Samuel C. Hoge was probably one of the most enterprising people that ever lived in the village of Sewanee. Besides being the proprietor of at least three stores at different times, he was an agent for the Bank of Winchester, a Postmaster, a Notary Public, and involved in the real estate business.
Samuel was born on April 10, 1839 to James and Nancy Kelly Hoge, who were early settlers of Wills Valley, Alabama. It is assumed that Samuel was probably born there. The location of Will's Valley was also the site of a famous Cherokee Indian Trading Post known as Wills Town, which was near the present city of Fort Payne. Wills Town was well known in Cherokee Indian history.
At the age of eighteen Samuel began working as a clerk in a store in Alabama and continued to work there until he entered the Civil War He enlisted in Company C, Third Confederate Cavalry (Alabama) and remained in service until the close of the war (1865). After the war he moved to Cowan, Tennessee, and became a farmer. That lasted about a year and then he returned to the merchandishing business in Jasper, Tennessee. In 1869, at the age of 30, he came to Sewanee and became the business manager for Pleasant Gilliam in the first Sewanee village store, which was located near where the old brick post office stood on University Avenue.
In the 1870 census records for Franklin County, Tennessee, Samuel was listed in the household of T.S. Sevier, a teacher at the University of the South. Sevier also ran a hotel at Sewanee. Samuel must have been renting a room at the hotel from Sevier. On November 19,1872, Samuel married Sarah 'Temmie' Holland, who was born on April 14, 1843. At one time she was living in the household of John Miller.
In 1872, three years after arriving in the Sewanee village, Samuel established a dry goods store in a building which is now known as Shenanigans. It is the oldest store located in the town of Sewanee. The same year that Samual established a store, there is a deed recorded in the Franklin County Court House showing Pleasant Gilliam buying property from Joseph and J.H. Miller in Cowan. Ironically, John Miller became Samuel's business partner around 1872. The lease number for the store was 94. Samuel and John had two lots, 23 and 24 listed in the early University of the South lease book.
The hill, where the old Hoge house is located, was reported by the Rev. Henry Easter, who came to Sewanee in 1870, to be the site where union soldiers camped during the Civil War. Easter told about a canon exploding there, which killed and injured several soldiers. Later the hill became known as Myers Hill.
According to Goodspeed History of Tennessee, published in 1886, p. 829, "in 1869, (Samuel) came to Sewanee and established his present business, three years later, in 1872, since which time he has done a thriving business. He has a stock of about $4,000 and transacts a yearly business of about $20,000.
Samuel and Tennie became the parents of four children. Nellie, Eunice, Nancy, and John "Edward" Hoge, Their grandson, Lyman, also lived with them. The Hoge house is still standing on a high hill located on Kentucky Avenue. It was the home of Ina Myers, who recently died in 2021, and it has just been sold. Ina was told that the house was built in 1871, which makes it one of the oldest houses still standing in the town of Sewanee. The Hoge's and Myers' are the only families that have lived in the house, Ina's grandfather, W.L. Myers and family lived there, Ina's uncle, Theron Myers, and his family lived there. Then it became the home of Ina's parents, Cecil and Elsie Myers and family, and most recently belonged to Ina.
Ina May Myers account of Hoge house (2021)
Photo of Hoge Store courtesy of Kiki Beavers. Other photos courtesy of University Archives