Name/Title
Commentary on the Hooker Law OfficeScope and Content
Historical information on Commentary on the Hooker Law Office for 1976 Bicentennial Celebration in Waupun, WI
*Facts are typed and was scanned with mistakes in spelling left uncorrected.
COMMENTARY ON THE HOOKER LAW OFFICE
Eli Hooker was born September 17, 1820 at Dryden, New York. He was a direct descendant of Thomas Hooker who was the leader of the group of pilgrims, who became dissatisfied with the self righteous piety, at least bordering on cruelty, of the members of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and left the colony and traveled to the Virgin lands to the south and west where they founded the city of Hartford and the area that later was established as the state of Connecticut. It is interesting that the original Constitution of the United States was based to a large extent on the Connecticut Constitution and that the latter remained unchanged until only a relatively few years ago.
Eli attended, and graduated from Danby Academy located in a small community of the same name near Ithica, New York, his parents having located in that area.
As a young man Eli decided that he wanted to publish a newspaper and operate a printing shop. Since there was no newspaper printed in Fond du Lac, he picked that young city for this enterprise. Accordingly, he purchased a printing press, type and the other bare necessities at Buffalo, New York and had them shipped by boat to Manitowac from whence they were hauled to Fond du Lac. Eli walked to Fond du Lac, stopping on the way to sell subscriptions to the paper he was going to publish.
After a year or two in the newspaper business, he discovered that it did not have the incentives for the future that he desired, and he took up the study of law in the offices of attorneys both at Fond du Lac and Waupun, and on August 7, 1850, he became formally admitted to the bar by the Circuit Court of Fond du Lac County, little realizing that he was establishing what has become the oldest family law firm in the State of Wisconsin.
Eli was a character; he was a great believer in temperance and the evils of the Demon Rum, as was his wife Catherine. The latter was once described by her daughter-in-law as the finest woman she had ever known. In the 1880's, Eli was nominated and ran for Attorney General of Wisconsin on the Prohibition ticket, In beer drinking Wisconsin, one can readily understand how far he got in that matter.
As a lawyer, he was a fighter and a good one. In one instance one of the litigants he had defeated in a law suit met him on Main Street, grabbed a buggy whip and whipped Eli down the street. Eli had the last word, however, for he sublimated his embarrassment, sued the whip wielder for damages in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court and Eli collected substantial damages from the incident.
In the early 1830's the Village of Brandon voted "dry", in other words to prohibit the sale of liquor in the village, and engaged Eli to prosecute the offenders. This turned out to be quite a task and naturally became quite expensive, including in part legal fees to Eli and his son Culver who had joined the office in 1880 after his admission to the bar. The Village Board refused to authorize any additional expense, but a man named Russell was president of the Village and an ardent prohibitionist, and verbally agreed with Eli that the latter should continue his work in drying up the Village and promised Eli that if the Village would not pay his fees and expenses, that he would personally pay them. Alas, Russell re-neged on his promise and after a law suit that went to the Supreme Court, the final decision, was that the promise to pay the debt or default of another must be in writing with the stated consideration. Ever since, this case has been looked upon as the leading case on suretyship in the State of Wisconsin.
After Eli had recognized that Waupun was to be his home, he did his part in community work. In 1850 the state legislature was selecting a site for the Wisconsin State Prison and Eli correctly realized that such an institution would be a very valuable asset to Waupun. Accordingly, he spent a considerable time at Madison, lobbying on this project. It so happened that this period coincided with the date that he and Catherine had fixed for their wedding date. She recognized what this meant to Eli and readily consented to an adjournment, but her uncle, with whom she was staying in Milwaukee, and at whose home the wedding had been planned, at first refused to go along with postponement, and even threatened to have nothing to do with a man who wouldn't come to his own wedding. But he finally relented, Catherine and Eli were married and we still have the Wisconsin State Prison at Waupun, with its several hundred civilian employees.
Eli never quite lost his interest in the newspaper field, as on two occasions he took over the operation of The Waupun Times, as an adjunct to his law practice, but the added load of work forced him to give up his "newspapering."
Culver E. Hooker was born at Waupun, on February 10, 1855. After spending two years at Laurence College as a young lad doing what we today would call prep school work, a year in business school at Chicago, four years at the University of Wisconsin where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1878, and two years of legal study in his father's law office, Culver E. Hooker was admitted to the bar in 1880.
He was a brillant lawyer, active in trial work, frequently asked by other attorneys to assit them in particularly difficult cases, very effective in arguments to trial courts and before the Supreme Court; he was a former Mayor of the City, a member of the legislature for one term, for forty years a member of the County Board of lodge County, City Attorney for the City of Waupun for many years, a director of The National Bank of Waupun for thirty years and at his death on August 31, 1928, he was Chairman of the board of Supervisors of Dodge County and President of the National Bank. For legal ability he was the ablest lawyer ever connected with the Hooker Law Office.
Edward Wight Hooker was born at Waupun on March 31, 1899, attended school in Waupun, was graduated from Waupun High School in 1917, was briefly in Military service in World War I, graduated from Amherst College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1921, graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School with a Bachelor of Laws degree in 1924, and was admitted to the bar in 1924, entering into partnership with his father which continued until the latter's death in 1928. Since 1928 Edward has continued in the pracice of law, and is now practicing in partnership with Peter John Hoeper, under the firm name of Hooker and Hoeper, in a building constructed on the same parcel of real estate on which the Hooker Law Office has been operating without interruption since 1857.Acquisition
Accession
2016.0075Source or Donor
Waupun Area Chamber of CommerceAcquisition Method
Donation
