Hooker family papers

EDWARD HOOKER (1822-1903)

Edward Hooker was born on December 25, 1822, in Farmington, Connecticut. He served in the merchant marine (1837-1861) and entered the United States Navy as acting master on the gunboat Louisiana. Several promotions during the Civil War placed him in command of boats on the Rappahannock River. Hooker served as naval storekeeper in the Brooklyn navy-yard (1865-1867) and commanded the store-ship Idaho (1867-1869). He then served as inspector of yards and docks at the New York navy-yards (1820) and retired in 1884 with the rank of commander. Hooker died in Brooklyn, New York, in 1903.



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EDWARD HOOKER (1785-1846)



Edward Hooker, the youngest of eleven children of Colonel Noadiah Hooker of Farmington, Connecticut, and a brother of John Hooker (Yale 1796), was born in Farmington on April 27, 1785. His scholarship in college was high, and he delivered at commencement an oration on the influence of foreign manners and opinions.

Immediately on graduation he joined his brother John in Columbia, South Carolina, for the study of law, intending to practice in the South. Later, he taught a school in what is now Cambridge, nearly sixty miles west of Columbia, from February 1806 until March 1807, and served as tutor in South Carolina College, in Columbia, from March 1807 to November 1808. He then, just as he was ready for admission to the bar, returned to Connecticut, to accept a tutorship at Yale, where he remained for three years.

While in this position he became engaged to Elisabeth, second daughter of Captain Henry Daggett (Yale 1771), of New Haven, and in preparation for his marriage he resigned his office in the College, returned to Farmington, assumed the charge of his aged father's farm and other business affairs, and built a home for himself.

He was married on May 24, 1812.

His mother died in November 1816, and he then took his father to his own house and fitted up the old home as a school for the preparation of boys, especially from the South, for college.

The school became quite noted, but after a few years a movement was undertaken for the establishment of an academy in Farmington, and Mr. Hooker closed his own school to further this plan.

He then settled down to literary work, active participation in the public affairs of the town, and scientific farming. He filled the offices of Town Clerk (1828-1833), Justice of the Peace, and Judge of Probate (1834-1836). He represented Farmington in the General Assembly in 1835, 1837, and 1838. From 1822 to 1834 he served as Deacon in the Congregational Church.

He died in Farmington, after four days illness, from exhaustion and disease contracted by attendance on a dying brother, on May 5, 1846, at the age of 61.

His widow died in Hartford on August 2, 1869, at the age of 83.

Their children were two daughters and three sons. One daughter and one son died in infancy. The elder daughter married the Hon. Francis Gillette (Yale 1829). The elder son was graduated here in 1837, and the youngest became a Commander in the Navy.

Portions of Mr. Hooker's very interesting manuscript diary, from September 1805 to December 1808, were printed in the Annual Report for 1896 of the American Historical Association, volume I, pp. 842-929.

(Taken from Yale Biographies and Annals by F.B. Dexter)



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HENRY DAGGETT HOOKER (1892-1929)



Henry Daggett Hooker, B.A. 1912. Born January 25, 1892, in Brooklyn, N.Y. Died October 26, 1929, in Columbia, Mo.

Father, Henry Daggett Hooker, a non-graduate member of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Class of 1884; an architect; son of Commander Edward Hooker, U. S. N., and Esther Ann (Battey) Hooker, of Brooklyn. Mother, Mary Theodora (Davenport) Hooker; daughter of Julius and Mary Ann (Bates) Davenport, of Brooklyn. Yale relatives include: John Davenport, a member of Yale Corporation 1714-1731 (great-great-great-great-great-grandfather); Henry Daggett (B.A. 1771) (great-great-grandfather); Edward Hooker (B.A. 1805) (great-grandfather); John Hooker (B.A. 1796) (great-great-uncle); John Hooker (B.A. 1837) (great uncle); William B. Davenport, '67 (uncle); and Thomas Hooker, '08, and Joseph K. Hooker, '09 (cousins).

Polytechnic Preparatory School, Brooklyn, and Hotchkiss School. Second Barge Prize in mathematics Freshman year; honors and oration appointment Junior year; honors in natural sciences and philosophical oration appointment Senior year; vice-president of University Chess Club Senior year (won Dimock Chess Cup) and on Intercollegiate Chess Team; member Sigma Xi and Phi Beta Kappa (awarded Borden Fellowship Senior year).

Studied at University of Strassburg -1913; continued graduate work at Yale 1913-1915 (M.A. 1913, Ph.D. 1915); during that period acted as an assistant in plant physiology for a year (1914-1915); instructor in botany at Yale 1915-1918. Worked under Gas Defense Service, U. S. Bureau of Mines, in New Haven September 1917 - September 1918, when commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the Chemical Warfare Service; served at the laboratory at Puteaux sur Seine September 30 - December 3, 1918, and given his discharge December 27. Subsequently entered the Reserve as First Lieutenant, Chemical Warfare Service, and was promoted to Captain on November 19, 1923, and to Major on February 15, 1929. Since January 1, 1919, had been connected with the University of Missouri as assistant professor of horticulture to August 31, 1920, and since then as associate professor of horticulture. Served on the Division of Biology and Agriculture of National Research Councils 1922, 1923, and 1924. Served as secretary 1920-1921, councilor 1923, and chairman 1924-1925 of University of Missouri section of American Chemical Society. Served as secretary 1925-1927, vice-president 1927-1928, and president 1928-1930 of University of Missouri Chapter of Sigma Xi, editing its lectures on Growth (published by Yale University Press in December 1928); co-author of The Fundamentals of Fruit Production (1922); and Orcbarding (1927). At time of death was completing the manuscript of a book on plant chemistry.

Contributor to Science, Plant World, Torrey Bulletin, Annals of Botany, Entomological News, American Naturalist, Journal of Experimental Zoology, American Journal of Physiology, Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry, Journal of Pomological and Horticultural Science, Proceedings of American Society for Horticultural Science; and Proceedings of National Academy of Science. Fellow American Association for the Advancement of Science; member American Botanical Society, American Society for Horticultural Science, Missouri State Horticultural Society, Alpha Chi Sigma (honorary chemical society), Gamma Alpha (graduate fraternity, University of Missouri chapter), Gamma Sigma Delta (honorary agricultural society), and Clinton Avenue Congregational Church, Brooklyn.

Married December 16, 1919, at Grosse Ile, Mich., Mary Douglas, daughter of Frederick Pope Anderson (B.A. Harvard 1864; M.D. Miami Medical College 1871) and Mary Campbell (Douglas) Anderson, who attended University of Michigan two years (1874-1876). No children.

Death due to an accidental electric shock. Cremation took place in St. Louis. Survived by wife, mother, and a brother, Davenport Hooker, '08. In his memory the Henry Daggett Hooker Fellowship Fund in Plant Physiology has been established at Yale by his mother.

(Taken from the Yale University Obituary Record)