They showed me what poor was

My Dad's first cousin, Hubert Horne, told me about visiting their great uncle, John T. Hogan in Taylor County Florida.

John Hogan died in 1940 and Hubert was born in 1929 so he had to be pretty young at the time. Hubert was born and raised in Cortez, Florida but his both his father and mother had relatives in Taylor County so he went up there to visit. He spent the night at least once with John and his wife Hester Williams Hogan.

His memory of John Hogan's home was "those folks were poor, in fact they showed me what poor was."

They lived in the Warrior Swamp area about 10 miles south of Perry, Florida on a farm they bought from my Grandfather, Millard Fillmore Green. There was no electricity or running water in the house.

To light the house they used tin cans filled with hog fat and lit by a string. There was no cover or anything on the can so if it spilled over the house probably would have burned down.

Hubert said "those folks were just poor!" The only picture of John Hogan shows him dressed pretty nicely so I guess he had some money or maybe he was just thrifty! I found this old tin type photo in the Andrew Green family bible.

John T. Hogan died October 24, 1940 and was buried in the Spring Warrior Church of Christ cemetery in Taylor County Florida. Many of the Hogan family relatives are buried there.

As far as anyone knows now, they were members of the Church of God and this part of my family had no connection to the Church of Christ until my Dad joined in 1948. Why they are buried in a Church of Christ cemetery, when there were two other cemeteries in the area that had other family in them is a story for another day.