Mayor, Bonnen want Hogg statue in WC

“It really hurts me to see that picture with the blanket draped over his face,” Kincannon said.

Workers at the University of Texas at Austin removed an exhibit featuring statues of Hogg and three Confederate military officials from a prominent grass mall on campus in the late-evening hours of Sunday. The decision followed violence earlier this month in Charlottesville, Virginia, where the city plans to remove statues of Confederate soldiers.

Hogg was alive during the Civil War, but was too young to serve. The university had no objection to Hogg’s statue on campus, but “the entire statuary is one exhibit, so it all goes together,” UT-Austin spokesman J.B. Bird told the Texas Tribune.

Now, Kincannon and state Rep. Dennis Bonnen are asking University President Greg Fenves to bring Hogg’s statue to West Columbia — the last place he lived before his death — if officials are unwilling to restore it to its place on campus.

Bonnen, R-Angleton, called the university’s removal of Hogg’s statue “shameful and disgraceful” in an emailed statement.

“The university grossly failed to recognize that Hogg’s legacy is a tremendous point of pride for the city of West Columbia, as well as the state of Texas,” Bonnen said. “While I understand the removal of his statue was circumstantial, UT’s dismissive and nonchalant attitude, along with its lack of a clear and immediate commitment to re-install the statue elsewhere, is completely disrespectful.”

Bonnen shared Tuesday a social media post from Kincannon about the statue, adding, “Mayor, I’ll rent the moving truck if you do the driving.”

“UT failed miserably in its handling of this situation and I feel the statue would be best honored in a location near the governor’s final home of West Columbia if UT is unable or unwilling to swiftly correct its offensive action,” Bonnen said.

HOMETOWN REQUESTS

Kincannon immediately penned an email to Fenves after reading a staff directive he sent late Sunday. In the email, Fenves explained the statues of Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston and John Reagan were being removed because they depict parts of American history that “run counter to the university’s core values,” the Texas Tribune reported.

The email came almost two weeks after a car plowed into a crowd of counter-protestors at a “Unite the Right” rally of white nationalists and other alt-right extremist groups in Charlottesville, killing a 32-year-old Virginia woman and injuring 19 others.

“We do not choose our history, but we choose what we honor and celebrate on our campus,” Fenves wrote.

Hogg’s statue will be considered for re-installation at another campus site, Fenves wrote in his letter.

Those words didn’t sit well with Kincannon, who asked the university president to clarify them in her email.

“I read that to mean he will perhaps be reinstated at a different campus in the UT system rather than the main campus,” Kincannon said. “I asked if he does not get the respect he deserves that he be allowed to come home to West Columbia, which was his last place of residence before his death.”

Kincannon also suggested the university return the millions of dollars it had received from the Hogg family trust, the bulk of which came when oil was discovered on what is now the Varner-Hogg Plantation site in West Columbia.

“It was a very big stretch and I knew it was a very big stretch, but I wanted to get my point across that it is extremely hypocritical to remove a statue of the benefactor of a family that has done so much,” Kincannon said. “Knowing he was one who fought for the common man, I found it very ironic that millions of dollars have gone to UT and they’re going to remove the statue.”

Fenves had not responded to Kincannon’s email as of Wednesday afternoon, she said.

A FAMILY’S GENEROSITY

Hogg was convinced oil lay beneath the surface when he purchased the West Columbia property in 1901. None had been discovered when he died in a train accident just five years later, but his will forbade his children from selling the mineral rights to the land for 15 years after his death.

Sure enough, oil was discovered in 1918, just three years before Hogg’s prohibition expired. His four children invested the $225,000 a month — roughly $3.3 million in today’s dollars — in renovating the house, which they used for dinner parties and weekend visitors.

The governor’s only daughter, Ima Hogg, donated her father’s land in 1958 as the Varner-Hogg State Historical Park.

Ima Hogg also established the Hogg Foundation for Mental Hygiene, which later became the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health at the University of Texas, and donated the Winedale Historical Complex to the university in 1967, Kincannon said.

“I don’t know anybody else associated with Texas that was more philanthropic than the Hogg family,” she said.

‘BRING HIM HOME’

Kincannon isn’t concerned with the removal of the prominent Confederate figures, but it bothers her to see a man whose legacy meant so much to her hometown and state taken down from his place of honor, she said.

“I’m not taking a stand on the Confederate statues at all. Mine is a very single issue,” Kincannon said. “He does not have those ties to the Confederacy that the others did.”

Kincannon commended Fenves in her email for seeking the input of the university faculty and students before deciding to remove the statue, she said. She also doesn’t fault him for doing so in the middle of the night.

“I think that was probably the safest option,” Kincannon said.

Still, Kincannon and her fellow West Columbia residents want to see Hogg’s statue in a place of honor in the First Capitol if the university chooses not to relocate it on the main campus.

“I got on Facebook and asked West Columbia, ‘Are you going to welcome him home?’” Kincannon said. “The overwhelming response was, ‘Of course, bring him home.’”

Relocating Hogg’s statue to Brazoria County won’t be a quick process if it happens, Kincannon said. City officials likely would have to raise the funds to purchase a base for the statue, which would give them ample time to find the perfect place for Hogg, she said.

“Dennis is 100 percent behind me. He’s making moves toward getting him; he’s not just sitting back,” Kincannon said. “Our rally cry is, ‘Bring him home.’”