Family Focus #2

Hey all! Happy Summer to you and welcome back to The Hogue Connection! In this post, Family Focus #2, I revisit this feature and take a deeper dive into the family of another child of William M. Hogue and his wife Mary Jane Bates. William and Mary are my great-great grandparents and had six children. We previously looked at the family of their oldest son, William A. Hogue and his wife Nancy.

This time, our Family Focus #2 features their youngest son, John Calvin Hogue and his wife, Lora Etta Carnahan. This family spent a few years in the Courtney/Rubottom area of the Chickasaw Nation before finally settling in Seminole, Oklahoma. They had seven children and were very important to family survival of our branch after older brother Charley died in 1917.

John Calvin Hogue, top, and Lora Etta Carnahan with daughter Bessie Mae.

Tennessee Born

John was likely born in Blount County, Tennessee on 4 Dec 1874. The first time he appears in any census is in 1900 in Chickasaw Nation. In every census after, he declared Tennessee as his birth state. I have one document that lists his birthplace as North Carolina, but that information was provided by one of his children after his death. John moved around the area with the rest of his family in between Blount County and Stecoah, NC in his childhood years.

William M. Hogue acquired 50 acres of land in Graham County in 1878 and the family lived there until sometime in 1880. They packed up and headed to the Indian Territory that year. Remember that William’s oldest son from his first marriage, Jackson, lived with his new family in Courtney at that time. No doubt John worked hard as a teen, probably alongside his siblings or cousins in the area.

The Carnahan Family

According to the FindAGrave bio of James M.Carnahan by Scott Black, James was born in 1844 in Warrick Co. Indiana. Six feet tall with sandy hair and grey-blue eyes, James was veteran of the Civil War, and was wounded at the Battle of Bull Run. On Oct 22, 1866, he married Terrisa Madden (b.1850) at Lynnville, IN. Here, their first four children were born: John in 1867, Sarah in 1869, James in 1872, and Lora Etta on 17 Jan 1873.

In 1877, the Carnahan family moved to the Chickasaw Nation, first to Dillard (now in Carter County, OK), and then Cornish (now in Jefferson County, OK). Here in the Indian Territory, three more children were born: Willie in 1879, Tommy in 1881, and Curtis in 1885. Sarah, Willie, and Curtis all died in their youth. Terrisa’s father Jonathan Madden had relocated from Indiana to Spanish Fort, Montague County, Texas, across the Red River from Courtney, I.T. In 1886, James traveled to Indiana on business. On his return, he found that Terrisa had died and was buried in Spanish Fort.

James moved his family north to Rubottom for a few years before settling permanently in Courtney. Here, Lora met John Calvin Hogue. They were married in Ringling, I.T. in 1898, and started their family in Courtney. James M. Carnahan passed away at his son John’s home in Blossom, TX while visiting on 27 Jul 1923. Scott Black has a great website about the history of Courtney here.

Family Focus #2 Shows The J.C. Hogue Family On The Move….

The map above shows the main home places of the John Calvin Hogue family. Although no census captured them in Seminole, OK, they did live up there a few different times. My great-great grandmother, Mary Jane lived with them and was recorded in the 1900 census. They moved up to Sasakwa, near Seminole, and near John’s siblings William and Nellie before 1908. Mary passed away that year and is buried there. Unfortunately, many of the markers in cemeteries of the area were sandstone and cannot be read anymore. Here is a look at their census recordings over a few decades:

1900 Census, Courtney, Chickasaw Nation, Indian Territory

1910 Census, Burneyville, Love, Oklahoma

1920 Census, Wright (near Ringling), Jefferson, Oklahoma

1930 Census, Burneyville, Love, Oklahoma

Although John’s obituary states that he lived in Seminole “for many years”, it was probably an off and on kind of thing. We know that John was also a road overseer (go here) for the newly formed Love County like his brother Charley. From the evidence I’ve gathered, it’s hard to pin down an exact timeline of the family’s various moves.

The Family Focus #2 Roll Call of the Children…

Walter Joseph Hogue (1899-1919) –  died at the age of 20 and is buried in the Rubottom Cemetery. My grandpa Henry remembers Walter’s death, even though Henry was only 5 at the time. He always told me that he died after drinking “a whole lot of water” one hot day. I’m sure there were other circumstances that resulted in his passing.

James Ernest “Ernie” Hogue (1901-1989) – married Laura M. Reynolds  in Waurika, Jefferson County, OK on 29 Oct 1922. They had five children: Twins Earnestine (1924-1937) and Earldean (1924-2017), Bernice Irene (1926-1956), Bobbie Sue (1931-2017), and Tommy Joe (1937-2000). Earnestine was killed in the New London school explosion, and Earldean was seriously injured. Read more about that here.

