Hoagland, George

Born to an enslaved mother and unable to read until he was in his late twenties, Kentucky native George Hoagland found a small piece of the Promised Land in the Twin Cities, where he became a successful minister and businessman.

Hoagland was born in April 1864 in Shepherdsville, Bullitt County, Kentucky, during the United States Civil War. Little is known about his early life, though his mother and uncle were sold to meet obligations on a $1,800 mortgage. At the age of eight, young Hoagland ran away and found work at the home of one of Gen. Robert E. Lee’s daughters. He later earned a hard living on Ohio River steamboats and Kentucky railroads.

“From the time of my birth up to twenty-five years of age, my pathway was very unpleasant,” recalled a matter-of-fact Hoagland.

Around 1888, Hoagland and his wife, Rosa Scribner, headed North and settled in Normal. They would eventually have eight children. The sleepy college town was integrated and thus proved attractive to African Americans. By 1890, almost 300 blacks called Normal Township home.

Hoagland learned to read and write, and became active in Second Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in Normal, an African-American counterpart to the white First Christian Church. He also attended classes at Illinois State Normal University, but never graduated. “I wanted to get an education, to work my way and be under obligation to no man,” Hoagland remembered late in life. 

In Normal and later Bloomington, he found employment as a janitor at Second Presbyterian Church, a porter, day laborer, and carpet layer. At the same time, the opportunity presented itself for him to begin selling floor mops and other cleaning supplies for a local company. He also began experimenting with various oil-based floor cleaners, and after a while began selling his homemade polish to friends.

He then started his own cleaning supply company, Hoagland’s Oil of Gladness, and opened a factory at 1007 W. Washington St. This building stands today, though it’s hidden under a modern facade. In this factory, Hoagland employed more than a dozen African-American men and women in the manufacture of his brand name polish and other cleaning supplies. His products were marketed both in the United States and England.

Oil of Gladness was said to clean not only hardwood floors, but furniture, linoleum, carriages, and automobiles. “In twenty million homes it is the ‘Housewife’s Chiefest Aid’ helping to lessen labor, lighten housework—showing how to enjoy cleaning instead of dreading it,” read one overzealous advertisement.

The phrase “oil of gladness” appears several times in the Bible, and, generally speaking, serves as a metaphor for spiritual contentment. For his part, Hoagland viewed his business as a clear expression of his Apostolic faith. “Through the agency of Oil of Gladness,” he said, “I am able to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to my people.”

Around 1894, Hoagland became a licensed preacher, or “elder” in the Christian Church.  In 1902, “Elder” Hoagland took charge of the growing congregation of Third Christian Church in Bloomington. The Pantagraph reported on July 31, 1902, that the congregation “had recently enlarged its scope of work” and needed larger quarters to carry on this work. Hoagland, and the other two trustees (Dorsey Willis and Marmen Bradshaw) worked to secure a location for the church. A building at the corner of Olive and Loehr streets was purchased and refitted to serve as the church’s new home. In 1911-1912, the congregation, with financial backing from Hoagland, built a new church located on the 300 block of S. Western Ave. Hoagland was a regular pastor there until he left Bloomington in 1914. Third Christian Church continued to serve the community until the mid-1960s when the congregation disbanded.

In a sermon delivered in 1908, Hoagland criticized the local African-American community for its lack of enthusiasm for evangelist William "Billy" Sunday, who was in Bloomington for a series of colossal revival meetings. According to Hoagland, many blacks expressed indifference to Sunday because the famed evangelist was white.

Hoagland believed this hypocritical, since blacks were oftentimes a willing audience for “rotten burlesque shows” and other scandalous entertainments produced by—and starring—whites. “So come everybody, church members, hypocrites, backsliders and sinners,” he preached. “You go where you have no business and jostle with white people to see villainy, so come now and jostle with them to hear good.”

After selling his business to the Dunlap Manufacturing Company, Hoagland and his family left Bloomington for Tennessee in 1914, living in Nashville for several years, then Knoxville, TN, and finally Louisville, Kentucky. By 1925, Hoagland and his family settled in Detroit, Michigan and he affiliated himself with the Highland Park congregation, serving them for several years before moving on to “a small groups worshipping after the order of the New Testament” in River Rouge, Michigan.

Unfortunately, on August 22, 1929, his wife Rosa passed away at the home of their daughter, Blanche, in Detroit.

Hoagland continued to live in Detroit and preach the gospel for the rest of his life. He visited Bloomington one final time in July 1941, his first visit to the city in 27 years.  He spoke at Western Avenue Church on Sunday, July 6. Following the sermon, he visited with old friends before returning to Detroit with his three daughters who accompanied him on the trip.

On July 26, 1945, Elder George Hoagland passed away after a two-week illness at the home of his daughter, Bernice, in Detroit. He was buried at the Detroit Memorial Park East cemetery in Warren, Michigan.

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