John Hooker
Lawyer, Writer, Abolitionist, Women’s Rights Supporter
John Hooker was a friend of Talcott Street church and an admirer of Reverend James W. C. Pennington, whose freedom he purchased through negotiations with the son of Pennington’s owner. Hooker was born on April 19th, 1816 in Farmington, Connecticut. He was a lawyer, abolitionist, and suffrage supporter who, along with his wife, Isabella Beecher Hooker and William and Elisabeth Gillette, founded the Nook Farm neighborhood in Hartford that would later become home to Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, Charles Dudley Warner and other notable people. He was a direct descendant of Thomas Hooker, founder of Hartford. His wife Isabella was a prominent women’s rights activist and daughter of Dr. Lyman Beecher and half-sister of Harriet Beecher Stowe, and together they had four children. His memoir Some Reminiscences of a Long Life, with a Few Articles on Moral and Social Subjects of Present Interest, was published in 1899. He described himself as a Bushnell Congregationalist. He died at his home at Nook Farm in 1901.
