Husband William Hogg 1
Born: 17 Jun 1755 - County of Northumberland, England 1
Christened:
Died: 27 Jan 1841 1
Buried:
Father: [Father] Hogg ( - )
Mother:
Marriage: Abt 1795
Wife Mary Stephens 2
AKA: Mary Stevens 1
Born: Abt 1754 - Bucks Co, PA
Christened:
Died: 11 Nov 1840 1
Buried:
Father: John Stephens (1714-1806) 2 3 4
Mother: Sarah [Unk] ( - ) 2
Children
General Notes: Husband - William Hogg
While quite young he entered the marine service, from which he soon retired, and was soon thereafter drafted into the British military service, but deserted at Charleston, South Carolina. Working his way to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he found employment for about a year, when he concluded to seek his fortune in the great unknown West. In 1786 he first visited Brownsville, at that time the point where the military road reached the first navigable stream of the West, whereby the emigrants of the East and the traders could by boats reach the far-distant West. Here they encamped until they could build their boats and procure supplies of ironware and provisions sufficient to start them in their Western homes. Mr. Hogg was pleased with the prospects of Brownsville as a place of business. He returned to Philadelphia to lay in a small stock of merchandise, which was the beginning of his eminently successful career as a merchant. During the following year he again visited Brownsville, intending to go to Kentucky, whither the tide of emigration was moving. He concluded, however, to make this place his home, and here, during the eleven years he was in business, he acquired what was then thought to be a very large fortune. He retired from active business in 1798, and thereafter in partnership with George Hogg, who came from England in 1804, planted many branches of business throughout Ohio, and purchased large bodies of government lands.
While thus fortunate in business he established for himself a high character for integrity over a large region of country. He was singularly modest and unobtrusive in all his ways, so much so that he attracted attention rather than escaped it by the simplicity of his life and manners.
Mr. Hogg, in connection with others, organized the Monongahela Bank of Brownsville, as early as 1812, under articles of association, which in 1814 were exchanged for a charter under the Commonwealth. Under the State charter and the National Banking laws this bank had a vigorous existence, and was probably the oldest such institution west of the Allegheny Mountains, and was for very many years the only institution of the kind over a very large region of country.
Mr. Hogg, Mr. Jacob Bowman, Dr. Wheeler, and George Hogg were equally efficient at a very early day in organizing at Brownsville an Episcopal Church and erecting a large and substantial building for its use.
William Hogg took great interest in the cause of education at all times, but an incident exemplifying this fact, and of historical interest as well, may here be cited. Somewhere about 1828 or 1830, when Kenyon College, later at Gambier, Knox County, Ohio, had been projected, but yet lacked a site, Hon. Henry Clay, of Kentucky, and Bishop Chase, of Ohio, visited Brownsville and negotiated with Mr. Hogg for eight thousand acres of land belonging to him, and which he, in consideration that an institution of learning was to be erected thereon, deeded to them as trustees for $2.25 per acre, though it was held in the market at a much higher price, and then presented them besides, for use of the college, with $6000 of the purchase-money.