Source:
Pioneer Period and Pioneer People of Fairfield Co., Ohio.
by C. M. L. Wiseman
Publ. F. J. Heer Printing Co., Columbus, O.  1901

Transcribed by Sharon Wick

SKETCH OF THE HOOKER FAMILY
pgs. 312 - 320

     Thomas Hooker is the first of his name of whom the writer has any account.  He lived near Ricetown, Maryland, and ten miles from the city of Baltimore.  Of his family we know nothing except his son Richard and his descendants.
     His son Richard was born Sept. 24, 1701.  He married a woman named Martha.  Of her family we know nothing.  Richard Hooker was a farmer and tobacco planter, as we learn from his old account book and family record.  The following quotation from said book gives some insight to his character.
     "Grace, wisdom and understanding is a fine thing."   ~ Signed: Richard
     He died Sept. 1781, at half past five o'clock in the afternoon.  His wife, Martha, died Aug. 13, 1781, aged 69 years.  They were the parents of thirteen children, viz.: 
     Margaret, born the 15th of November, 1732
     Barney, born the 28th of November, 1734;
     Eurath, born Dec. 4, 1736;
     Charity, born Mar. 11, 1732;
     Aquilla Hooker, born Feb. 22, 1741;
     Mary, born Jan. 1, 1743;
     Richard Hooker, Jr., born on the 20th of October, 1745;
     Jacob Hooker, born 22d of June 1748;
     Ruth, born 17th day of September, 1751;
     Susan, born Mar. 17, 1753;
     Samuel born 16th of November, 1757;
     Sarah, born May 28, 1762.
     Of this family of thirteen children we can learn nothing, except as to Richard, Samuel and Eurath, the sister of whom more later on.  There is a record of the birth of Kezia Hooker, Jan. 6, 1761, in the handwriting of Richard, and the presumption is that she was one of his children, making the number thirteen.

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From an entry in his family record it would appear that his neighbor Margaret married Dutton Land, and hat his daughter Ruth married Lathrop Cole.
     Samuel Hooker, Jr., with his brother Richard and his sister, Eurath, came to Ohio and settled in Greenfield township, Fairfield County, in 1810.  He married Rachel Belt, daughter of Richard  Belt, of Maryland.  She was born Nov. 11, 1767.  Soon after his arrival in this county Samuel purchased of Gen. James Wells 665 acres of land for the sum of $8.00 per acre.  It was a valuable and beautiful section of fertile land, just west of Hooker Station.  The deed for this land is dated Oct. 1, 1810.
     Samuel Hooker, Sr., was a man of sterling qualities, a good citizen and one highly esteemed in his neighborhood.  He and his wife raised a large family - one of the largest and most prominent of Greenfield township.  After a long and useful life he died Oct. 3, 1842.  His wife survived him, but passed to her long home Feb. 7, 1853.  Their children were Mary, born Dec. 21, 1787; Jared, born May 20, 1789; Milcha, born Jan. 17, 1793; Samuel, born Feb. 17, 1797; Richard, born Feb. 17, 1799; Rachel, born Aug. 28, 1801.
     Rachel married a Mr. Pickens, and subsequently moved to Wabash County, near Attica, Indiana.  Milcha married William Stanbery, of Greenfield.  Mary was the second wife of John Stanbery, and step-mother of of the present John Stanbery, of Greenfield.  Jared must have died while yet a young man.  Richard, son of Samuel, married Phoebe Tallman, a daughter of a prominent man named William Tallman, who then

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owned a good farm adjoining Jedediah Allen, near Royalton, Ohio.  Phoebe was born Aug. 4, 1805.
     Richard Hooker was always a prominent respected citizen of Greenfield, and the father of a large family of children.  He died in 1885, at the age of 86 years.  The children of Richard and Phoebe were: Jared born in 1828, and who married Sallie Manson, of Lancaster; Samantha, born in 1830, and who married Thomas Trimble, son of the old pioneer, Col. William Trimble; Richard, born in 1831, and who married a daughter of David Foster, of Lancaster, Ohio; Nancy born in 1833, and who married George Little, of Lancaster, Ohio; William Henry, born in 1836; Samuel Henry, born in 1839; George W., born in 1849.  He married a daughter of William Rippey, of Lancaster, Ohio.  Samuel Hooker, Jr., brother of Richard, was born Feb. 17, 1797, and married Sarah Shull, whose parents lived at that time near what is now Buckeye Lake.  He was a highly respected citizen of  Greenfield, and reared a large family on the farm now owned by M. S. Vought, near Hooker Station.  The children of these parents were: Samuel L., who married Miss Lydy, Daughter of S. Lydy, the proprietor of the "Swan Hotel," which stood on the site of the present Mithoff House; Samuel was a lieutenant in Company A, First Ohio Cavalry; John, who married Miss Lydia Alspaugh, daughter of John Alspaugh, who resided near the Rock Mill; Martha, who married Hosea B.  Tong, both of whom are dead; Orpha, who married E. S. Carr, of Fayette County, Ohio; Sarah, who married Darius Wise, son of Rev. Wise, of Lancaster; Loretta, who married Captain James M. Sommers, who was killed at the head of his company, Sixty-first O. V. I., in one of the last battles of the

