For the past three weeks, we have been looking at John Wesley Hooker, his wife Margaret Derency Akers Hooker, their first eight children, and their offspring. This week, we will learn about children nine and ten, James Murray Hooker and Isaac Tilden Hooker.
James Murray Hooker was born to John Wesley and Margaret on the 29th of October 1873 in the Buffalo Ridge/Elamsville area of Patrick County. In 1890, James Murray went to Williamsburg where he attended the College of William & Mary and earned his bachelor’s degree. J. Murray then headed to Lexington, Virginia where he earned his law degree from Washington & Lee University. Upon graduation from W & L, he came home to Stuart to set up his law practice.
Shortly after returning to Stuart to practice law, he was asked to fill the recently vacated office of Commonwealth’s Attorney for Patrick County. In 1905, J. Murray married Miss Annie Dillard, the daughter of John Redd Dillard, a long-time physician in the Spencer community and his wife, Ann Adele Lee Dillard, a schoolteacher.
In 1907, J. Murray and Annie’s first child, Margaret Adele, was born, followed by John Dillard in 1909, and Annie Murray Hooker in 1914. J. Murray was elected to represent the people of Patrick County as Commonwealth’s Attorney for two more terms.
When the death of Rorrer James left the Fifth District House seat open in Virginia, J. Murray was elected to fill it in a special election in 1921. He was reelected for one more term before returning home to Stuart to practice law. Later on, his son John Dillard Hooker practiced law with his dad before becoming a Judge.
Judge John Dillard Hooker will always hold a fondness in my heart because the only time I had to go before him in a courtroom was to give me my “official” driver’s license when I was sixteen years old. I remember the lecture on driving tips he gave us new motorists very clearly including “Don’t ever give a turn signal, unless you really are turning. I have saw more wrecks from people giving their turn signal, (then not turning) than I have anything else.”
J. Murray Hooker had served as Chairman of the State Democratic Convention for five consecutive terms (fifteen years) when he took ill at the National Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1940. He returned home to Stuart, but when his condition worsened, he was taken to the hospital in Roanoke, where he died from a heart attack on August 6th,1940.
The tenth child of John Wesley and Margaret Akers Hooker was Isaac Tilden Hooker, born on the 22nd of March 1876. The name Tilden caught my eye because it is not a name you hear that often. My great-grandfather’s name is William Tilden Underwood, and he was also born in 1876, the same year as Isaac Tilden Hooker. I would bet the bank they were both named for Samuel Tilden, Democratic candidate for the office of president in 1876.
Isaac headed for Philadelphia, Pennsylvania around the turn of the 20th century, along with several of his siblings and their spouses. Isaac found work as a machinist, then later became a contractor for the mail delivery service.
On the 4th of March 1908, Isaac married Miss Emma Zook Detweiler of Mifflin, Pennsylvania. One year later, when Isaac’s niece, Ruth Elizabeth Turner Terry died in Philadelphia at the age of twenty-seven, Isaac and Emma adopted Ruth and John Chapman Terry’s two children: six-year-old Eugene McKinley Terry, and four-year-old Pauline Martin Terry.
By 1920, Isaac; Emma; Eugene; and Pauline came home to Virginia where Isaac joined the Smith River Church of the Brethren. Several years later, Isaac built a home on Melrose Avenue in Roanoke, and in March of 1926, Isaac Tilden Hooker became the pastor of Hollins Road Church of the Brethren, a congregation of approximately 100 members. When Reverend Isaac Tilden Hooker retired at the age of 75, the church had grown to the 397 members with a large Sunday School of 200 attendees.
In addition to serving as the pastor of the Hollins church, Isaac was a manager for an express company, then later the vice-president of Johnson-Carper Furniture in Roanoke. When his beloved wife Emma passed away in 1941, Isaac married widow Estelle Sharpe Williams in 1943. In 1958, Isaac passed away from lymphoma at the age of eighty-two.
Next week, we will conclude the Hooker family series by looking at the last three children born to John Wesley Hooker and Margaret Derency Akers 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.
