Judge John Blair Hoge

1825 - 1896  (71 years)

• Name	John Blair Hoge  [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10]
  Prefix	Judge
  Alt. Birth	Abt 1825	Virginia   [11, 12]
  Born	2 Feb 1825	Richmond City, Virginia   [1, 2, 3, 5]
  Gender	Male
  Alt. Birth	2 Feb 1825  [8, 9]
  Alt. Birth	Abt 1826	Virginia   [13]
  Alt. Birth	Abt 1830	Virginia   [14]
  Education	1843  [2]
  	graduated at Athens, the University of Ohio, taking the A.B. degree
  Education	1845	Martinsburg, Berkeley, West Virginia   [2, 3, 5]
  	his A. M., was admitted to the bar, and practiced law till the Civil War
  Biographical	was engaged in journalism  [5]
  Occupation	27 Jul 1850	Martinsburg, Berkeley, West Virginia   [13]
  	lawyer
  Occupation	1853	Berkeley, Berkeley County, West Virginia   [3, 5]
  	chosen president of the Bank of Berkeley
  Occupation	1855-1859  [2, 3, 5]
  	served in the Virginia House of Delegates
  Occupation	1860  [3, 5]
  	delegate to the Democratic National Conventions at Charleston, South Carolina and Baltimore
  Occupation	25 Jul 1860	Martinsburg, Berkeley, West Virginia   [11]
  	lawyer
  Occupation	1861  [2]
  	member of the Constitutional Convention
  Military Service	1861-1865  [2, 3, 5, 15, 16]
  	in the Confederate Army, organizing and commanding a company of cavalry
  	Berkeley County was of strategic importance to both the North and the South during the Civil War (1861-1865). The county, and the county seat, Martinsburg, lay at the northern edge of the Shanandoah Valley, and Martinsburg was very important because the main line of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail Road ran right through the town. The rail line was of great importance to both armies. Also, Matinsburg was close to the Union arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Control over Martinsburg changed hands so many times that it is almost impossible to count. Prior to the Battle of Gettysburg (July 1863), the town changed hands fairly often. After Gettysburg, the city remained mostly in Union hands. Most of Berkeley County's residents were loyal to the South during the Civil War. There were seven companies of soldiers recruited from the county: five for the Confederate Army and two for the Union Army. At least six hundred men from Berkeley County served in either the Confederate or Union Armies during the Civil War. The two Union Army companies were Company B, First Regiment, Virginia Volunteers, organized in Williamsport, Maryland, by Colonel Ward Lamon, with Joseph Kerns first in command, and Lieutenant James Fayman, second in command and Company C, Third Regiment, West Virginia Cavalry. Captain Peter Tabler was in command, and Lieutenant John E. Bowers was second in command. The five Confederate companies were: Company B, Wise Artillery, with Captain E. G. Alburtis in command. However, Alburtis resigned in 1861, and was succeded by Captain James S. Brown; Company B, First Regiment, Virginia Cavalry, commanded by Captain James Blair Hoge, who was later succeeded by Captain G. N. Hammond, who was killed at the battle of Yellow Tavern in 1864; Company E, Second Regiment, Virginia Infantry, with Captain Raleigh Colson in command, who was later succeeded by Captain William B. Colston; and Company A, Seventeenth Battalion, Virginia Cavalry, commanded by Captain G. W. Myers. In addition to supplying over six hundred soldiers to the War, Berkeley County was also the home of Belle Boyd, a famous spy for the Confederacy. She was born in Martinsburg in 1844, and lived there until the outbreak of the war. Belle Boyd's espionage career began by chance. On the fourth of July, 1861, a band of drunken Union soldiers broke into her home in Martinsburg, intent on raising the U. S. flag over the house. When one of them insulted her mother, Belle drew a pistol and killed him. A board of inquiry exonerated her, but sentries were posted around the house and officers kept close track of her activities. She profited from this enforced familiarity, charming at least one of the officers, Captain Daniel Keily, into revealing military secrets. "To him," she wrote later, "I am indebted for some very remarkable effusions, some withered flowers, and a great deal of important information." Belle conveyed those secrets to Confederate officers via her slave, Eliza Hopewell, who carried the messages in a hollowed-out watchcase. Then, one evening in mid-May, General James Shields and his staff conferred in the parlor of the local hotel. Belle hid upstairs, eavesdropping through a knothole in the floor. She learned that Shields had been ordered east, a move that would reduce the Union Army's strength at Front Royal. That night, Belle rode through Union, using false papers to bluff her way past the sentries, and reported the news to Colonel Turner Ashby, who was scouting for the Confederates. She then returned to town. When the Confederates advanced on Front Royal on May 23, Belle ran to greet General Andrew Jackson's men. She urged an officer to inform Jackson that "the Yankee force is very small. Tell him to charge right down and he will catch them all." Jackson did and that evening penned a note of gratitude to her: I thank you, for myself and for the army, for the immense service that you have rendered your country today." After the war, Belle moved west, married twice, and died in 1900 in Wisconsin, where she is buried.
  Occupation	Aft 1865	Baltimore City, Maryland   [2]
  	lawyer
  Occupation	1870	Martinsburg, Berkeley, West Virginia   [3, 5]
  	resumed the practice of law
  Occupation	13 Aug 1870	Martinsburg, Berkeley, West Virginia   [12]
  	lawyer
  Occupation	1872  [2, 3, 5]
  	was a delegate to the West Virginia Constitutional Convention
  Occupation	1872-1876  [2, 3, 5]
  	was a member of the National Democratic Executive Committee
  Occupation	1872-1880  [2, 3, 5]
  	was a Judge in the Third Judicial Circuit, embracing the counties of Morgan, Jefferson and Berkely.
  Occupation	4 Jun 1880	Martinsburg, Berkeley, West Virginia   [14]
  	circuit judge
  Occupation	4 Mar 1881-3 Mar 1883	West Virginia   [2, 3, 5]
  	was a member of the U. S. House of Representatives (Democrat) in the Forty-seventh Congress
  Political	1885-1889	The District of Columbia   [2, 3, 5, 17]
  	United States District Attorney
  	appointed by President Cleveland
  Name	John B. Hoge  [11, 13, 14]
  Name	John Blair Hoge  [12]
  Name	John Blair Hoge  [18]
  Died	1 Mar 1896	Martinsburg, Berkeley, West Virginia   [1, 2, 3, 8, 9]
  Buried	Old Norborne Cemetery, Martinsburg, Berkeley, West Virginia   [3, 5, 8, 9]
  Person ID	I7141	If the Legends Are True...
  Last Modified	23 Jun 2016

