The governor was nuts about his pecans
By Van Craddock
The pecan pie is the official State Pie of Texas. For that, you can thank the Texas Legislature and James Stephen Hogg, Texas' initial native-born governor and the founder of Longview's first newspaper.
OK, so it was Rep. Marsha Farney, R-Georgetown, who sponsored the 2013 legislation that led to the pecan pie being honored. But you can bet your bottom dollar the designation wouldn't have happened if Jim Hogg hadn't been absolutely nuts about the Texas pecan tree.
Hogg was just 20 years old when he founded the Longview News in the fall of 1871. By age 35 the ambitious East Texan (born at Rusk, Cherokee County) was state attorney general. In 1901 he became governor, serving two terms.
Hogg loved pecan trees. On March 2, 1906, he told family members: "I don't want when I die any cold marble placed at the head of my grave. I want a soft-shell Texas pecan tree planted there and at the foot, a regular walnut, and when they bear fruit I want the nuts sent out to the farmers of Texas that they may plant."
The very next day Jim Hogg died, three weeks shy of his 55th birthday. Not long after his death, representatives of the State Horticultural Society, per Hogg's request, planted a pecan tree at the head of his grave in Austin's historic Oakwood Cemetery. A black walnut tree was placed at the foot of the plot. Later, when the trees bore fruit, the nuts were collected and given out to Texans and organizations around the state.
In 1908 Katie Daffan published a textbook titled "Texas Heroes," reminding folks that Hogg had wanted a pecan planted at his grave so "the children of Texas might gather the nuts and plant them near their homes. Thus, in time, Texas soil might bring forth rich harvests …"
"Miss Katie," as she was known, was a popular Texas journalist, teacher and author. She had served as president of the Texas Woman's Press Association and the Texas Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy.
In February 1919, Daffan suggested that Hogg's beloved pecan tree be designated the official state tree. The idea proved popular with Texans. On March 20 that year, the 36th Texas Legislature unanimously approved a bill making the designation.
When the trees were planted at Hogg's grave in 1906, a Texas paper noted the pecans "will in time be the seed trees of the state." That certainly proved to be true.
The Texas A&M Horticultural Department gathered the pecan nuts every fall and planted them. The resulting young trees then were sent to high schools around the state. "After the schools have been supplied, it is planned to have a tree planted on every courthouse lawn," at A&M official said in 1926.
Nothing lasts forever. The original Hogg pecan tree eventually died but was replaced on Arbor Day 1969. The second pecan tree, a victim of the severe drought of 2011, was cut down in 2012. An Austin historical preservation group planted another pecan tree at the gravesite.
The 2013 resolution noted that "of all the Lone Star State's unique culinary dishes, perhaps none say 'Texas' more sweetly than pecan pie … whether served hot or cold, with a scoop of ice cream or without, pecan pie is indeed the perfect ending to any meal."
By the way, another historic Texas figure was fond of pecans centuries before Jim Hogg sang their praises. Spanish explorer Cabeza de Vaca, reportedly the first European to wander Texas back in the 1530s, survived a brutal Texas winter by eating lots of protein-enriched pecan nuts.
If Cabeza de Vaca ever recommended legislation honoring the pecan tree, there's no written account of it. But any way you slice it, the pecan pie is most worthy of its honor as the official State Pie of Texas.