There May Be a Parallel Universe…

…out there somewhere! Hello all and welcome back to my blog. I hope all of you are staying well and safe during this time of the pandemic and sociopolitical unrest. Let’s talk about an interesting family connection I discovered accidentally in the last couple of weeks. Immigration patterns along the frontier were similar in many ways, and this is a specific example of that.

But a parallel universe? These two Williams were obviously in the same dimension; this really isn’t Twilight Zone stuff, but kind of cool. It involves my GG Grandfather, William M. Hogue, and my GGG Grandfather, William M. Davis. Here’s an abbreviated tree to show how I relate:

                                                                                                           –William M. Hogue (1823-1886)

                                                                           — Charley S. Hogue (1865-1917)

                                             — Henry J. Hogue (1914-2009)

Me —- Charles W. Hogue (1937-2003)

                                              — C. Faye Larner (1919-2007)

                                                                            — Ida N. Davis (1874-1962)

                                                                                                           –Lewis Newton Davis (1848-1914)

                                                                                                                                                    –William M. Davis

                                                                                                                                                           (1819-1890)

We’ll go back about two hundred years to show how these two ancestors existed in kind of a parallel universe without likely ever knowing each other.

Burke County, North Carolina

We’ll go back about two hundred years to show how these two ancestors existed in kind of a parallel universe without likely ever knowing each other.Both of these Williams were born in Burke County, NC. Wm. Davis on 8 Dec 1819, and Wm. Hogue on about 10 Jun 1823, about three and a half years apart. Both remained here farming with their families until about 1844 or 1845 before moving to northern Georgia. Why northern Georgia? At the time there were rumors of the discovery of gold, which never really “panned” out, resulting in big growth in that part of the state.

The 1850 census shows the Davises in Union County, while the Hogues settled in Murray County. If you look at the major towns in those counties at the time, you’ll find them to be about 75 miles apart. We know the Davises settled near the town of Morganton (near Stork Hill on the map), the Hogues near Eton (near Spring Place on the map). In 1854, the state of Georgia carved Fannin County out of Union. Check out the maps below.

Moving Farther West

William M. Hogue’s travels are well documented in Red River Trails. Just to recap, in 1860 he left Murray County and headed up to Blount County, TN where he was recorded on the 1870 census. He then moved back to Stecoah, NC, because his sister was still there, and stayed there until 1880. William M. Davis remained in Fannin County, GA until around 1875, when he followed some family members out to Bluff Dale, Erath County, Texas.  

As we know, Wm. Hogue moved out to the Indian Territory in 1880, settling in Courtney, Chickasaw Nation. Once again, if you look at the maps, you’ll see that that these two areas are only about 150 miles apart. Wm. Davis’ son, Lewis followed him to Texas soon after in 1876, stopping in Alabama along the way. My great grandmother, Ida Novella Davis was born to Lewis and his wife Fredricka in Cullman, AL in 1874.

The End of the Trail

William M. Hogue died in Courtney, Indian Territory, in 1886 and is buried in the nearby Bourland/Belleville Cemetery. William M. Davis died in 1890 and is buried in the Wesley Chapel Cemetery in Bluff Dale. My parallel universe example here shows the similarities of many of our ancestor’s migration paths. Their names were similar, too.

While the Hogues followed the paths typical of the Scotch-Irish immigrants, I believe my 9^th great grandfather, Morgan David, immigrated from Wales to the Colony of Pennsylvania around 1680. His descendants changed the name to Davis, eventually moved on into the Carolina’s and then west from there. Ida Davis married William Calvin Larner in 1894 and started their family in Erath County, TX before relocating to Washita County, Oklahoma Territory in 1898. My grandma was the youngest of their eleven children. More on a somewhat notorious Larner a little bit down the road.

That’s it for today’s post. Thanks for checking out The Hogue Connection! Stay healthy out there, and come Tuesday, November 3^rd, make sure you get out there and VOTE! You can return to the Home Page here.