  
  

  Father	Reverend John Blair Hoge, D. D.,   b. 1 Apr 1790, Shepherdstown, Berkeley, West Virginia ,   d. 31 Mar 1826  (Age 35 years)
  Mother	Ann Kean Hunter,   b. 23 May 1798,   d. 21 Apr 1882  (Age 83 years)
  Married	6 Mar 1819	Berkeley County, West Virginia
  Family ID	F2005	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Anna Creighton Wilson,   b. 29 Mar 1829,   d. 18 Oct 1854  (Age 25 years)
  Alt. Marriage	1847  [1, 2]
  Married	1 Nov 1848	'Berkeley', Charles City, Virginia   [9]
  Census	27 Jul 1850	Martinsburg, Berkeley, West Virginia   [13]
  	Image 42, line 20, dwelling 556, family 567: The household consisted of John B. Hoge, 24, m; Anna C., 29, f; Wilson, 1, m; and Lucretia Anderson, 36, f. John B. is a lawyer and declared $3,000 real estate.  According to MeasuringWorth.com, in 2013 the relative worth of $3,000 from 1850 was: $92,300.00       using the Consumer Price Index $66,400.00       using the GDP deflator $648,000.00       using the unskilled wage $1,370,000.00       using the Production Worker Compensation $1,440,000.00       using the nominal GDP per capita $19,500,000.00       using the relative share of GDP
  		Census of 1850 - Virginia, Berkeley County Martinsburg, Image 42
  Census	25 Jul 1860	Martinsburg, Berkeley, West Virginia   [11]
  	Page 149, line 6, dwelling 1043, family 1062; The household consisted of John B. Hoge, 35, m; William, 11, m; Nannie, 7, f; and Ann C. Hoge, 58, f. John B. is a lawyer and declared $7,500 real estate and $11,500 personal estate.  According to MeasuringWorth.com, in 2013 the relative worth of $19,000 from 1860 was: $549,000.00       using the Consumer Price Index $410,000.00       using the GDP deflator $3,390,000.00       using the unskilled wage $6,890,000.00       using the Production Worker Compensation $7,240,000.00       using the nominal GDP per capita $72,700,000.00       using the relative share of GDP
  		Census of 1860 - Virginia, Berkeley County Martinsburg, Page 149
  Census	13 Aug 1870	Martinsburg, Berkeley, West Virginia   [12]
  	Page 60, line 35, dwelling 406, family 444: The household consisted of John Blair Hoge, 45, m; Nannie H., 17, f; Ann K., 72, f.; Hannah Washington, 40, f, black, housekeeper; and William Henderson, 15, m, mulatto, housekeeper. John Blair is a lawyer and declared $12,000 real estate and $10,000 personal estate.  According to MeasuringWorth.com in 2013 the relative worth of $22,000 from 1870 was: $405,000.00       using the Consumer Price Index $364,000.00       using the GDP deflator $2,760,000.00       using the unskilled wage $5,440,000.00       using the Production Worker Compensation $5,960,000.00       using the nominal GDP per capita $47,300,000.00       using the relative share of GDP
  		Census of 1870 - West Virginia, Berkeley County Martinsburg, Page 60
  Children	+ 1. Wilson Hoge,   b. 22 Sep 1850, Martinsburg, Berkeley, West Virginia ,   d. 8 Jan 1902, Baltimore City, Maryland  (Age 51 years)   2. Nancy Hunter Hoge,   b. 22 Aug 1853, Martinsburg, Berkeley, West Virginia ,   d. 16 Feb 1919  (Age 65 years)
  Last Modified	13 Jun 2014
  Family ID	F2611	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 2	Maria Somerville Alston,   b. 19 Sep 1835,   d. 19 Jul 1901  (Age 65 years)
  Married	1876  [1]
  Census	4 Jun 1880	Martinsburg, Berkeley, West Virginia   [14]
  	Page 31, line 11, dwelling 118, family 120: John B. Hoge, 50, m; and Mariah, 40, f; live in a hotel managed by John Woodward.
  		Census of 1880 - West Virginia, Berkeley County Martinsburg, Page 13
  Last Modified	13 Jun 2014
  Family ID	F2612	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos

  Hoge → John Blair Judge, Congressman, U.S. Attorney General.

  
  

• Reference

  If the Legends Are True... by J. Craig Canada, "Judge John Blair Hoge" (accessed September 22, 2020) | http://www.palmspringsbum.org/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I7141&tree=Legends.