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civil war; Mary, who married George W.., Alfred who was Probate Judge of Hocking County; Louise, who married M. K. Wright, of Jacksonville, Ohio; and Rachel Elizabeth, who married John G. Reeves, a prominent attorney of Lancaster, and by marriage a double second cousin of Richard Hooker, Jr., of Turkey Run.
     Richard Hooker, the bachelor of the family, who came to this county, was a son of Richard and Martha Hooker, of near Ricetown, Maryland.  He arrived in this county with his brother Samuel in the year 1810.  He was born Oct. 20, 1745, and died in the year 1823, August the 5th.  He was near 60 years of age when he landed here, was a bachelor and a man of means and ability.  He soon became a large land owner and prominent in the county and in Lancaster, Ohio.  In 1816 he was elected a member of the Board of Directors of the First Lancaster Bank, and he was four times a representative and twice a senator in Ohio Legislature.  He gave farms to each of the children of his brother Samuel.  The farm on which John Stanbery now lives is one of them.  Reber Allen lives upon one of them.  It is now 77 years since his death, and there is no one living who knew him; hence our sketch is very brief.  Too Brief, we have no doubt, for a man so highly esteemed in his day and generation.  When or where his sister Eurith died, we have not been able to ascertain.  She did not marry.  Richard was buried at the old Hooker graveyard, which holds the dust of many of the best pioneers of this county.
     Richard Hooker, always known in this county as Turkey Run Hooker, or Dick, was a near relative of Samuel, Sr., and Richard Hooker, Sr., of Greenfield township, Fairfield County, Ohio.  He came to this

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county early in the century, at least as early as 1804 or 1805.  He was the first of the name of settle here.  Jan. 6, 1806, he was married to Nancy Tallman by Thos. McCall, J. P.  His wife was a daughter of William Tallman, who then lived upon a farm adjoining that of Jedediah Allen, in Amanda township.  William Tallman was a good man, a good citizen, and prospered financially.  In later years he moved to a farm adjoining that of his son-in-law, but just over the line in Pickaway County, where he owned about one section of land.  William Tallman donated the land for East Ringgold cemetery, and there he and his wife were buried.  His father, Benjamin Tallman, and also his wife, were buried in the same cemetery.  John, a brother of William, had a daughter named Mary, who married Fred Slough.  They were the parents of Judge Tallman Slough, of the Common Pleas Court, Lancaster, Ohio.  Another brother, Samuel, married a daughter of Gen. James Wells, the first owner of the Hooker farm, in Greenfield township.
     The sons of William Tallman were George, Hinton, James, Thomas and Benjamin.  George settled first in Chillicothe, and later moved to near New Holland, Pickaway County, Ohio.  He was the father of Mrs. Rev. B. N. Spahr late of Columbus, Ohio.  This George Tallman reared Wilhelmina Slough in his family.  He promised her an equal share in his estate with his children.  He died suddenly, without making a will, and his children, who possessed his noble traits of character, carried out his promise, giving the young girl an equal share of the estate.  Hinton moved to Delaware, Ohio, where he was a prominent merchant and miller.  George Spahr, a great-grandson of William Tallman, is a prominent citizen and busi-

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ness man of Columbus, Ohio.  James Tallman married Mary Bell and moved to West Virginia and later to the west.
     In 1811 Richard Hooker purchased 160 acres of land of Abraham Moyer, southwest quarter of section 20, on Turkey Run.  He had previously entered section 19, and moved there, improved it, and built a grist mill.  The mill race can yet be distinguished.  but there is no trace of mill or the dam.  The Cedar Hill and Circleville pike passes diagonally through section 19, and the mill was just north of the crossing of Turkey Run.
     Mr. Hooker gave one acre of ground for a graveyard and school yard, also for the site of the present Baptist Church.  Up to 1830 the services of this society were held in the Hooker school house.  William Tallman's section was just over the line in Pickaway county, west of and adjoining the Hooker land.  One half of the section is now owned by the Peters and Blues; Claypool owned the section north of an adjoining Hooker.  On the land of this one family the sightseer could ride three miles - a tract unsurpassed in beauty and fertility.  From the hill south of the Hooker residence is to be had the finest landscape view in this or any other county.  Milton Peters now owns a large part of the Claypool farm, and his fine home is now one of hte landmarks of the neighborhood.
     Mr. Hooker was a very prominent and influential man.  Some time prior to 1831 he moved his family to Holliday's Cove, Brook County, Virginia, where they immediately took a prominent position in the society of the neighborhood, and of Steubenville and Wellsburgh.  In the year 1831, Oct. 5, Mr. Hooker died.  He made a will and gave to his son Richard 500 acres of

