For the past four weeks, we have been learning about John Wesley Hooker, his wife Margaret Derency Akers Hooker, their fourteen children, and their offspring. You may notice that number has changed from thirteen in the previous four columns. I discovered that sadly, the thirteenth child was a little girl, stillborn on the 20th of October 1883; her death is recorded in the Patrick County, Virginia Register of Deaths 1881-1896.
The eleventh child, George Wesley Hooker, was born on the 30th of May 1879 in Buffalo Ridge/Elamsville, Virginia. George graduated from the medical school at the University of Richmond, then took post-graduate classes at John Hopkins University in New York and the Mayo Brothers Institute in Rochester, Minnesota.
Upon graduation, Dr. George Wesley Hooker started a medical practice in Rocky Mount, Virginia. It was in Rocky Mount that he met Miss Emma St. John Carper, the daughter of Franklin County circuit court clerk, James Jones Carper and his wife, Mary Edmundson Wilson. Dr. George and Emma were married in Rocky Mount on the 24th of November 1913.
Dr. and Mrs. Hooker lived in Rocky Mount during the 1920’s where he maintained his medical practice and he was a highly respected, sought-after physician. I found several articles where Dr. Hooker was brought in for consultations on difficult cases. When Emma’s sister-in-law, Margaret Annabelle Helms Carper passed away in 1920, Emma and Dr. Hooker took Margaret and Norwood Greer Carper’s two children to raise. Little Norwood Greer Carper, Jr. was only six years old, and Margaret Helms Carper was only two.
Dr. Hooker moved his practice and his little family to Roanoke in the late 1920’s where they built a large, brick home at 2311 Rosalind Avenue. Dr. Hooker continued to practice medicine until shortly before his passing at the age eighty-three in 1963; members of the Roanoke Academy of Medicine served as his honorary pallbearers.
The twelfth child, Charles Perry was born on the 21st of November 1880 to John Wesley and Margaret Derency Akers Hooker. Charles graduated from the Staunton Military Academy and National Business College in Roanoke before moving to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1900 with several of his siblings and their spouses. Charles moved on to Washington, D.C., where he married Miss Charlotte Jean Eva on the first of November 1911. Charles and Charlotte had two daughters, Margaret and Charlotte Eva before their marriage was dissolved in 1919 in Reno, Nevada.
Charles was working in the emerging industry of automobile sales when he married in 1929 to Miss Rowena Ann Moses, the daughter of Rufus and Mary Odineal Moses of Chatham, Virginia. Charles and Rowena moved to West Palm Beach, Florida where he worked as a farm implement salesman for the Ford Motor Company, and they raised two daughters and one son. Charles Perry Hooker died of a heart attack on the 5th of March 1946 at the age of sixty-five.
The fourteenth child of John Wesley and Margaret; Henry Lester Hooker, was born on the 25th of April 1885 when Margaret was forty-three years old. Henry followed in the footsteps of his older brother, James Murray Hooker, graduating from the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, then moving on to Lexington to Washington & Lee University to obtain his law degree. Upon graduation, Henry Lester Hooker returned to Stuart and began practicing law with his brother, James Murray Hooker in 1909.
On the 19th of June 1912, Henry Lester Hooker and Nellie May Sanford were married at Stuart Baptist Church and it was quite an affair, according to the announcement in the Roanoke Times from June 21, 1912…”The Stuart Baptist Church was the scene of a typical June wedding this morning at 10:30 when Miss Nell Sanford, the daughter of the Rev. and Mrs. M. F. Sanford was married to Mr. Henry Lester Hooker in the presence of a large and brilliant assemblage of relatives, invited friends, and guests. The ceremony was most impressively performed by the Rev. Messrs. M. F. Sanford and T. Ryland Sanford, father and brother of the bride. A short while before the bridal party entered the church, little Miss Dorothy Harvey escorted by Master Weir Pedigo sang “Oh Promise Me” very sweetly, after which Mrs. Dr. R. S. Martin played the customary selections from Mendelssohn. The wedding party was preceded by the waiters, who were Master Edwin Harvey with Miss Estelle Ragsdale; Master Gordon Beach with Miss Louise McNeil; Master Rhea Houchins with Miss Virgie Thompson; Master Weir Pedigo with Miss Carolina Beach; and Master Robert McNichols with Miss Ethylene Clark-all former pupils of the bride. They were followed by Eleanor Sanford, niece of the bride, dressed in white lingerie with white trimmings and Margaret Hooker, a niece of the groom, also in white lingerie with white trimmings, who acted as flower girls and opened the gates for the bridal party. First to pass through the opened gates was little Miss Frances Taylor, the ring bearer, beautifully dressed in white lingerie with yellow trimmings. Next came the groom on the arm of his brother, Dr. George W. Hooker, of Rocky Mount, followed by the bride with her maid of honor, Miss Nan Soyars. The bride was handsomely attired in a blue tailored suit with a white hat and gloves. The maid of honor was beautifully gowned in a cream embroidered voile and carried daisies. The bridesmaids were daintily dressed in embroidered flaxen with the white trimmings, all carrying shower bouquets of daisies. The groom, best man, groomsmen, and ushers were handsomely dressed in dark blue suits, white ties, and tan gloves. The ushers were Dr. Moir S. Martin and Mr. George S. Taylor, circuit court clerk. Immediately after the ceremony, Mr. and Mrs. Hooker left for Blue Ridge Springs, where they will remain for about ten days. They will return to Stuart, where they will make their future home. The bride is an accomplished, popular, and attractive young lady who enjoys numerous friends. She is a postgraduate of Rawlings Institute and has successfully taught the past two sessions in the high school here. The groom is a graduate of Washington and Lee University and is a member of the successful and well-known law firm of Hooker & Hooker. The popularity of the couple is most clearly shown by the unusually large number of costly and elegant presents.” I really miss wedding announcements like this!
Henry Lester and Nellie May Sanford Hooker’s first child, Eleanor Sanford Hooker was born on the third of December 1913, followed by their son Henry Lester Hooker, Jr. born on the 27th of July 1921.
On November 4th, 1924, Henry Lester Hooker was elected to the rate-making and regulatory commission, the State Corporation Commission, headquartered in Richmond. Hooker moved his family to Richmond where he would serve on the three-member SCC board for forty-eight years, retiring at the age of eighty-six on January 31st, 1972. In an August 26th, 1988, article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Jeff Shapiro reported that upon being honored by the General Assembly on his 100th birthday, Mr. Hooker (with his cane dangling on his arm) danced a flatfoot jig, to the delight of the House of Delegates lawmakers. Hooker’s tenure on the SCC spanned from the decade before rural electrification until the opening of the state’s first nuclear power station. Junie Bradshaw, Mr. Hooker’s law clerk, said that Hooker often lamented on the hardest thing he had to do during his time on the board was to close the banks during the Great Depression. Henry Lester Hooker died on the 25th of August 1988 at the age of 103.
This concludes our series on John Wesley Hooker and Margaret Derency Akers Hooker, their fourteen children, and their offspring. I would not have been 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.
