DUANE
Duane's take
The marker tells it this way, and I'm just passing it along. Now, not every governor leaves a mark on the place that made him. But James Stephen Hogg — he did.
Wood County, Texas. And the story of what passed between that county and that man is worth pulling over for. Hogg lived in Wood County from 1868 to 1882.
Fourteen years. Not a brief visit, not a passing-through. These were the years that shaped him, politically speaking — the formative years, as the marker puts it, of a career that would eventually carry him all the way to the Governor's mansion.
Now here's where it gets interesting. When a man rises that high, he tends to remember where he came from. And James Stephen Hogg remembered Wood County.
When he became Governor, he looked back at those friendships he'd made in those years — and he put those people to work. Sarah Rosalie Patten Buchanan became a professor at Sam Houston State Normal College. William Jesse McDonald, who had been a city deputy, was appointed Ranger captain.
That's quite a promotion, and it came through Hogg. Cadwell Walton Raines — a newspaperman and county judge — became State Librarian. And former City Marshal George Reeves became a Penitentiary agent.
Four people. Four very different paths. All of them connected by those Wood County years.
The marker says it plainly: the friendships Governor Hogg made in Wood County had an important impact — not just on the county, but on the State of Texas. And sometimes that's the whole story, right there. A man spends some years in a place, he pays attention to the people around him, and when the moment comes — he doesn't forget.
Wood County gave something to James Stephen Hogg. Turned out he gave something back.
What the marker says
James Stephen Hogg lived in Wood County from 1868 to 1882, formative years of his political career. When he became Governor, he appointed several Wood County friends to public offices. They included: Sarah Rosalie Patten Buchanan, who became a professor at Sam Houston State Normal College; William Jesse McDonald, a city deputy appointed Ranger captain; Cadwell Walton Raines, a newspaperman and county judge who became State Librarian; and former City Marshal George Reeves, who became a Penitentiary agent. Friendships Gov. Hogg made in his Wood County years had an important impact on the county and on the State of Texas. (2006)