Pylant Geneology

JAMES HOGGARD FAMILY: (From: "History of Parker County, Texas".)
Of the many early settlers of Parker County whose lives serve to inspire and intrique me, the James Hoggard family of Azle ranks first.
Both James and his wife, Sarah S. Fletcher Hoggard, were born in Virginia, migrated to Kentucky, and on to Missouri before moving to Texas.
James and Sarah were married in Lafayette County Missouri March 5, 1837. Their son, William Calvin "Cal," was born one year later. The following six years yielded two additonal sons, George B. and Granville "Grance," and their first daughter, Nancy Jane in 1844. After coming to Azle, where they established a large farm southwest of the townsite, four more daughters were born to them: Martha E. "Mattie," Mary "Mollie," Matilda I. "Iddy," and Louisa "Lou."
George B. died between 1850 and 1860. The cause of his death is unknown to this writer.
When the Civil War broke out, James, Cal and Grance joined the Confederate Army. James was then forty-eight years old. He was captured by the Northern soldiers in 1862 and taken to Fort Chicago where he died in a prison camp. Granville returned from the war with consumption and subsequently died a few months later. Only Cal made it through.
The end of the Civil War found Sarah widowed with only one son and four young daughters ranging in age from eight to fifteen years. (Nancy Jane had married to John J. "Coho" Smith in 1861). Sarah still had possession of the farm at Azle as well as the one they had left behind in Missouri, but the war had taken its toll on all, and land owners were no exception. With Cal to head the household and keep an eye on his sisters, Sarah purposed to return to Missouri to sell her land, the monies from which she hoped to supplement their post-war existence here. With no other means of transportation accessible, Sarah mounted a mule "bareback," and with her daughter, Lou, up behind her, set off on the long trip from Azle, Texas to a farm in northern Missouri. What an adventuresome journey it had to have been! Try to visualize one little lady and an eight year old girl traveling by mule for all those days and stopping by night. Where? Perhaps they stayed with friends and family living along the way, and perhaps, more often, with strangers. What a brave little soul she was!
Sarah Fletcher Hoggard made it. She sold the land and both she and Lou returned home safely. When she arrived with the proceeds, however, she learned that Confederate currency had lost its value and she had nothing to show for her land. But Sarah continued, despite what seemed to be the end. She, Cal and the girls farmed the land and somehow lived through the hard times.
When Cal's wife, Caroline, became ill and was institutionalized, Sarah reared their four children also. The younger girls married, except Molly, who remained unwed until death. Mattie married Charles "Charlie" Howard, Lou married Phillip O. Howard, brother of Charlie, and Matilda J. married Benjamin Franklin Reynolds, son of John Giles Reynolds and his wife, Frances Hamm. It was Sarah Fletcher Hoggard who donated the land for the Hoggard Cemetery west of Azle. The first one to be buried there was a little black boy whose family happened to be there when he died. With feelings running as they did soon after the Civil War, he was denied burial in the local cemeteries. The same little fighter who had braved the trails all the way from Virginia, and some of them more then once, stood up to them and let them know that indeed, the little boy could be laid to rest on her ground, and she would set aside the land then and there for a cemetery. She lies there also now, where she was buried in 1896 among her descendants, Hoggards, Smiths, Howards and Reynolds and their descendants.
I, Ruth Fletcher Wiley, am the daughter of the late Arthur O. Fletcher of Aledo, Texas. Arthur was the son of Louisa Smith Fletcher, firstborn daughter of Coho Smith and Nancy Jane Hoggard, who was the first daughter of the glorious pioneers, James and Sarah.
by Ruth Fletcher Wiley

OLD NORTHWEST TEXAS- Historical, Statistical, Biographical - Vol. I-B, Navarro County, 1846-1860: James Hoggard, born ca 1815 VA; married Sarah, born ca 1817 VA; living Missouri by 1838; came to Texas by 1 Jul 1845, is on Barksdale's Peters Colony roster. He soon moved to present Navarro County; is on 1845 Robertson County Tax Rolls and Navarro County Tax Rolls 1847-1850. By 1860 he lived in Parker County, Newburg PO; had 3 more children (Mary, Matilda, and Louisa); son George B. not with family in 1860; son "Brandville" on 1850 Navarro County census was actually Granville.
James evidently died 1860-1870; his widow and 4 daughters living with son William C. in 1870. Family still in Parker County in 1880, Pct 2.

James Hoggard's 3rd Class 640-acre Mercer Colony certificate was patented 29 Aug 1854 by David R. Mitchell; land is located East of Powell community on Rush Creek.

Info from "Confederate P.O.W.'s Buried in Northern Cemeteries": James Haggard, E Company, 10th Texas Infantry , CSA. Died 2 March 1863. Buried Oak Woods cemetery in Chicago, Illinois.

"List of indigent persons belonging to Parker County, who are now in service, or have died in the service of the State of Texas, or of the Confederate States, having indigent dependents in said County". Dated 11 Feb 1864. James Hoggard Five dependents

"A List of indigent dependents upon Texas Soldiers, in Parker County, Texas - made out Feb 16th, 1865". Sarah Hoggard Number in family: Five. An act approved December 15th, 1863 provided for the support of Soldiers' families.

James Hoggard served as a private in Company E, 10th Texas Infantry, CSA as did his brother, William Calvin Hoggard.