To most Texans
today, Governor James Steven Hogg
is best, if humorously, remembered for his daughter, Ima. But Jim Hogg,
who was Governor of Texas from 1891-1895, was a man ahead of his time.
Although the son of a Confederate general who died during the war, Jim
pressed for better race relations. He bucked the powerful cattle barons
and railroads of the day by opening up homestead property to settlers
and
by establishing the formidable Texas Railroad Commission. He was even a
champion of treatment for the mentally ill. It's no wonder that he was
known as "The People's Governor."
Yet despite of these noteworthy achievements,
he left Texans yet another legacy. When he died in 1906, Governor Hogg
asked that, in lieu of a tombstone, a pecan tree be planted at the head
of his grave, and a walnut tree at the foot. He added that when the
trees
bore, the fruit should "be given out among the plain people, and make
Texas
a land of trees."
For years, local schoolchildren enjoyed the
fruit of his testament...as finally did of the state, when in 1919, the
Texas Legislature voted the pecan as Texas State Tree.