Bessie Mae Hogue (1904-2000) – married Eddie Lee Haywood (1896-1972) on 25 Dec 1920 at Rubottom, OK. They had one daughter, Edna Mae (1923-2022). In a strange twist of fate, the Haywood’s swapped rental homes with Ernie’s family, which resulted in Edna having to change schools before the explosion. I got to visit Bessie in the late 1980’s and she was instrumental in providing many family stories and photographs, like the ones above.

Exie Irene Hogue (1906-2001) – known by the family as Irene, she married Earl Lee Reynolds (brother of Laura, Ernie’s wife) on 4 July 1923 in Waurika, OK. They had two children, Louise Loraine (b.1924) and Donald L. (b. 1928). Their current whereabouts and life stories are unknown at this time. Earl was killed in a derrick accident in Lyons, Kansas on 1 Jun 1935, only 31 years of age. Irene, who lived in Santa Clara County, CA for a time near her siblings, eventually went back to Seminole. She died there and is buried in Maple Grove Cemetery.

The Family Focus #2 Roll Call, Continued…

Elmer Codis Hogue (1909-1980) – married Sarah Jane Rogers (1911-1988) on 7 Nov 1933 in Courtney. They had three children: Twins Joy Faye (1934-2019) and Roy Ray (1934-1948), and Patty Irine (b. 1939). As far as I know Patty is still living.

Melvin Calvin Hogue (1911-1938) – married Sadie Belle Odom (1914-2011) on 7 Oct 1932 in Seminole. They had two children: Jeffie Calvin (1935-2000) and Zaylon Ruth, known as Lynn (b.1936 and still living). Family lore tells us that Melvin died on the operating table after suffering from bleeding ulcers on 4 Nov 1938, aged 27. He is also buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in Seminole.

Randol Aster Hogue (1914-1998) – married Lillian Ellen Davis (1917-1996) on 21 Sep 1940 in Marietta, OK. They had one daughter, Orita Fay, known as Rita (1941-2023). Randol and Lillian both passed away in Carson City, NV and are buried together in the Leon Cemetery, Leon, OK.

A Bad Run of Luck…

Beginning with Earl Reynolds death in 1935, the last few years of John Calvin Hogue’s life were pretty rough for him. Irene and Melvin remained in Seminole, while John and Lora decided to move to Phoenix, Arizona. Why they moved is unclear to me at this point. Perhaps they moved to help improve Lora’s failing health.

According to her death certificate, Lora was suffering from “chronic myocarditis”, an inflammation of the heart muscle and acute nephritis or kidney disease. A notation on the certificate indicated that they had been in Phoenix for three months, meaning they moved there in October 1938. This was only one month before Melvin’s death on 4 Nov 1938. Lora Etta succumbed to her illnesses on 5 Jan 1939 at 11:40AM. She was at home at the time. Their address was Indian School Road and 40^th Street. John shipped her remains back to Rubottom and buried her in the Rubottom Cemetery, in the same row as his brother Charley.

John returned to Seminole and moved in with Irene. In November 1938, he took ill and passed away at Irene’s home on East Broadway in Seminole, OK on the evening of Monday, 2 Jan 1939. He is buried in the same plot as Melvin in the Maple Grove Cemetery. I visited their grave back in the 80’s. The sandstone tombstone was very difficult to read and is probably illegible by now. For the FindAGrave memorial, go here. For Lora’s, go here.

Family Focus #2 … John Hogue Really Helped My Family…

As I close out this Family Focus #2 feature, I just wanted to make sure everyone understands how important the sibling relationship between John and Charley was. When Charley died on 24 July 1917, my great grandmother Nora had seven children: Frankie Noble, aged 17, Leonard, 13, Fannie Mae, 10, Clarence, 8, Buford, 5, Henry, almost 3, and Charlie, only 8 days old. John looked after Nora’s brood until the boys were old enough to do farm work. They would often live in a canvas tent on the land John was renting, with only a pot belly wood stove for cooking and heat. It was a rough life, for sure, but would have been much more difficult without the assistance of John and his family.

Hopefully you enjoyed this deep dive into another descendant of William M. and Mary Jane Hogue. As always, please leave comments if you find any errors or have anything to add. For instance, I’ve seen the above pic of Lora and Bessie labeled as Lora and Walter, their oldest child. Maybe, but I’m pretty sure Bessie told me it was her. Many thanks to cousins David and Mike, descendants of John and Lora,  for their contributions to this blog post. Many thanks to Ray for his correction on some place names. Thanks, too, for visiting The Hogue Connection! We’ll see you next time! You can return to the Home page here.