Evening Republican, Volume 16, Number 63, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 March 1912 — GREAT NAME IN NEW YORK [ARTICLE]

GREAT NAME IN NEW YORK

Hogans Not Only Are Numerous, But litey Ono Historic Ancestor. Take up a New York city directory and look under the name Hogan, and you will find enough to populate a good-sized village. There are Patricks and Jameses and Williams and Johns —and plenty of Michaels. In 1863 there were about 150 Hogans in New York city. In 1805 there was just one. So if you bear the good old name of Hogan there is a posibillty you are a descendant of Michael Hogan, who came to these shores a little more than a century ago. New York was then a small city. Such a stranger as Mr. Hogan did not arrive at the Battery every day, for he came loaded down with gold and accompanied by a dark-skinned and beautiful wife, with a dazzling smile and wonderful jewels. Folks called him a nabob, and fie certainly had the habits and wealth of a prince of Indian blood. Michael’s blood, however, was all Irish. He was born at Stone Hall, County Clare, in 1766, and was thirty-eight years old when he landed on American soil. There.was not much Mr. Hogan had not seen or done or been. He had followed the sea and worked himself up from cabin boy to sailor, then to officer and finally commander of a ship. He sailed almost every quarter of the globe. He had cruised around the Spanish Main and touched at many South American ports. He knew the West Indies from Santo Domingo to Havana, and he knew the East Indies as well as the West It was in the East Indies that Hogan was said to have met and won his bride, the daughter of a fabulously wealthy merchant there.' Captain Hogan had not been long here before he made friends with the leading merchants. The most exclusive homes were open to him and his charming wife. His own house was soon a center of social events. He spent money like water and never seemed to exhaust his ideas tor original entertainment and lavish dinners. Pearl etreet was a fashionable residence district Hogan determined on going into business, so he opened l a dry goods establishment at a spot on Broadwav where the old

i Astor house now stands. He stocked his place with a collection of wares the like of which, tor richness, the city had never seen before. He lived, over his store, which was quite the proper thing In living then. His business prospered and a couple of years later he sold out for a big sum and moved into Greenwich street, where his neighbors were men of wealth and local renown. They all became intimate with the remarkable Irishman, who especially made friends with the Rev. John Henry Hobart, then the most gifted young preacher in the city. The Rev. Mr. Hobart interested Michael Hogan in Trinity church, to which the generous man from County Clare made liberal contributions. A monument was erected to Hogan's memory years later in old Trinity. When the old church was pulled down the Hogan memorial was moved to Gyace church, at Broadway and Tenth street , Captain Hogan's love of adventure and the sea did not die out. After he retired from dry goods he went into shipping and traded extensively with the West Indies and with Spain. Encouraged by his wife and spurred by his love of hospitality and lavish entertaining, Michael Hogan's dinner parties were soon the talk of Newt York. Many of his West Indian business operations were unsuccessful and he lost much money, but a little thing like that did not subdue the gayety of his temperament. He kept open house and drove , about in his fine carriage until near the close of the War of 1812 -with England. His ships had been captured and his property destroyed and he was penniless. Hie losses were enormous. He had many political friends and it..Yas-not difficult to get the popular Irishman as appointment as United States- consul at Valparaiso, South AmerfH. HIS wife and daughters accompanied him. He had three daughters and one son. Hogan died in Washington in 1833—• New York’s first Hogan', and one of the most picturesque characters who ever drank a health to St Patrick.