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section 19, range 19, of Fairfield County.  This land Richard sold in less than a year to George Reigle, Sr.  The Reigles and Kigers own the greater part of it.  A section of land hardly surpassed by any other in the county.  The children of Richard and Nancy Hooker were Phoebe, Elizabeth, Mary, Nancy, Richard, Emanuel, John Randolph, George and Tallman.  Phoebe married Albert Claypool, Mar. 26, 1826, and they settled upon a large farm adjoining and north of that of Mr. Claypool's father-in-law.  Two daughters of these parents are still living; the sons are dead.  Richard Hooker, Jr., married Susan Graybill Feb. 13, 1828, Rev. Michael J. Steck officiating.  Mary Hooker married Dr. Cowen, of Steubenville, Ohio.  Elizabeth married a Mr. Shear, and he dying, she moved to California.  Nancy married Dr. Stanton, a brother or near relative of Edwin M. Stanton.  The widow now lives in Washington, D. C.  Of Mary, George and Tallman, we have no information.  After Richard, Jr., sold his large farm he moved to Steubenville and became a merchant there.  Later he married in second wife, gave up merchandise, and went to Texas, where he met with financial reverses.  He is said to have met with a violent death in the south.  Major Emanuel T. Hooker, believed to be the son of Richard, returned to this county some time before the civil war.  He enlisted in the Union army, in the First Ohio regiment, and was made a lieutenant of Company A.  He was promoted to Captain, and served with his regiment until 1864, when he was regularly discharged.  He was afterwards made major of one of the newly organized Ohio regiments.  Jan. 16, 1865, he married Rebecca J. Hutchins, of Lancaster.  He had three children by his first wife:  Jessie, of Lancaster, who mar-

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ried Henry Dysinter; Fannie, of Fairfield County, who married Thomas Williamson; George, a son, supposed to be living in Canton, Ohio.  He had a daughter of his second wife.  Major Hooker died in Lancaster a few years after the war and was buried in Elmwood cemetery.
     Mary L. Ely, daughter of Dr. Stanton, and grand-daughter of Richard Hooker, of Holliday's Cove, is the wife of Rev. J. H. Ely, Episcopalian, College Hill, Cincinnati, Ohio.
     Holliday's Cove, and Brown's Island, Virginia, were famous places in pioneer times.  In this neighborhood many people who have become distinguished were born and reared.  The Brown's, Doddridges, Wells, Tallmans, Hammonds, Wrights, and other distinguished families had their habitation here.  Col. Richard Brown, the original proprietor, was born in Maryland, eight miles from Baltimore, in 1740, and died February, 1811.  Prior to 1800 he purchased 1,150 acres of land, including Brown's island, of 350 acres.  It was this land the greater part of which Richard Hooker, of Turkey Run, owned at the time of his death in 1831.
     We close this sketch of a very remarkable and honored pioneer family, one that took part and were prominent in the social life of their respective townships, and the schools and churches, doing all that was required of good citizens.  All were farmers and owned and cultivated large farms of the best land in the county.  The families with whom they intermarried, the Tallmans and Stanberys, were large and highly respected, and all have left numerous descendants of unblemished reputation.

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SOME MARRIAGE RECORDS

     George Tallman married Jane Douglas, and they were the parents of Mrs. B. N. Spahr.
     Jonathan Hays married Elizabeth Hooker, in the year 1809, Richard Hooker, J. P., officiating.  We can't state to what family Elizabeth belonged.
     James Tallman married Polly Bell Mar. 16, 1808, and moved to the Cove, Brook County, Virginia.
     Thomas Tallman married Eleanor Cole, Aug. 14, 1823, by Rev. Henry Matthews.
     Benjamin Tallman married Rebecca Hedges, Oct. 5, 1823, by Rev. Henry Matthews.
     William Tallman married Rachel Rush, of Amanda township, Apr. 17, 1834.  This was doubtless the father-in-law of Richard Hooker and his second wife.
     Benjamin Tallman married Sarah Glanville, Dec. 24, 1833.
     Hinton Tallman married Amanda M. Thompson, May 5, 1836, by Rev. Solomon Mineer.  Hinton and his brother George were able business men, of high character, and were greatly esteemed wherever known.