Waylon County and Governor Hogg

In Waylon County, Byron Herblight, an alumnus of Warnell High School, works at the James S. Hogg Document Production and Data Transcription Building at the capitol complex in Austin. Of course, there is no such building, but I think the name sounds believable enough. James S. Hogg, after all, was elected governor of Texas in 1890 and before holding that office worked as a typesetter in Rusk and as a printer's devil in Cleburne. Considering Governor Hogg's background, it would not be a leap for a document production and data transcription building to be named after him.

However, the main reason I dedicated the building to James S. Hogg is that he named his daughter "Ima," which tends to elicit a guilty chuckle. The story goes that Ima had a sister named "Ura," although this is not true. "Ura" was just added to the tale for comedy's sake. So, to me, tacking James S. Hogg's name to a place called "a document production and data transcription building," which sounds stiflingly bureaucratic, adds an element of absurdity to the story.

However, choosing to name the building after James S. Hogg was not just for comedic effect. Cynicism also played a substantial role. After all, how could a person be so short-sighted and thoughtless that he would name his daughter "Ima Hogg" yet still be capable of winning the governorship?

One thing is for sure. You have to love Texas, where the line between satire and reality is sometimes indistinguishable.  


Here is a link to a TSHA article about Governor James Hogg:

https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fho17

Here is a photo of Ima Hogg:

Here is where you can get your copy of Waylon County:

https://www.amazon.com/Waylon-County-Stories-Heath-Dollar/dp/0998066141/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1508077589&sr=8-1&keywords=waylon+county+heath+dollar