James William Hoge was born on April 9, 1830 in Staunton, Augusta County, Virginia, to Reverend Peter C. and Sallie Kerr Hoge, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1850 at age 20, and moved to Winfield in 1852. He married Sarah Wright of Charleston on May 19, 1857, and they had 11 children, 8 of whom survived to adulthood. Receiving a law license before his 21st birthday, Hoge built a distinguished legal career, first partnering with a Charleston attorney and then serving Putnam County as prosecuting attorney from 1856 to 1867, as appointed judge of West Virginia’s 11th Circuit Court in 1867 to fill a vacancy, and as elected judge from 1869 to 1874 before returning to private practice across several counties. At his death from a liver ailment on August 12, 1882, at age 52, he was remembered as a powerful jury lawyer, a man of remarkable memory, and a generous adviser to widows and the fatherless. His political position during the Civil War remained ambiguous: he represented Putnam County at the Virginia Secession Convention, voted against secession in April 1861, returned to sign the ordinance in June, had been commissioned colonel of the 181st Virginia Militia, did not serve the Confederacy, did not participate in the formation of West Virginia, and did not support the United States, and he is best characterized as neutral. The cemetery associated with the family began in 1856 with the burial of his brother-in-law Hart Hills Forbes and later held James and Sarah Hoge, 8 of their 11 children, Sarah’s parents, one of James’s brothers, and several patients of Dr. S. B. Thompson; at least 29 burials are identified there, along with 8 grave depressions that may include unmarked graves of enslaved people. The brick house later associated with Hoge was built in 1838 about 1000 feet from its current site by Charles Brown, occupied by Tallyrand Brown, and used for the first session of the Putnam County Court on May 22, 1848. Charles Brown left it to Tallyrand Brown in 1849; John Bowyer bought it in 1852, rented it to Hoge in 1855, and sold it to him in 1857. Hoge lived there for 25 years, Sarah Hoge for another 32, their daughter Aunt Birdie until 1947, and the family retained ownership until 2002. The house is significant for its association with Judge James W. Hoge and as a vernacular example of Federal-style architecture with stepped side gables, interior chimneys, a decorative brick cornice, Flemish bond brickwork, double-hung sash windows, and side lights.