A Life in the Saddle: Memoirs of a Pioneer, Circuit Rider and Missionary: A Life in the Saddle, #1

By Brian Hogan

A Life in the Saddle is an expansion on the account Rev. Davie Hogan left of his own life, which he entitled: Autobiography of David Hogan (1811-1899).

[This is the First of Four Parts]

The author will quote directly from this work in the following format, as in the following opening passage:

I propose on this the 16th day of February A.D. 1899, in the 88th year of my life, to continue the work of writing a biographic sketch of my life, from a very imperfect, or partially kept diary. I will here state, this work is only intended as a manuscript for the information of my children, grandchildren, and those who in the future may be interested in the history this writing may afford. I have tried to keep as far from self-laudation as possible. I therefore pray that whosoever may consult or read it, if they think they see a spirit of exultation, they will account for it, on other grounds than intention of the writer.

The rest of the text is comprised of quotes from other sources and background information researched and compiled by the author. Davie wrote for an audience with a base of shared experience and knowledge mostly lost to contemporary readers. The author has attempted to fill out Hogan's often terse or detail lacking account with the wealth of information on history, family members, and local color his ancestor neglected to include. By the way, the author, Brian Hogan, is Rev. Hogan's third great grandnephew.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Asteroidea Books
• Release date: Oct 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9780998611174

Book preview

A stained glass window Description automatically generated with medium confidence

A Life in the Saddle

Memoirs of a Pioneer, Circuit Rider and Missionary

eBook Part 1 (of 4)

Brian Hogan

Fayetteville, Arkansas

Copyright Page

Copyright ©2021 Asteroidea Books.

All rights reserved. No part of this book shall be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission.

All Bible verses from the King James Version.

Illustrations: engravings, photos, maps are either the property of the author, Creative Commons, Public Domain, or used with permission.

Cover: Methodist circuit rider in stained glass, Methodist Sky Chapel, Chicago, Illinois. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International.

Cover Design by Kimberly K. Williams, www.KimberlyKWilliams.com

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021905457

ISBN: 978-0-9986111-7-4

The author thanks:

Andrew Johnson National Historic Site N.P.S., Greeneville, TN

Bell County Historical Society, Middlesboro, KY

Betty L. Fletcher, Director, Greenville - Greene Co. History Museum

Bushwhacker Museum, Nevada, Missouri

Cumberland Gap National Historical Park N.P.S., KY, TN,

Greenville - Greene County History Museum, Greeneville, TN

Historical Foundation of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and their list of CPC Ministers: www.cumberland.org/hfcpc/minister

Huntsville-Madison County Public Library, AL

KATY Trail State Park, Missouri State Parks

Lexington Historical Museum, MO

Maryville College Archives, Maryville, TN

President Andrew Johnson Museum, Tusculum University

Susan Knight Gore, Historian and Archivist, HFCPC

Welcoming landowners and knowledgeable locals along the way

And, above all others, my long-suffering wife, Louise, for putting up with and even encouraging a decade-long obsession to reintroduce Uncle Davie to the world. I don’t deserve you.

Any errors or omissions are unintentional and wholly the fault of the author.

Preface

A Full Life

J

udging from his 1899 memoirs, the Reverend David M. Hogan lived a memorable and amazing life. It’s even more astonishing to step back further and see in just how much of his nation's story he played participant and observer. David M. Hogan was born during the term of James Madison, fourth President of the United States, and died during the term of the twenty-sixth, Teddy Roosevelt. Twenty-three Presidents led the USA during the span of his long life. And, of the three former Presidents and Founding Fathers who served before he was born; Adams and Jefferson were alive well into David's teen years!

At this writing, the United States is on its 46th President — his single life spanned twenty-five (more than half) of our Nation's leaders!

✽✽✽

Remarkable observations:

Both his patriot grandfathers, Capt. William James Hogan and Moses Dorton, fought in the American Revolution.

His father, General David Hogan — the second white baby born in Kentucky— fought in The War of 1812.

He grew up on the Kentucky frontier — that dark and bloody ground at the famed Cumberland Gap, the first great gateway to the west, where the Wilderness Road pierced the mountains.

His middle name was either ‘Madison’ or ‘Moses’.

His great grandfather was frontiersman Daniel Boone. Grandmother Sarah Grant was Boone's niece and adopted daughter.

His parents lacked formal education but, out of ten surviving offspring, they produced: a minister, six college grads, four medical doctors (one a surgeon), four Postmasters, a Federal Government civil servant, and successful farmers.

His family of origin pioneered the Missouri and Texas Territories, and he served the spiritual needs of newly settled communities as an itinerant Circuit Rider minister.

He was eyewitness to the Cherokee Trail of Tears, and five decades later, a missionary to the Cherokee Nation.

He was a California Forty Niner — preaching and mining in the Gold Rush.

He lived in eight states, and yet, barring the California gold camps, his homes were all within an 833-mile diameter circle whose geographic center is Brandywine Island on the Mississippi just north of Memphis — a place he never laid eyes on — but a 417-mile radius from there takes in all his homes.

His wife, Elizabeth Blackburn Hoss, was a renowned pioneer of female education west of the Mississippi River.

His family experienced almost every aspect of the plague of slavery, America's peculiar institution: ownership, abolition, reconstruction, raids by radicals on both sides and sharp divisions brought on by culture and conscience.

His ranch in Vernon County, Missouri was ground zero for the Battle of Big Dry Wood early in the Civil War. During that war, his son, brothers — even a sister! — were combatants on both Union and Confederate sides.

He lived through the War of 1812, Kansas-Missouri Border War, Civil War, Missouri Mormon War, Mexican American War, Utah Mormon War, and the Spanish-American War.

Though no known photograph exists, he left a mark on his world. His name was bestowed upon river fords, schools, towns, cemeteries, and countless children born in the years surrounding the turn of the 20th Century. His first name went to descendants and nephews, and his last became a popular forename among the Cherokee.

He almost never received a salary for his ministerial labor (preacher, pastor, circuit rider, apostolic church planter, trainer, Presbytery clerk, administrator, officiant at over a thousand weddings, funerals, Sunday School organizer, and missionary), so he worked in varied secular employments: tanner, teacher, Postmaster, Justice of the Peace, entrepreneur, man of business, farmer, rancher, prospector, and builder.

The sheer historical panoply David Hogan strode though in