Thomas Egenton Hogg (1828–1898) was a
master in the
Confederate States Navy who participated in raids on
Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
ships during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
. He was captured and sentenced to death, but was eventually released from prison, after which he became a businessman and railroad promoter in the U.S. state of
Oregon
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
. He worked to build the
Oregon Pacific Railroad, though his dream to create a
transcontinental railroad
A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single ...
with its western terminus on the
Oregon Coast
The Oregon Coast is a coastal region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Oregon Coast Range to the east, and stretches approximately from the California state border in the south to the Columbia ...
was never realized.
Early life
Hogg was born in
Cecil County, Maryland
Cecil County () is a county located in the U.S. state of Maryland at the northeastern corner of the state, bordering both Pennsylvania and Delaware. As of the 2020 census, the population was 103,725. The county seat is Elkton. The county was n ...
, in 1828, the son of William Hogg, a prominent Baltimore merchant, and Jane Moffitt Hogg.
By 1861, Hogg had moved to
Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is borde ...
. That year, the state seceded from the
United States of America
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...
and joined the
Confederacy, and Hogg was sympathetic to their cause.
Civil War
On November 16, 1863, Hogg and five other Confederate sympathizers from
Ireland
Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...
boarded the ''Joseph L. Gerrity'', a
Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
schooner loaded with cotton, in
Matamoros, Mexico. On November 26, they seized the ship without harming the crew and then abandoned them on the
Yucatán Peninsula.
The pirate crew proceeded to Belize
Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...
in the British Honduras, where with forged documents that gave the ship the new name ''Eureka'', they sold the ship's cargo.[ By this time, the ship's real crew had alerted British authorities; Hogg and one other man escaped into ]Nicaragua
Nicaragua (; ), officially the Republic of Nicaragua (), is the largest country in Central America, bordered by Honduras to the north, the Caribbean to the east, Costa Rica to the south, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Managua is the cou ...
and across the Isthmus of Panama
The Isthmus of Panama ( es, Istmo de Panamá), also historically known as the Isthmus of Darien (), is the narrow strip of land that lies between the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific Ocean, linking North and South America. It contains the country ...
, but British authorities captured three others in Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...
, charging them with piracy.[
Word of Hogg's success in capturing the ship and eluding capture reached Confederate Navy Secretary Stephen Mallory. In May 1864, Mallory instructed Hogg to seize a Union steamship, either the ''Salvador'' or the ''Guatemala'', and use it for commerce raiding of Union shipping along the ]West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to:
Geography Australia
* Western Australia
*Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia
* West Coast, Tasmania
**West Coast Range, mountain range in the region
Canada
* Britis ...
and the whaling
Whaling is the process of hunting of whales for their usable products such as meat and blubber, which can be turned into a type of oil that became increasingly important in the Industrial Revolution.
It was practiced as an organized industry ...
fleet in the Pacific Ocean
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
. On November 10, 1864, Hogg's party boarded the ''Salvador'' in Panama City
Panama City ( es, Ciudad de Panamá, links=no; ), also known as Panama (or Panamá in Spanish), is the capital and largest city of Panama. It has an urban population of 880,691, with over 1.5 million in its metropolitan area. The city is locat ...
to carry out the plan, but Union officials had received word of the plot and a party from the arrested Hogg and his men.
Hogg was sentenced by a military commission to be hanged for violating the rules of war, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment by Union General Irvin McDowell.[ Hogg began serving his sentence at Alcatraz in 1864 and was transferred to ]San Quentin
San Quentin State Prison (SQ) is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation state prison for men, located north of San Francisco in the unincorporated place of San Quentin in Marin County.
Opened in July 1852, San Quentin is the o ...
in August 1865.[ On May 7, 1866, he was released from prison by another order issued by General McDowell.]
Oregon railroad interests
In 1871, Hogg moved to Corvallis, Oregon
Corvallis ( ) is a city and the county seat of Benton County in central western Oregon, United States. It is the principal city of the Corvallis, Oregon Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Benton County. As of the 2020 United ...
, where he styled himself a "Colonel" despite having no military claim to the title.[ Hogg began exploring the idea of building a railroad from Corvallis to the ]Oregon Coast
The Oregon Coast is a coastal region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Oregon Coast Range to the east, and stretches approximately from the California state border in the south to the Columbia ...
, following the route of the existing Corvallis and Yaquina Bay Wagon Road. Hogg began gathering investors, who were sold on the idea of reducing the time it took Willamette Valley
The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the east, ...
farmers to get their produce to California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. In October 1872, Hogg incorporated the Corvallis and Yaquina Bay Railroad; two years later, he re-incorporated it as the Willamette Valley and Coast Railroad and obtained land grants from the state in what is now Lincoln County on which to build the railroad.[ The company made little headway in raising capital and building until Hogg teamed with Corvallis banker Wallis Nash. In 1880, Hogg and Nash incorporated the Oregon Pacific Railroad and began promoting the idea of Corvallis as the hub of a ]transcontinental railroad
A transcontinental railroad or transcontinental railway is contiguous railroad trackage, that crosses a continental land mass and has terminals at different oceans or continental borders. Such networks can be via the tracks of either a single ...
that would establish Newport as the "San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
of the North" to east coast financiers. Hogg and Nash raised millions of dollars. In 1885, The line was completed from Yaquina on the Oregon Coast
The Oregon Coast is a coastal region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Oregon Coast Range to the east, and stretches approximately from the California state border in the south to the Columbia ...
to Corvallis across the Oregon Coast Range,[ and in 1887, the Corvallis Depot was completed.]
