Guide to the Papers of the Hogg Family, 1785-1914
- Repository
- Heinz History Center
- Title
- Papers of the Hogg Family
- Creator
- Hogg family
- Collection Number
- MSS#208
- Extent
- 1 cubic feet (1 box)
- Date
- 1785-1914
- Abstract
- The Hogg Family members were prominent residents of Fayette County from the late 18th to the late 19th centuries. Individual family members were noted for their activities in banking, merchandising, transportation, glass production, and farming. The papers consist of financial materials, real estate materials, a scrapbook, and miscellaneous materials, primarily documenting the land holdings and business transactions of William, George, and George E. Hogg.
- Language
- The material in this collection is in English.
- Sponsor
- This finding aid has been encoded as a part of the Historic Pittsburgh project a joint effort of the University of Pittsburgh and the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Funding for this portion of the project has been donated by the Hillman Foundation.
- Publisher
- Heinz History Center
- Address
- 1212 Smallman St.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15222
library@heinzhistorycenter.org
URL: https://www.heinzhistorycenter.org
Biographical Sketch of the Hogg Family
The Hogg Family members were prominent residents of Fayette County from the late 18th to the late 19th centuries. Individual family members were noted for their activities in banking, merchandising, transportation, glass production, and farming. William Hogg (1755-1841), born in Cramlinton, England, came to the American colonies as a British soldier and deserted his unit at Charleston, South Carolina. William Hogg made his way to Philadelphia and eventually to Brownsville (Fayette County), Pennsylvania where he became active as a banker, landholder, and businessman during the years of 1787-1798. Hogg is noted for his work in organizing the Monongahela Bank of Brownsville in 1812. Hogg is noted equally for his role in the establishing Keyon College in Ohio when he sold valuable land to the school at a greatly reduced price. William's brother, John (?-1835) arrived from England and settled in Licking County, Ohio with his wife Mary (Crisp) Hogg (-1836) and their only son, George (1784-1849).
George Hogg arrived in Fayette County in 1804 at the age of twenty and, through an association with his uncle William, quickly became established in a mercantile business in Brownsville. George Hogg expanded the business with one branch in Pittsburgh and fifteen in Ohio. George and William Hogg also organized and built the Episcopal Church in Brownsville in 1814.
In 1827, George established the Brownsville Glass Factory (1827-1847), a successful business with which he remained associated for a few years. As his business adventures involved the usage of the Monongahela River for shipment, he and other interested parties created the Monongahela Navigation Company in 1836 to improve the river. He also was instrumental in construction of railroad lines leading west out of Pittsburgh as an alternative to transportation on the Ohio River. In 1843, George and his wife, Mary Ann Breading, moved to Allegheny City (Pa.) where he erected a house on Washington Street. George and Mary Ann Breading Hogg (married 1811) had seven children: James B. who died aboard the sinking steamship "Arctic" in 1854; Elizabeth who married William S. Bissell and had three children; Mary Ann (1822-1899) who married Felix E. Brunot; John T. (1820-?) who had eight children with his wife, Caroline Austin, and became active in many Pittsburgh-area banks as well as a founder of the First National Bank in Brownsville; Nathaniel B. who married Julia K. Hall; George E. (d. 1893), who with his wife, Sarah A. McClurg, had seven children; and William B. In 1851, two years after George's death, a monument by sculptors Henry K. Brown and Piatti was erected in his honor in Allegheny Cemetery (Pittsburgh).
George E. Hogg (d. 1893), became one of the most prominent of the family's children. Among George E.'s activities in Brownsville-area businesses, he became president of the Monongahela Bank of Brownsville, and an officer (c. 1881) of the Pittsburgh, Brownsville, and Geneva Packet Company -- a steamship company that transported freight and passengers along the Monongahela River. He also owned a farm in Luzerne Township, Fayette County, on which he raised cashmere goats that were displayed at the Pittsburgh Sanitary Fair in 1864. He was also a merchant and affiliated with a local sawmill.
Scope and Content Notes
The papers consist of financial materials, real estate materials, a scrapbook, and miscellaneous materials, primarily documenting the land holdings and business transactions of William, George, and George E. Hogg. The real estate materials (1825-1897) contain deeds and agreements, land surveys, correspondence, litigation against the Hogg family regarding ownership of land, and other items. The financial materials (1793-1881) contain a record book and a day book belonging to George Hogg; a memorandum book detailing various bank accounts of William and George Hogg, and others; a ledger book and sawmill account book belonging to George E. Hogg; a stock book listing the births of farm animals, possibly belonging to Nathaniel B. Hogg (brother of George E.); miscellaneous receipts; and loose items removed from the financial books. Prices in George Hogg's record book are listed in the British Pound.
Filed separately is a scrapbook kept by Mary Ann (Hogg) Brunot in which she pasted newspaper clippings and other items related to the Women's Christian Association (WCA) of Pittsburgh (now the Young Women's Christian Association) and other organizations with which she was affiliated. Of special note is information regarding the founding of the WCA.
Of interest in the miscellaneous materials section are instructions to Nathaniel Breading (father of Mary Ann Breading Hogg) regarding the surveying of the north side of the Ohio River (1785), a document of servant indenture (1816), an annual report of the Monongahela Navigation Company (1879), a publication of the Pittsburgh, Brownsville, and Geneva Packet Company (1890), and a list of prices of tinware (undated).
These materials also contain correspondence, newspaper clippings including loose clippings removed from Mary Ann Brunot's scrapbook.
Arrangement
The Hogg Family Papers are housed in one archival box and are arranged alphabetically by folder title.
Conditions Governing Access
This collection is open for research.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
These materials were received in three accessions and were combined into one body of materials in 1995..
Acc# 1936x Gift of Mrs. Edward Henesey, (Account books and miscellaneous papers).
Acc# 1951x Gift of Mrs. Edward Henesey, (Daybook).
Acc# 1957x Gift of Mrs. Edward Henesey, (Financial materials and deeds).
Preferred Citation
Papers of the Hogg Family, 1785-1914, MSS# 208, Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania
Processing Information
This collection was processed by Kim Fortney in September 25, 1995.
Revision and rearrangement for the encoded version of the finding aid provided by Doug MacGregor on August 15, 2001.
Conditions Governing Use
Property rights reside with the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permissions to reproduce or publish, please contact the curator of the Archives.
Subjects
- Brownsville Episcopal Church (Pa.)
- Brownsville Glass Factory (Pa.)
- Kenyon College
- Monongahela Bank of Brownsville (Pa.)
- Monongahela Navigation Company
- Pittsburgh, Brownsville and Geneva Packet Company
- Young Women's Christian Association
- Hogg family
- Breading, Nathaniel,d1751-1822
- Brunot, Mary Ann (Hogg), 1822-1899
- Hogg, George, 1784-1849
- Hogg, George E.,d. 1893
- Hogg, John T., d. 1820
- Hogg, Mary Ann (Breading)
- Hogg, William, 1755-1841
- Brownsville (Pa.) -- History
- Fayette County (Pa.) -- Genealogy
- Fayette County (Pa.) -- History
- Monongahela River (W. Va. and Pa.)
- Banks and banking -- Pennsylvania -- Fayette County
- Churches -- Pennsylvania -- Brownsville
- Glass manufacture -- Pennsylvania -- Brownsville