R. Hogg, who was born in Butler county, Pennsylvania, and was reared in that state.  He there married Nancy A. McMurray, also of Pennsylvanian birth, and in the year 1861 they sought a home on the western frontier, the father opening up a new farm in Jackson county, Iowa, whereon he reared his family.  He was busily employed during the passing years in converting the wild land into productive fields, and in course of time he brought his place under a very high state of cultivation.  He died there about 1899, having for six years survived his wife, who passed away in 1893.

 

W. D. Hogg was about four years of age when the family settled in Jackson county, and he made his home under the parental roof until twenty-four years of age, although in the meantime he worked to some extent as a farm hand in the neighborhood.  He then went to Page county, Iowa, where he owned and cultivated eighty acres of land for eleven years.  On the expiration of that period he came to Taylor county and bought the farm upon which he now resides, making it his place of residence since 1894.  His has been a happy married life which had its beginning on the 1st of April, 1883, when he was joined in wedlock to Miss Eleanor Ballou, a daughter of George and Phoebe Anna (Perkins) Ballou, who came to Taylor county in the early '50s and were therefore pioneers (page 617) of this section of the state.  Both were natives of New York State and the father is still a resident of Bedford, Iowa, but the mother died on the 8th of June, 1870.  She was an earnest and consistent member of the Methodist Episcopal church.  Mrs. Hogg was born in Bedford and was reared on the farm which is yet her home.  Four children have been born of this union but they lost their eldest, George, who died when eleven months old in Page county.  The others are: James Richie, who aids in carrying on the home farm; Clarence B.; and Myrtle Ruth.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Hogg began their domestic life on the farm in Page county which he owned and which remained their place of residence until the fall of 1894, when they took up their abode upon the Ballou farm.  Seven years later they removed to their own place, which Mr. Hogg cultivated for five years, but in 1906 they returned to the Ballou farm.  Mr. Hogg cultivates both tracts and makes a business of raising and feeding cattle and hogs.  His fields, too, are a good source of income to him for crop failures are very infrequent in Iowa and the rich land responds in generous harvests to the care and labor which he bestows upon it   He practices the rotation of crops and employs all modern methods to till his fields.  A glance at his place indicates his careful supervision and his success is the evidence of an active and well spent life.

 

When age conferred upon him the right of franchise, Mr. Hogg proudly cast his first presidential vote for the candidate of the republican party and has since been most loyal to the organization.  He has been officially identified with the schools for some years but has never been an office seeker.  Both he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church at Blockton and he belongs also to the Masonic lodge at that place.  His recollection of pioneer events in this part of the state is keen and he relates many interesting incidents of the early days.  Great changes have occurred during the period of his residence here, for the district has become thickly settled and the wild prairie grasses and flowers have been replaced by waving fields of grain and the wild game by the domestic fowls of the farmyard.  Long since the evidences of frontier life have been replaced by the evidences of civilization.  Throughout the intervening period Mr. Hogg has been recognized as a man of good business capacity and of strict integrity, his worth winning him the confidence and esteem of the entire community.