Podcast for Honest History Magazine- Biography of Ima Hogg-Texas Governor’s daughter.

Have you ever been bullied by someone, maybe because you were taller than everyone else or because you wore glasses?  Yes, being bullied is no fun, but suppose your name was Ima Hogg. By the time Ima Hogg was nine years old everyone knew about her unfortunate name. Newspapers as far away as California had heard of her. It was 1891and her father was the newly elected Governor of Texas and it was her name that stood her apart.

But you are going to hear a story of this brave young woman who indeed stood out her entire life and accomplished much even despite her unfortunate moniker.

Ima Hogg’s life was one filled with adventures and misadventures from a very early age.  You see her father, the Governor of Texas during the turn-of-the century, was awful fond of a poem written by his brother, which told the story of two Civil War heroes and their sweethearts, whose names were Leila and you guessed it… ‘Ima’.

Below is a section from the poem that perhaps explains her father’s enchantment with the name.

A Southern girl, whose winsome grace
And kindly, gentle mien, betrayed
A heart more beauteous than her face
Ah! She was fair: the Southern skies
Were typed in Ima’s heavenly eyes.

At the happy occasion of her birth and the naming ceremony, her maternal grandfather raced into Mineola, Texas on his fastest stallion and tried to stop the naming of his first granddaughter. He unfortunately arrived too late, for her name Ima(no middle name) Hogg had already been transcribed into the big family Bible. So, Ima Hogg she stayed, much to the chagrin of her brothers, who constantly had to defend her unlikely name in school when they were growing up. We all know how mean kids can be and with a name like Ima Hogg, she withstood ridicule like a lady, but her brothers were a different story, coming home occasionally with busted lips and bloody noses.  A fictious sister soon emerged named Ura Hogg and then a brother Hesa Hogg, but of course it was all in jest. Or what we today call an “Urban Legend.’


Her family moved to Austin, Texas when the flamboyant James Hogg became governor. He also became famous for having a large menagerie at the governor’s mansion that included two ostriches, a sleuth of bears, a herd of goats, a gaggle of geese and a parrot named Jane and many visitors to admire them. His only daughter Ima loved animals and was known to be full of mettle. She also had a way with animals, and especially her own horse, an elegant black Arabian stallion named Napoleon. On one occasion when Ima returned to the University of Texas, after a year’s absence she wanted to go riding and asked her groom to bring the horse around while she waited on the veranda. Now Ima was known to be the only one who could ride her horse as he was very hard to handle. In the barn area she could hear snorting, scrambling and yelling.


People say that a horse does not remember his owner after a very long absence, only the last person who has fed him. They are not like dogs who will happily greet their owners after a long period of time, waging their tails and jumping with joy.


But on this day a different scenario played out. Around the corner came the animal and the groom, the horse kicking and bucking and pulling on his halter, but when he saw Miss Ima he ran straight to the house, jumped on the veranda and put his head on her shoulder. The groom later said, “Miss Ima had powers.”


And those powers may have saved Ima and her dad when they decided to sail for Hawaii in 1895. The Governor of Texas and his sixteen-year-old daughter boarded the troop ship Arizona to visit the islands before it became annexed to the U.S. While there Ima visited Queen Lilikulani and admired her beautiful gardens, watched native dancing and enjoyed her self tremendously. Perhaps this is where her lifelong love of gardens first began. On their way back from the islands they decided to take a trip to Seattle but as the couple walked up the steps to board the steamer Ima told her father. “I have a feeling something bad is going to happen to this ship. Let’s wait and board the next ship Papa?” she asked him.


Never doubting his daughters’ uncanny abilities to read situations, he agreed and they boarded the next ship. When they arrived in Seattle the next day, they were shocked to hear that the ship had been lost at sea. NO SURVIVORS.

Over the years Ima’s name became a badge of courage for the tiny fearless girl. She grew into a rival for her brothers many dares. I suppose any girl with three brothers was not going to let them beat her at anything, even with the arrival of two ostriches and a special dare from her oldest brother Will. Did he think Ima could ride one of those strange birds? Most people in Texas had never even seen one but how could Ima refuse his dare?

His younger sister was doing fine on the back of the onery bird until Will shot it with a slingshot and she got tossed out of the corral into the dusty road. That incident was one of the first that tested her mettle, and the beginning of her many adventures. A fictionalized account has been written of this encounter and turned into a horse race with Texas quarter horses and I bet you can guess who won.

Click here to Check out ‘ on Amazon.

On another occasion their parrot Jayne, flew out the front door and crying,’ Pa Pa’, flew to the shoulder of Governor Hogg, delighting his circle of friends. The menagerie attracted constant visitors to the Hogg’s mansion in Austin where ostriches, and goats and buffaloes roamed. But Ima was always around to care for them and protect them from her brothers who were constantly.

 

 “Bothering the buffaloes:
 Panicking the pachyderms and
Outraging the ostriches.”

 But one night Ima was able to get her revenge on her brother Tom. There is also a fictional account of that fateful night in the book.