ever saw it, from up on the hill
at night, and all the many
stores and filling stations had
their lights turned on. Dalton
said, ‘Mama, what do you
think?’ and I said it looked to
me like a pretty good-sized
town.”
The newlyweds had met at
the Houston shipyard, where
both worked during the war
years. Henry Beth, born in
Stanton in 1921 and a graduate
of Midland High School,
had moved to Houston after
her first husband left her and
young Johnny.
Dalton Hogg, a machinist
who turned to body work, had
come to Sanderson on his own
some 18 months earlier – after
a spat with Henry Beth – when
he was hired by McKnight
Motor Co.
Dalton and Henry Beth
resolved that early disagreement.
“We married on Aug. 11,
1948 in Houston and came to
Sanderson on Aug. 16 – just
five days later. I had a house in
Houston, and my honeymoon
was painting the house and
putting it up for sale,” she
recalled, smiling. Dalton also
adopted Henry Beth’s son.
For several years in the 50s,
she ran a cafe connected with
McKnight Motor Co. “I loved
it. I miss cafe work – you meet
so many people. I had it during
the Korean War when Jim
Nance was sheriff, and Nance
said if I was going to serve beer
I was supposed to ask for identification.
But I told Nance, if
he’s old enough to put on a uniform,
he’s old enough to drink
beer if he wants it.”
In the 60s she managed the
girls’ softball team and be -
longed to the Rodeo Club.
“There was no concession
stand for ropings, so the girls
would run the stand, and we
split the profits with the roping
club – that’s how we bought
equipment.”
Dalton Hogg was appointed
the town’s deputy sheriff in
1960, and in 1972 he became
sheriff. He gained considerable
fame as sheriff and was featured
in the November 1984
edition of Texas Monthly. He
was quoted as saying “I believe
Photo by Bill Smith
Henry Beth Hogg at home in
2011.
that for any good officer you
can give his wife about 75 percent
of the credit.” Henry Beth
remembers Dalton once told
her he was hesitant to hire a
deputy who wasn’t married.
In the 1980s, Tony Lama
boots used Dalton Hogg in
their advertisements, along
with rock star Richard Marks.
John Hogg said his dad tried to
persuade Henry Beth to go
along with him to Dallas, when
the company flew the sheriff
there to wine and dine him and
photograph the advertising
campaign. She refused.
But she recalls when he got
back he told her about signing
in at the Embassy Suites Hotel,
where the clerk said loudly,
“Ah, Boss Hogg,” and people
in the lobby turned around to
stare.
“He didn’t even know who
Boss Hogg was, ’cause he
worked mostly nights and had
not seen the popular TV show
of the 1980s, The Dukes of
Hazzard. Boss Hogg was the
corrupt county commissioner
who always wore a white suit.
After Henry Beth urged him to
watch, his comment was: ‘Well,
I’m fat like him and bald-headed
– I need to get me a white
suit.’”
As historical commission
chairman, Henry Beth spurred
the state to put two historical
markers at sites near Sander -
son that loom large in Terrell
County history. Texas’ last train
robbery occurred at Baxter’s
Curve east of Sanderson on
March 13, 1912. A former
side kick of Butch Cassidy and
the Sundance Kid, Ben Kil -
patrick, and his accomplice
Ole Hobek unhooked the baggage
cars to search for valuables,
but Wells Fargo express
manager David Trousdale
bludgeoned one with an ice
mallet and killed the other with
Kilpatrick’s rifle. Kilparick and
Hobek were buried in Sander -
son, and Trousdale was awarded
$1,500 for his bravery.
The second marker calls
attention to Terrell County’s
long involvement with aviation,
which dates from a landing in
Dryden just east of Sanderson
on the first transcontinental
flight across the United States
in 1911 and includes an airfield
just west of Sanderson, built for
the 90th Aero Squadron in
1919. That site bears a Terrell
County marker.
“We’re still working on
other Terrell County markers,”
Henry Beth said, noting that
the Texas Historical Commis -
sion gave both Henry Beth and
Alice Evans Downie, who edited
the 1978 edition of Terrell
County Texas, Its Past and Its
People, certificates of appreciation
for their work.
Henry Beth retired from the
commission last year. “I was
handicapped because I don’t
use computers,” she said, but
she still drives to Fort Stockton
for meetings. And she is optimistic
about Sanderson’s re -
suming its population growth,
since the town now has a sewer
system and new arrivals from
the Border Patrol.
Tourists who stop in Sanderson
can see Henry Beth Hogg talking
about the town in a new video at the
Terrell County Museum (north on
Second Avenue to 203 E. Mansfield
from U.S. 90), or check out the
Terrell County Museum Web site
@terrellmuseum.org.
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Fourth Quarter 2011
9