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"Robert Hogg, a representative citizen and leading agriculturist of Butler County, who is engaged in cultivating 200 acres of fine farming land situated near New Hope, has been a life-long resident of Cherry Township. Mr. Hogg was born on his present farm in Cherry Township, Butler County, Pennsylvania, March 1, 1846, and is a son of Robert and Mary Jane (McFate) Hogg.
The grandfather of Robert Hogg, also named Robert, came to Butler County from the eastern part of the state, bringing with him his son Robert, and here settled on the farm near New Hope, where both father and grandfather died. Robert and Mary Jane (McFate) Hogg were the parents of ten children, of whom eight still survive.
Robert Hogg of Cherry Township has always lived on the farm he now owns, and farming has been his life work. He has been successful in his operations, and his 200-acre property is considered one of the most valuable in Cherry Township.
Mr. Hogg was married (first) to Miss Eliza Bryan, who was born in Washington Township, Butler County, and was a daughter of Robert Steele Bryan. They became the parents of these children: William H. married Ora Donaldson, and has two children, Dellis and Edith; Samuel Harper, married Ellen Nicely and has three children, Alice, Melvina and Lena; Mary M., married James H. Campbell, and has one son, Robert William; Margaret, married Robert Johnston, and has three children, Harry, Elmira and James. Mr. Hogg's first wife died in 1882 and he was married a second time to Mary E. Christy, who is a daughter of Ebenezer Christy."
Robert Hogg, son of Robert and Mary Hogg, was born on March 1, 1846, on the family farm near New Hope, in Butler County Pennsylvania. Robert's grandfather and his family settled on this farm when they moved west from Mifflin County in eastern Pennsylvania.
Eliza Jane Bryan, daughter of Robert Steele and Margaret (English) Bryan, was born July 24, 1849 in Franklin Township (now part of Brady Township), Butler County, Pennsylvania.
Robert married Eliza Jane Bryan and they had the following children:
| William Harrison Hogg | Born June 2, 1870. William married Ora "Orie" Donaldson, and they had 3 children: Robert Dallas, Edith, and Henry Raymond Hogg. William died April 16, 1940. |
| Mary Marinda Hogg | Born April 2, 1876. Mary married James Campbell, and they had one son: Robert William Hogg. Mary died October 22, 1941. |
| Samuel Harper Hogg | Born July 14, 1872. Harper married Ellen Nicely, and they had 8 children (plus one who was stillborn): Alice Myrtle, Jennie Melvina, Lena Imelda, Robert Nicely, Bertha Twila Mae, Stephen James, Harper Chalmer, and Eleanor Viola Hogg. |
| Margaret Eliza Hogg | Born August 30, 1877. Margaret married Robert Johnston, and they had 3 children: Harry, Elmira, and James. |
As per the 1910 20th Century History of Butler and Butler County, Pa. and Representative Citizens, Robert was a "a representative citizen and leading agriculturist", and his 200-acre farm was considered one of the most valuable in Cherry Township.
Eliza died May 14, 1882 in Cherry Township, and was buried in Pleasant Valley Cemetery, Cherry Township. Her tombstone reads, "Dear Mother, Thou hast gone to rest with the babe upon thy breast and happy be thy tomb, but Jesus summons thee away. Thy Savior called them home. Sadly missed by husband Robert and children".
Robert remarried to Mary Elmira Christy in 1884. They had no children.
In 1915, Robert, with his brother Jim, and his sister Mary Fisher, travelled from Pennsylvania to Nebraska to attend the golden wedding anniversary reunion of his brother John Alexander Hogg. It was held in Nebraska on October 30, 1915. Robert is shown in the family photo taken at the reunion, seated in front of his brother John.
Robert died of "la grippe", better known today as influenza, during the epidemic of 1918. The epidemic first attacked military communities and spread out from them. A wide spread rumor of the era was that the Germans had spread the disease to Americans in such places as theaters or other crowded places as they had done in Europe. In recent years more studies have been made on tissue taken from a woman who died in Brevig Mission, Alaska, a soldier from Fort Upton, New York, and a soldier from Fort Jackson, South Carolina. [Brevig Mission had lost 85 percent of its population by the 1918 epidemic.] Those studies support the theory that the flu had been incubating in humans or pigs for several years before transforming into the strain that killed millions.
Robert died during the deadliest month of the epidemic. In October 1918, 195,000 Americans died from the flu. Those attacked by the grippe were said to have had a bluish cast to their faces and coughed up bloodstained sputum, while fevers raged up to 105 degrees. In the end, the epidemic had taken more than 600,000 in the United States alone and over 30 million worldwide.
In her later years, Mary lived with her step-daughter, Margaret E. (Hogg) Johnston. She died March 07, 1923, and was buried in New Hope Cemetery, in Branchton, Pennsylvania.