Hogg, William Clifford
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William Clifford Hogg, lawyer and businessman, son of Sallie (Stinson) and James Stephen Hogg, was born at Quitman, Texas, on January 31, 1875. He attended Austin public schools and Professor Orr's County School near Tyler before entering Southwestern University at Georgetown. At Southwestern he contemplated entering the Methodist ministry but finally decided to study law at the University of Texas, where he received his LL.B. degree in 1897. Will Hogg practiced law for a few years in San Antonio and then joined his father in the firm of Hogg, Robertson, and Hogg at Austin. He later was associated with the Mercantile Trust Company in St. Louis until his father's death in 1906 made it necessary for him to take charge of the Hogg interests in Houston. He became assistant to Joseph S. Cullinan of the Texas Company (later Texaco), was made chairman of numerous advisory committees, and was a director of various subsidiaries of the Texas Company such as Southern Trust Company, Midland Securities Company, and Producers Oil Company. The Texaco Star was founded through his efforts in 1913. In January 1913 Hogg, Cullinan, and James L. Autry formed the Farmers Petroleum Company, the Fidelity Trust Company, and the American Republics Corporation. Hogg had assisted in the organization of the Great Southern Life Insurance Company in 1909 and in 1915 formed Hogg, Dickson, and Hogg, cotton factors, a firm which was dissolved when all three partners left for war activities during World War I. Hogg was in Washington as a dollar-a-year man in the special intelligence service. After the war Hogg Brothers was organized to handle the family properties and investments. Through it Will Hogg promoted various altruistic projects including the Houston Civic Center and the Forum of Civics. As chairman of the City Planning Commission of Houston, he advocated a city plan and zoning system. In 1922 he sponsored the River Oaks Corporation for development of the restricted residential River Oaks Addition in Houston. He worked for the Houston Club, the Houston Country Club, the YMCA, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, to which he gave paintings and representative Americana. During 1911 Will Hogg developed the Organization for the Enlargement by the State of Texas of its Institutions of Higher Learning. As president and later secretary of the Ex-Students Association of the University of Texas, he worked for its projects such as Gregory Gymnasium and the University Commons and helped institute the organ of the association, the Alcalde (later the Texas Alcalde), to further its plans. From 1914 to 1916 he was a member of the board of regents of the University of Texas. One of his most valuable services to the university came after his retirement from the board, when in 1917, as a member of the central committee of the Ex-Students Association, he worked for the school in its struggle with Governor James E. Ferguson. Hogg opened offices in Austin, put up money for the fight with the governor, and published the Record of Investigation...of Charges Filed against Governor James E. Ferguson. He urged and supported the formation of student loan funds at all state colleges and the Rice Institute, and to the loan funds he later left considerable amounts. Will Hogg died on September 12, 1930, while vacationing in Europe with his sister, Miss Ima Hogg. After funeral services at his Houston home, Bayou Bend, he was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Austin. His will left bequests to various Texas institutions of learning and gave the bulk of his estate to the University of Texas, which has used it as a trust fund to support the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health.
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J. Evetts Haley, George W. Littlefield, Texan (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1943). William Clifford Hogg Papers, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. John Avery Lomax, Will Hogg, Texan (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1956). Vertical Files, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. Bruce J. Weber, Will Hogg and the Business of Reform (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Houston, 1979). Who Was Who in America, 1943.
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The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Arthur Lefevre, Jr., “Hogg, William Clifford,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed February 21, 2025, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/hogg-william-clifford.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
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Original Publication Date:
- 1976 Most Recent Revision Date:
- February 21, 2021
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