Tyler & Smith County, Texas: An Historical Survey Page: 85
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term, he concluded that he did not want a third term. He spent the last
years of his life as a professor of law at the new university.
Yet a third resident of Tyler and Smith County became governor of Tex-
as before the end of the nineteenth century. James Stephen Hogg served
two terms, 1891-1895. Hogg was in many ways different from Hubbard and
Roberts. Of a different generation, Hogg has the distinction of being the
first native-born governor of Texas. Orphaned at a young age, he moved to
Tyler from Rusk, Texas, to work in a print shop. For a time he lived in
Quitman, where he published a small newspaper and got his first taste of
public office as a justice of the peace. Next, county attorney and then dis-
trict attorney, Hogg moved back to Tyler to practice law. He resided on
the north side of West Erwin Street, just west of Bois d'Arc Avenue.19
Encouraged by friends to run for Congress in 1884, Hogg declined to
make the race, but he was elected two years later to the office of state at-
torney general. During two terms in that office, he established an excellent
record and reputation on the basis of his actions against railroads. "He
gradually forced the railroads," writes his biographer, Robert C. Cotner,
"to respect Texas law."20 As the 1890 elections approached, Hogg
remained deeply involved in his work as attorney general and resisted
early encouragement by friends that he should seek the governorship.
Finally, however, he was pursuaded to make the race, carrying into the
campaign the experience of his two terms as attorney general and a plan
for a constitutional amendment permitting the establishment of a railroad
regulatory commission. Each of his opponents, to a greater or lesser
degree, opposed a strong regulatory agency. Lieutenant Governor Thomas
B. Wheeler and ex-Governor J. W. Throckmorton were his strongest com-
petitors for the Democratic nomination, although State Senator H. D. Mc-
Donald was not to be ignored. Throckmorton withdrew in the early stages
due to ill health, and McDonald soon gave up in the face of certain defeat.
At the last minute, Land Commissioner Richard M. Hall entered the race,
but it was too late to organize a strong campaign. The state convention
nominated Hogg with overwhelming enthusiasm.21 The general election
proved no serious problem, as Hogg defeated the Republican nominee,
Webster Flanagan, by a vote of 262,432 to 77,742. E. C. Heath, candidate
of the Prohibition Party, polled only 2,235 votes.22
A large man, tall and weighing around 250 pounds, Hogg was a popular
figure. Powerful as an orator, well educated, and moving easily in circles of
9Woldert, A History of Tyler and Smith County, Texas, p. 66.
20Webb, Handbook of Texas, 1: 822. For Hogg's biography, see Robert C. Cotner, James Stephen
Hogg: A Biography (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1959).
2'Cotner, James Stephen Hogg, pp. 189-219; Barr, Reconstruction to Reform, 117-120.
22Texas Almanac and Industrial Guide, 1972-1973, p. 529.
85
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Glover, Robert W. Tyler & Smith County, Texas: An Historical Survey, book, 1976; Tyler, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth61117/m1/89/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .