Beverly Lacy Hoge

The Reverend Beverly Lacy Hoge was born on April 8, 1863, near Blacksburg in Montgomery County, Virginia. The youngest of ten children of attorney James Fulton Hoge and Eliza Jane Johnston Hoge, he was educated at Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College, now Virginia Tech. After briefly working as a surveyor, Hoge studied law and was admitted to the Virginia bar. He practiced in Christiansburg, Lebanon, and Roanoke, where he became associated with the firm of Wright and Hoge.

In 1887, he married Marie Antoinette “Nettie” Hatcher of Montgomery County. Two years later, Hoge left the legal profession and entered the Baptist ministry, bringing the analytical reasoning and persuasive speaking skills of an attorney to his preaching. During more than three decades of ministry, he served congregations in Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, South Carolina, and West Virginia. His pastorates included churches in Selma, Concord, Macon, Jackson, Waycross, Charleston, Onancock, Richmond, Norfolk, and Beckley. He was remembered as a gifted speaker and dedicated minister whose career connected the Hoge family’s tradition of professional service with a lifelong commitment to faith. Hoge died in Beckley, West Virginia, on September 12, 1924.