James Stephen Hogg and Cherokee County

Hogg's Rusk speech survives in print. C. W. Raines included it in the 1905 collection Speeches and State Papers of James Stephen Hogg, where it runs from page 25 to page 50 under the title Speech at Rusk, Opening Canvass for Nomination for Governor in 1890. The Texas State Library says it dealt with railroads and the possible benefits of a railroad commission, and that even his opponents called it a masterpiece. The legislature created the Railroad Commission in 1891 as the state's first regulatory agency, with power to set rates.

What the plaque says

James Stephen Hogg and Cherokee County James Stephen Hogg was born in 1851 to Lucanda (McMath) and Joseph L. Hogg on the family's plantation near Rusk. After a political career in Wood County as justice of the peace, judge and prosecutor, he became Texas Attorney General in 1887. In 1890, he ran as the Democratic candidate for Governor. He returned to his native Rusk on April 19, 1890 to begin his campaign with a speech at Live Oak Park, where approximately 3,000 people gathered to hear him speak for almost three hours. His speech outlined his platform, which included the creation of the Texas Railroad Commission and the Alien Land Law, later considered among his greatest accomplishments as Governor. (2004)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Caddo Mounds State Historic Site — 14 mi
  Three earthen mounds of an ancestral Caddo village and ceremonial center on the old El Camino Real, settled about A.D. 800 and still sacred to Caddo people, with a grass house and visitor center.
• Texas State Railroad Excursion Train — 26 mi
  A round trip of about 25 miles of track between the Palestine and Rusk depots through the Piney Woods, on a line built by prison labor and reopened as a tourist railroad in 1976.

More markers nearby

• Rusk Footbridge — 0.5 mi
• Bachelor Girl's Library Club — 0.6 mi
• Cherokee County — 0.7 mi
• Cherokee County C.S.A. — 0.7 mi