In 1870, Col. Hogeman was appointed counsel for the Chesapeak and Ohio Railroad Company, and was so continued until his death, which occurred at his home in Charleston, after a short illness, on the 5th of January, 1885. The fatal illness, it was supposed, was superinduced by his labors and exposure by travel in necessary railroad duties. He was small of stature but compactly built, giving promise of a long and useful life. He was not only a sound and thoroughly equipped lawyer in the science of pleading, but an accomplished and successful advocate. In social life it was remarked of him that few men coming from a distant and distinctly different State more thoroughly and quickly became identified with a new people in their sympathies and interests than did he.

Col. Hogeman married Miss Anastein Ruffner, of Charleston, daughter of the late Col. James Ruffner, and sister of Andrew and Meredith Ruffner, distinguished merchants of that city. She with two children were left to mourn their bereavement. But few men in West Virginia achieved a more distinguished legal reputation than did Col. Wm. H. Hogeman.