Title: Eli Hooker Papers
Inclusive Dates: 1846-1889

Creator:

• Hooker, Eli, 1820-1889?

Call Number: Oshkosh Mss AG; Micro 239

Quantity: 0.8 c.f. (2 archives boxes) and 1 reel of microfilm (35mm)

Repository:

Housed at the Archives & Area Research Center, Polk Library, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh; owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

UW-Oshkosh Polk Library / Oshkosh Area Research Ctr. (Map)

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

Abstract:

Papers of Hooker, a Waupun, Wisconsin, attorney, land owner, and businessman. Fourteen diaries, 1846-1889, comprise the bulk of the collection and tersely record Hooker's day-to-day activities. Two of the volumes contain material relating to an oil company in which he held an interest. An expense book, 1867-1888, lists daily household expenditures. There is also one volume on the family's genealogy.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-osh00ag

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Eli Hooker, born in Tompkins County, New York, in 1820, became a prominent attorney in Waupun, Wisconsin, practicing there for almost forty years. After attending Ithaca Academy, and teaching for several years, Hooker left New York in 1846 to settle in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. There, with J. O. Henning, he started that city's first newspaper, the Fond du Lac Journal. Within six months he had sold out and had bought a half interest in the Fond du Lac Whig, with J. M. Gellett.

After thirteen months as a publisher of the Whig, Hooker in January of 1848 sold his interest and moved to Waupun, Wisconsin, to read law in preparation for setting up a legal practice. Although the United States Biographical Dictionary says he was admitted to the bar April 17, 1854, in his diary of August 6, 1850 he records, “was admitted to the bar on an examination.” Throughout his early years of law practice, Hooker also operated a printing press for added income, and at least twice tried running a store. He frequently bought presses, or merchandise, then sold out later; apparently this was at no loss financially because the diaries indicate that he gradually became a man of some means.

In 1866, while carrying on a busy law practice, Hooker published the Waupun Times, a Republican paper. Even after he sold the newspaper the following year he continued for some time as a corresponding editor. He again bought new presses, and for many years seems to have owned a printing business with his son, Culver, who was also an attorney. In addition to his printing and store enterprises he gradually acquired and rented out several houses and a farm. As early as 1866 Hooker and others formed an oil company in Waupun and sold oil, by the barrel, from a well in West Virginia in which they bought an interest.

As a successful attorney Hooker traveled greatly in the vicinity of Waupun, Juneau, and Fond du Lac, and made frequent trips to Milwaukee and Madison. As a man of means he made several trips to New York both for pleasure and on business.

Hooker was obviously a deeply religious man. Although a Methodist, he apparently attended services in any church that he could, and as often as possible. He frequently gave talks on temperance, and was the type of man who never missed an opportunity to hear someone such as Henry Ward Beecher speak. He was interested in Republican politics, in fact attended the convention in Chicago that nominated Lincoln in 1860; and yet he never held public office, though he was active on the school board. Of his four children, the three who grew to adulthood received college educations.

The value of the fourteen diaries in this collection is perhaps not so much in the details given in the entries as in the fact they the diaries span a forty year period without interruption. Hooker's entries are for the most part colorless, brief, and factual. He never gives opinions or makes comments on the activities he records, and entries are confined to Hooker's own daily life. For instance, through the Civil War years he mentions three times his attendance at a “war meeting” but otherwise one would never know there was a war in progress. Hooker was known as an anti-slavery Republican, but there is no evidence of this in his diaries.

Occasionally the diaries record the value of town lots, the cost of houses, and the price of rental units or room and board. Very often they show the names of hotels where Hooker stayed in his frequent travels in Jefferson, Dodge, and Fond du Lac Counties.

One volume is an expense book that records chiefly household expenses, 1867-1888, recording in detail daily expenditures. This is a good source of retail costs of foods, furniture, and other supplies. One volume is a genealogy.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Trayton H. Davis, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, October 16, 1959.

	Diaries
	1846 Aug. 10 - 1848 Aug. 16
Micro 239	Microfilm copy
Oshkosh Mss AG Box   1 Volume   1	Original diary
Box   1 Volume   2	1848 Aug. 17 - 1849 May 19
Box   1 Volume   3	1849 May 20 - 1850 Dec. 31
Box   1 Volume   4	1851 Jan. 1 - 1852 Jan. 28
Box   1 Volume   5	1852 Jan. 29 - 1853 June 4
Box   1 Volume   6	1853 June 4 - 1855 Oct. 12
Box   1 Volume   7	1855 Oct. 13 - 1861 April 15
Box   1 Volume   8	1861 April 16 - 1865 Oct. 19
Box   1 Volume   9	1865 Oct. 20 - 1874 Sept. 23
Box   1 Volume   10	1874 July 3 - 1877 Sept. 23 Note: A portion of this volume is an Oil Co. order book, 1866 Aug. 7-1867 Aug. 3.
Box   1 Volume   11	1877 Sept. 24 - 1881 June 11 Note: A portion of this volume is Oil Co. minutes, 1866 April 30-1869 June 19.
Box   2 Volume   12	1881 June 12 - 1884 May 15
Box   2 Volume   13	1884 May 16 - 1886 Oct. 20
Box   2 Volume   14	1886 Oct. 20 - 1889, Sept. ?
Box   2 Volume   15	Expense Book, 1867 Oct. 17 - 1888 Jan.
Box   2 Volume   16	Genealogy of the Eli Hooker Family