Shortly after the 1918 discovery of petroleum on their property near West Columbia, Texas, the brothers William C. Hogg (1875-1930), Mike Hogg (1885-1941), and Tom Hogg (1887-1949), together with their sister Ima Hogg (1882-1975) organized the firm of Hogg Brothers to co-ordinate the family’s investments in oil, agriculture, real estate and other interests. The Hogg Brothers headquarters building at 401 Louisiana Street in Houston (1921, listed on the National Register 1975) featured a large penthouse office with a rooftop garden where the Hoggs entertained visitors. Hogg Brothers owned several subsidiary corporations, notably Varner Realty which invested in real estate ventures and petroleum lands. The company also had interests in cotton warehousing and export, Kentucky coal mines, deep-water port development in Houston, and speculative ventures including the Findex indexing system, shoe manufacturing and gold mining. The Hogg family used wealth from these interests to promote philanthropic projects centered on the arts, housing, education, mental health and historic preservation. After Will C. Hogg’s death in 1930, Hogg Brothers was supervised in part by his brother Michael and sister Ima.
From the guide to the Hogg Family Papers AR80-1; 81-18; 81-86., 1895-1948, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
