James Grant Hook Genealogy

James Grant Hook (son of Stephen Hook and Anna Hook) was b. in Greene Co., Pa., Sept. 8, 1805; d. in Wapello Co., Iowa, Sept. 4, 1884. He m. Apr., 1826, Sarah C. Lyle, b. in Harrison Co., Ohio, Oct. 3, 1807; d. in Wapello Co., Iowa, Aug. 4, 1882.

• See Lyle Genealogy

He and his family lived in Carroll Co., Ohio, until Sept., 1844, when they moved to what is now Vinton Co., Ohio, and settled on a farm near Allenville. The farm was a dense wood and their first home a log cabin. During the winter some of the land was cleared for crops in the spring. They bought a few sheep and pigs and two milch cows and fenced off a lot to keep them in. Their first crop was very meager. A small patch of wheat and corn yielded a scant living through the second winter. The wheat was threshed with a flail and the corn was converted into hominy or ground into meal for johnnie cakes. The sheep were carefully sheared, and the wool, after being picked, was made into rolls from which it was spun into yarn by a large spinning wheel. Sarah Hook was very skillful in spinning and weaving cloth, and besides making most of the clothes for her family, also made the coverlets used on the beds. She understood dyeing, also, and one of the coverlets preserved in the family of her daughter Sarah Ankrom is an object of beauty still. James Grant Hook had learned the tanner's trade and was a shoemaker. He made shoes for the family and at odd times for various neighbors. The family lived in this forest home for several years, after which it moved to a new home located on a high knoll that might seem to have been almost inaccessible. This site was chosen for its healthful environment, it being an established fact in the minds of the settlers that low land was conducive to the dread disease of small-pox. The old house and barns have long since disappeared, but the beautiful landscape with its high wooded hills and angling paths and roadways still remains. How it was possible to produce enough on those steep and rocky hill-sides to support a family of twelve children is a mystery to the writer, and is eloquent evidence of the thrift and frugality of these Hook parents. Between 1850 and 1855 the oldest daughter and two oldest sons of the family married and moved to Wapello County, Iowa. When the Civil War came in 1861, five sons entered the Union Army. Two of them lost their lives by illness early in 1863.

In 1862, and again in 1864, James Grant Hook and his wife visited their children in Iowa. During the first visit they purchased from Martin and Elizabeth Dickens, deed dated June 16, 1862, a tract of unbroken prairie containing 240 acres, paying therefor the sum of $760.00. It was the same tract which they sold to Harvey Eller Nov. 24, 1864, on their second visit.

When the war ended and surviving sons returned, preparations to move to Iowa were begun. On Sept. 18, 1865, the whole family, except John who remained in Ohio, and William and Stephen and daughter Mary Ann Clark, who had gone before, started on their long journey to Wapello Co., Iowa. They traveled by two prairie schooners, one driven by James Hook, Jr.", and the other by Jesse Ankron, a son-in-law who had married Sarah Jane Hook. The route was via Indianapolis to Burlington and thence across the prairies to their destination. The trip was made without mishap and late in October, 1865, the travelers arrived at the home of son and brother William Hook34 who was then living on the Rollin Baker place in the northeastern part of Highland Township in Wapello County, two and a half miles southeast of the present site of Hedrick, Iowa. The William Hook34 home was a small affair, but William welcomed his parents and brothers and sisters and shared his cramped quarters with them until spring.

On Apr. 25. 1866, James Grant Hook purchased from his son William the James Baker eighty paying therefor the sum of $1,500.00. At the same time he purchased from David W. Daily an unimproved eighty acres which bordered the James Baker land on the north and paid $450.00 for it. He moved his family into the old house that stood on the James Baker land and lived there while his new home was being built directly across the road on the Daily land. The family moved into the new house in the summer of 1867 and lived there until 1875, when the parents sold their entire holdings in Wapello and Keokuk Counties to their son James Hook, Jr. who had married Virginia, daughter of Harvey Eller, in 1867. Thereafter the old couple lived in Agency City, Iowa. Death came to the mother in 1882, and to the father in 1884. Both are buried in the Hook family plot in Martinsburg Cemetery one and one-half miles south of Martinsburg, Iowa.

James Grant Hook (he dropped his middle name at an early date) is remembered by old friends and relatives as a man of high integrity and quiet manners. He was grey eyed and dark haired and like his father was tall and broad shouldered. He was Republican in politics. He was not a church member, but was devoutly religious and leaned toward the church of his father. His children often stated that he was the best posted man on the Holy Scriptures they ever knew. They also say that his wife was a constant reader of the Bible and that she joined with her husband in drilling its teachings into the heart and fibre of every one of their children.

Children of James Grant Hook and Sarah Lyle.

(1) Mary Ann Hook, b. Aug. 4, 1827; d. Apr. 4, 1857; m. James Clark, b. 1829. He was a brother of the wives of Stephen and William Hook next below. Issue, four, as follows:

(1) William b. 1852;
(2) Henry, b. 1854;
(3) Clinton, 1856;
(4) Sarah Jane, b. 1858; m. Mr. Harter and lived for a time in Taylor Co., Iowa.

(2) Stephen Hook.

(3) William Hook.

(4-5) Twin sons, b. May 19, 1833, d. immediately.

(6) Walter Hook, b. Apr. 23, 1835; d. Mar. 2, 1863. He d. of smallpox while at home on furlough in Civil War. Buried one and one-half miles N. of Allenville.

(7) Sarah Jane Hook.

(8) James Hook.

(9) John Hook, b. Oct. 23, 1841; d. Nov. 22, 1919; m. 1882, Mary Fowler, b. 1860. He served in the Civil War in the 65th Ohio Vol. Inf. He lived during his later years in Independence, Mo., where he is buried. No issue.

(10) Alexander Hook, b. Dec. 9, 1843; d. Jan. 30, 1863. He d. in the Army Hospital at Gallatin, Tenn., while in the service of his country.

(11) Nancy Hook; b. Mar. 24, 1846; d. 1918; m. 1st, Mike La Chapelle, who went to Montreal, was taken ill and d. M. 2d, George W. Hayes. No issue by second marriage. Issue by 1st marriage: (1) Samuel, who is m. and living in Des Moines, Iowa; (2) Lucy, d. young; (3) William, d. young.

(12) Martha Hook, b. Mar. 28, 1849; d. Feb. 23, 1923. She never m.

(13) Thomas Jefferson Hook.

(14) Samuel Hook, b. Mar. 18, 1857; d. 1910; m. Elizabeth Baker, b. near St. Joseph, Mo., Dec. 31, 1858; d. July 14, 1903. Family lived for many years in Wapello Co., Iowa, and in late life in Creighton, Nebr. Issue, two, as follows:

(1) Claud J. Hook, b. July 3, 1884; d. Apr. 3, 1902.

(2) Snowden Robert Hook, b. Apr. 1, 1893. He served eighteen months overseas in World War in Co. C., 18th Engineers. Now living in Calif.