But the railroad was running into difficulty. Established shippers who used Portland
Portland most commonly refers to:
* Portland, Oregon, the largest city in the state of Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States
* Portland, Maine, the largest city in the state of Maine, in the New England region of the northeas ...
and Astoria opposed the new route and bought up land adjacent to the land grants to make routing difficult. Other problems included the fact that the Yaquina Bay harbor was too shallow for large ships, which was not an issue for the Columbia River
The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...
; moreover, building the railroad over the mountains proved to be expensive and plagued by mismanagement of funds.[
Eastward from Corvallis, the line made it as far as Idanha, short of ]Santiam Pass Santiam is a place name of the U.S. state of Oregon, referring to the indigenous Santiam people. It may refer to:
* Santiam Academy
* Santiam Hospital
* Santiam Junction, Oregon
* Santiam Junction State Airport
* Santiam Pass Santiam is a place nam ...
, though a line was taken up Santiam Pass Santiam is a place name of the U.S. state of Oregon, referring to the indigenous Santiam people. It may refer to:
* Santiam Academy
* Santiam Hospital
* Santiam Junction, Oregon
* Santiam Junction State Airport
* Santiam Pass Santiam is a place nam ...
to what is now Hogg Rock
Hogg Rock is a tuya volcano and lava dome in the Cascade Range of northern Oregon, United States, located close to Santiam Pass. Produced by magma with an intermediate andesite composition, it has steep slopes and thick glassy margins. Hogg ...
, to preserve the right of way.[
] By 1891, the railroad was out of money and went into receivership
In law, receivership is a situation in which an institution or enterprise is held by a receiver—a person "placed in the custodial responsibility for the property of others, including tangible and intangible assets and rights"—especially in ca ...
.[ In 1895, it was purchased at a sheriff's auction by lumberman A. B. Hammond and the railroad's name was changed to ]Oregon Central and Eastern Railroad
Oregon () is a U.S. state, state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington (state), Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of it ...
, and later to the Corvallis and Eastern Railroad Corvallis may refer to: Places
* Corvallis, Montana, USA
* Corvallis, Oregon, USA
Education
* Corvallis High School (California)
* Corvallis High School (Montana)
* Corvallis High School (Oregon)
Others
* Cessna 350 Corvalis light aircraft
* Cess ...
.
Death
Hogg moved back to Baltimore with his wife Naomi, a native of England who was 35 years his junior, in the late 1880s. They purchased his parents' farm and built a large estate that he named Cecil Manor. The house, one of the most expensive homes in Maryland at the time, was destroyed by fire in 1890. On December 8, 1898, he died of apoplexy on a streetcar in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
.[
Due to his efforts to build a railroad over the Cascades at that location, ]Hogg Rock
Hogg Rock is a tuya volcano and lava dome in the Cascade Range of northern Oregon, United States, located close to Santiam Pass. Produced by magma with an intermediate andesite composition, it has steep slopes and thick glassy margins. Hogg ...
at the top of Santiam Pass is named for him, and Santiam Pass itself was previously named Hogg Pass.[Corning, Howard M. (1989) ''Dictionary of Oregon History''. Binfords & Mort Publishing. p. 116.]
Land holdings and intrigue
Hogg had retained thousands of acres of land in Oregon granted to him for the railroad, but after his death, the estate became mired in legal entanglements. His attorney was Schuyler C. Spencer, who had studied in the law offices of Edgar D. Crumpacker of Indiana, and who was one of the founders of what would become the Portland law firm of Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt
Schwabe, Williamson & Wyatt ("Schwabe") is an American law firm with over 176 attorneys in eight cities on the West Coast. The firm is led by Graciela Gomez Cowger, CEO.
History
The firm was founded in 1892 by Ralph Wilber and Schuyler C. Spence ...
. Spencer worked to restore to Hogg's widow Naomi in 1908, and within two years, had divorced his wife and remarried Mrs. Hogg. In 1920, in what was attributed to his ill health and financial concerns over a horse farm they owned, Spencer attempted to kill his wife with a revolver. She survived, but Spencer then turned the gun on himself, committing suicide.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hogg, Thomas Egenton
California in the American Civil War
1828 births
1898 deaths
Businesspeople from Baltimore
American privateers
People of Louisiana in the American Civil War
People from Corvallis, Oregon
Confederate States Navy officers
American outlaws
19th-century American railroad executives
American pirates
People from Cecil County, Maryland
19th-century pirates