Thomas Egenton Hogg facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Thomas Egenton Hogg
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| Born | 1828 Baltimore, Maryland |
| Died | December 8, 1898 (aged 69–70) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Allegiance |  Confederate States of America |
| Service/ |
 Confederate States Navy |
| Years of service | 1863–1865 |
| Rank |  Master |
| Other work | Railroad promoter, Corvallis, Oregon |
Thomas Egenton Hogg (1828–1898) was a naval officer for the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War. He took part in attacks on ships belonging to the Union side. Hogg was captured and faced a serious punishment, but he was later set free from prison. After his release, he became a businessman and helped build railroads in Oregon. He worked hard on the Oregon Pacific Railroad. However, his big dream of creating a transcontinental railroad that would end on the Oregon Coast never came true.
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Early Life and Beliefs
Thomas Hogg was born in Cecil County, Maryland, in 1828. His father, William Hogg, was a well-known merchant in Baltimore. By 1861, Thomas Hogg had moved to Louisiana. That year, Louisiana left the United States and joined the Confederacy. Hogg supported the Confederacy's cause.
Adventures During the Civil War
On November 16, 1863, Hogg and five other men from Ireland who supported the Confederacy boarded a Union ship. This ship, named Joseph L. Gerrity, was a schooner carrying cotton. They boarded it in Matamoros, Mexico.
On November 26, they took control of the ship without hurting the crew. They then left the crew on the Yucatán Peninsula. Hogg's group sailed to Belize in the British Honduras. There, they used fake papers to rename the ship Eureka and sold its cargo.
- The ship's real crew had already told British officials what happened.
- Hogg and one other man managed to escape into Nicaragua and then crossed the Isthmus of Panama.
- However, British officials caught three other men in Liverpool. They were charged with piracy, which means attacking ships illegally.
News of Hogg's success in capturing the ship and escaping reached Stephen Mallory. Mallory was the Secretary of the Confederate Navy. In May 1864, Mallory told Hogg to capture a Union steamship. It was either the Salvador or the Guatemala. The plan was to use this ship to attack Union shipping along the West Coast. They also wanted to target the whaling fleet in the Pacific Ocean.
On November 10, 1864, Hogg's group boarded the Salvador in Panama City. But Union officials already knew about their plan. A group from the USS Lancaster arrested Hogg and his men.
Hogg was found guilty by a military court. He was first sentenced to be executed for breaking the rules of war. However, Union General Irvin McDowell changed his sentence to life in prison. Hogg began his prison time at Alcatraz in 1864. He was later moved to San Quentin in August 1865. On May 7, 1866, General McDowell ordered his release from prison.
Building Railroads in Oregon
In 1871, Hogg moved to Corvallis, Oregon. He called himself "Colonel," even though he had not earned that military rank. Hogg started thinking about building a railroad from Corvallis to the Oregon Coast. He planned to follow the path of an existing wagon road.
Hogg began to find people to invest money in his idea. Investors liked the plan because it would help farmers in the Willamette Valley get their crops to California faster.
- In October 1872, Hogg officially started the Corvallis and Yaquina Bay Railroad company.
- Two years later, he renamed it the Willamette Valley and Coast Railroad.
- He also received land from the state in what is now Lincoln County to build the railroad.
The company struggled to raise money and build the railroad at first. But then Hogg teamed up with Wallis Nash, a banker from Corvallis. In 1880, Hogg and Nash started the Oregon Pacific Railroad. They promoted the idea that Corvallis would become a major center for a transcontinental railroad. They even suggested that Newport would become the "San Francisco of the North." Hogg and Nash raised millions of dollars.
In 1885, the railroad line was finished from Yaquina on the Oregon Coast to Corvallis. This part crossed the Oregon Coast Range. In 1887, the Corvallis Depot (train station) was completed.
However, the railroad faced problems:
- Other shipping companies that used Portland and Astoria did not like the new route. They bought land near Hogg's land grants to make it hard for him to build.
- The Yaquina Bay harbor was too shallow for large ships, unlike the Columbia River.
- Building the railroad over the mountains was very expensive. There were also issues with how the money was managed.
East of Corvallis, the line reached Idanha. This was about 15 miles (24 km) short of Santiam Pass. A line was built up Santiam Pass to what is now Hogg Rock. This was done to keep the right to build there in the future. By 1891, the railroad ran out of money and went into receivership. This means a court took control of it because of financial problems.
In 1895, a lumberman named A. B. Hammond bought the railroad at an auction. The railroad's name was changed to Oregon Central and Eastern Railroad. Later, it became the Corvallis and Eastern Railroad.
Later Life and Death
Hogg moved back to Baltimore in the late 1880s with his wife, Naomi. She was from England and 35 years younger than him. They bought his parents' farm and built a large estate called Cecil Manor. This house was one of the most expensive homes in Maryland at the time. Sadly, it was destroyed by fire in 1890.
On December 8, 1898, Thomas Hogg died of apoplexy (a type of stroke) on a streetcar in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Because of his efforts to build a railroad over the Cascade Mountains in that area, Hogg Rock at the top of Santiam Pass is named after him. Santiam Pass itself was also once called Hogg Pass.
