Patrick Pioneers – John Wesley Hooker and Margaret Derency Akers Hooker-Part III

For the past two weeks, we have been looking at John Wesley and Margaret Akers Hooker and their first five children (and their children). This week, we will look at children six through eight, John Abram; Robert Lee; and Samuel Hairston Hooker. 

John Abram Hooker was born to the couple on the 29th of April 1867. On the 27th of May 1888, John Abram married Miss Mary Bishop Houchins. Mary was the daughter of Isaac Columbus Houchins and Jathina Tucker Adams Houchins of the Elamsville district of Patrick County.  John Abram’s older sister, Mary Ellen Hooker had married Mary Bishop Houchins brother, James Tyler Houchins, eleven years earlier. Around the turn of the 20th century, John Abram and Mary moved to Philadelphia and lived in a boarding house with several of their siblings and spouses. John worked for the post office several years before returning to Virginia to become a dairy farmer in Prince William County. John and Mary had three sons and a daughter. 

John Wesley and Margaret’s seventh child was Robert Lee Hooker, born on the 17th of April 1869.  Robert Lee married Miss Martha Virginia Gravely of Leatherwood in Henry County on the 1st of April 1893. Martha was the daughter of Thomas Marshall Gravely and Georgia Stultz Gravely. Robert and Martha moved to Buchanan in Botetourt County where Robert owned a timber company and he and Martha raised seven daughters. 

Samuel Hairston Hooker was born on the 4th of April 1871 to John Wesley and Margaret. Samuel married Miss Nancy Lucinda Agee on the 2nd of March 1893. Nancy was the daughter of John Tazewell Agee and Ruth Lillian Nolen of Floyd County. Samuel and Nancy’s first child, John Clyde Hooker, Sr. was born on the 11th of May 1895. John Clyde worked at Bassett Furniture as a bookkeeper before marrying Miss Maggie Mabel Bassett on the 28th of February 1920. Maggie was the daughter of Charles Columbus Bassett and Roxie Ann Hundley Bassett. In 1925, four-year-old John Clyde Hooker, Jr. pulled the cord on the steam whistle signaling the first day of work at the brand-new company of Hooker-Bassett Furniture.  

Samuel and Nancy’s second child. Lilly Margaret married Hugh Chaplin Marshall, who was the head cashier at First National Bank of Stuart. Hugh was featured in an earlier Patrick Pioneers story. He tragically died of a diving accident in the Mayo River in downtown Stuart when he was only 23 years old. Lilly and Hugh had one daughter. 

Samuel Arthur was born to Samuel and Nancy on the 23rd of January 1901 in the Elamsville/Buffalo Ridge area. S. Arthur worked as sales manager for Hooker Furniture in addition to opening several companies of his own, including Southern Box & Plywood, Inc. S. Arthur married Margarita Scott in Manhattan, New York in 1928 and they had one son and two daughters. 

Alfred Frank was born the 30th of May 1904, the fourth child of Samuel and Nancy Agee Hooker. Just like Arthur, Alfred helped his brother John Clyde get the Hooker Furniture Company off the ground in 1925. Alfred married Margie Field of High Point, North Carolina in 1926 and they had two sons and one daughter. 

Ralph Agee Hooker, born on the 28th of February 1909, was the only child of Samuel and Nancy Agee Hooker that was not born at the old homeplace in Elamsville/Buffalo Ridge. Ralph was born in Bassett, where his parents had moved to run a general merchandise store. Ralph attended school in Axton, then Greenbrier Military Academy before serving in WWII. After the war, he drove a truck for a while before founding Hooker Window Company which he ran for forty years. Ralph married Miss Dorothy Wilson Lester of Martinsville, and they had two children.  

Samuel H. and Nancy Agee Hooker have a special place in my heart because when my great grandmother and her two brothers became wards of the state in the late 1890’s, the Hooker family took in my 2x great uncle Albert Wood. Albert lived on the farm in Elamsville/Buffalo Ridge until the Hooker family moved to Bassett to run the general store. In 1915, Samuel and Nancy purchased the historic Patrick Henry Farm in the Carlisle area of Henry County, where they spent the rest of their lives. Samuel was also a director and vice-president of his son’s furniture company and was one of the organizers of Schaefer’s Varnish Company in Louisville, Kentucky. Samuel was a member of Smith River Church of the Brethren. 

Next week, we will continue learning more about the Hooker family, beginning with child number nine, James Murray Hooker. I would not be able to share these stories and photos without the contributions of Katherine Hooker Boaz, to whom I am very grateful. Woody may be reached at rockcastlecreek1@gmail.com  or (276) 692-9626.