Hooker Family Exploration - Amherst , Westhampton, and Hartford

October 3 - We spent the afternoon in the Hartford Connecticut area looking up several places that we knew reflected old Hooker family stories. The most famous person in the founding of CT is, of course, Reverend Thomas Hooker. I found his gravesite in the small cemetery in the yard downtown as part of the Center Church in Hartford (see photos). His grave marker is very old but you can still read its long description . Then I was pleased to also find the oldest building still standing in West Hartford, Ccnnecticut is the Sarah Whitman Hooker House (see photo). If you have an interest in reading about her and why this house is a national monument you can click on this website: http://www.west-hartford.com/Profile/HistoricInfo/SarahWhitmanHooker2.htm.

We were lucky to stumble quite easily onto the Hooker area of the Wildwood Cemetery in Amherst MA today (October 2). It was thrilling for me to see several generations of folks I either remember or remember hearing stories about, lying all beneath that beautiful oak tree you see. If you click on the next photo (below), you can read the dates of all those printed out on the back of the granite marker. I had a powerful emotion about life and its opportunities as I thought about all that my grandfather and his sister did with their incredible career lives. But in addition, I think the tears in my eyes were more about the way that both those folks really cared about me and my siblings. Grandpa came to our house every Friday night with little gifts and rewards for our week's accomplishments. I got nickels and dimes for memorizing new poems and for reading things to him. It hit me about how that support had meant so much - from this man lying in the cold earth since 1953. In a sense, he has been alive in me for those intervening 55 years.
Next we went looking for my dad's Uncle Harry Allen's house. Jenny Strong, his long-time housekeeper and later partner, got the house when Harry died (1942 and he had never married). Marie and I stayed in that house on a trip with my parents soon after we were married (c. 1965) and Jenny told us stories of my dad, Allen and brother Charlie, being "silly" and running around the house. It was believeable. What a thrill today it was to find that house not only standing but beautifully restored and registered as an Historic Landmark (built in 1886) and being used as a bed and breakfast. I may write to the owners and offer some movies taken 80+ years ago of dad's Uncle Harry walking in the yard and Allen and Charlie playing around there also - and you can tell it is the same house. The oak tree is much bigger, I might add.
This was an exciting day and next we go to Hartford, Connecticut to look over what Reverend Thomas Hooker did in founding the early settlement of Connecticut. I know there will be some new excitements to discover. I have never had a trip like this in my life. It is so fun to look for roots and find them so easily and visibly.