1. Tampa Florida Peninsular, July 14, 1860.

2. Hillsborough County, Deed Book C, 200-201; Tampa Florida Peninsular, May 21, 1859.

3. William B. Hooker Family Bible, typescript at Polk County Historical Library, Bartow, FL; Family Record of Stephen Hooker, Stephen C. Hooker, and William B. Hooker, copy in possession of author. This very old memorandum book is believed to have originally belonged to Capt. Hooker's son, William Jasper. It later was owned by James Newton Hooker and was in the possession of his granddaughter, Meromay (Boynton) Davis in 1996. Folks Huxford, comp., Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, 7 vols. (1951-1975), III, 143-145; IV, 144-145; Malcolm D. Hooker, Descendants and Ancestors of Benjamin and Ann Frizelle Hooker and related families, Appendices, revisions and supplements, 1977, 1978, & 1979 (1979), 1978 & 1979 supplement, buff, 1-25, Buff 1-8; Robert H. Swain, Swains of Nantucket, Tales and Trails (Charlotte, NC, 1990), 58-63; Charles R. Holloman, "The Hooker Family of Old James Cittie and Surry Counties in Virginia and their Descendants in North Carolina and Mississippi...'' (1981), typescript in possession of author; Percy H. Hooker Chart; Bertie County, NC, Deed Book F, 201, 209, 414, 542; Deed Book G, 83, 152, 181, 484, 534; Deed Book H, 178, 316, 376, 413, 457; Deed Book I, 32, 83, 89; Will of John Swain, Apr. 6, 1749, probated Dec. Ct., 1749, Tyrrell County, NC; Will of Samuel Spruill, Sr., Aug. 19, 1760, Tyrrell County, NC; Will of Stephen Hooker, Nov. 6, 1766, probated March Ct., 1767, Tyrrell County, NC; Will of Isaac Alexander, Oct. 28, 1777, Tyrrell County, NC; Will of John Hooker, Apr. 19, 1790, probated July Term, 1790, Tyrrell County, NC; Will of Nathan Hooker (son of Stephen), March 9, 1801, probated April Ct., 1801 Tyrrell County, NC;-- originals at North Carolina State Archives; Stephen E. Bradley, Jr., Tyrrell County North Carolina Estate Records 1734-1800, 25, 49; Tyrrell County, NC, Deed Book 1, 409, 418; Deed Book 4, Pt. 2, 37; Deed Book 10, 39; Deed Book 11, 371; Deed Book 12, 478; Deed Book 13, 70; Pasquotank County, NC, Deed Book P, 213, Deed Book R, 101, 328; Edgecombe County, NC, Deed Book 8, 97; Tyrrell and Pasquotank County, NC, Marriage Records; Tyrrell County, NC, County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions, minutes, March 1755, June 1755, June 1757, 1760; Clarence E. Ratcliff, comp. North Carolina Taxpayers, 1701-1786 (Baltimore:1984), 101; North Carolina Taxpayers, 1679-1790, Volume 2 (Baltimore, 1987), 98; "1757 Tax List of Bertie County," The North Carolinian 4 (December 1958), 495; "Dobbs County Taxables List, 1769," North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal 15 (May 1989), 77; "1779 Tax List of Hertford County, N.C.," North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal 20 (November 1994), 270, 275; "A List of Taxables in Tyrrell County, 1782," North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal 10, 245-246; Alvaretta Kenan Register, State Census of North Carolina, 1784-1787 2d Ed. (Baltimore, 1993), 156, 159, 160; Elizabeth Petty Bentley, comp., Index to the 1800 Census of North Carolina (Baltimore, 1977), 116; Index to the 1810 Census of North Carolina (Baltimore, 1978), 120; Murtie June Clark, Colonial Soldiers of the South (Baltimore, 1986), 750, 792, 827; "Early Livestock Owners in the Bertie,...Area," Journal of North Carolina Genealogy 11 (Winter 1965), 1571; "Tyrrell County Stock Marks," Journal of North Carolina Genealogy 15 (Summer 1969), 2328, 2330; North Carolina Colonial and Revolutionary Records, V, 978; VI, 390, 470, 662; IX, 156; XVI, 2; XVII, 265; XIX, 707, 719; XX, 148, 153, 201, 376, 382-383; James M. Creech, History of Greene County, North Carolina (Baltimore, 1979), 124, 129, 132, 134, 161, 316, 619; Raleigh, NC Star, Jan. 18, 1810, Dec. 23, 1814; Colonial Records of Georgia, IX, 205, 238, 356, 362; Revolutionary Records of Georgia 1778-1785, II, 270, 276; Robert Scott Davis, Jr., and Rev. Silas Emmett Lucas, Jr., The Families of Burke County, 1755-1855 a Census (1981), 28, 39, 52, 74, 103, 112, 121, 138, 143; Augusta B. Fothergill, Peter Jones and Richard Jones Genealogies (1924), 63-64; Silas Emmett Lucas, The Index to the Headright and Bounty Lands of Georgia 1756-1909 (Vidalia, GA, 1990), 301; Robert Scott Davis, Jr., A History of Montgomery County, Georgia to 1918 (Roswell, GA, 1992), 12-25, 345; Montgomery County, GA, Deed Book E, 55-57; Georgia Republican and State Intelligencer, Dec. 24, 1804; "Georgia Military Affairs," (1940), typescript at Georgia Dept. of Archives and History, Atlanta, 2, pt. 1, Oct. 1, 1793-Sept. 20, 1794, 101-102; 2, pt. 2, Sept. 20, 1794-Nov. 10, 1800, 234-242; 422; 4, Jan. 4, 1814-Oct. 9, 1819, 422; "Old Georgia Newspapers," Georgia Genealogical Magazine 9 (July 1963), 512 (56); "Hancock County, Georgia Will and Estate Records," Georgia Genealogical Magazine 52-53 (Spring-Summer 1974), 142, 144; R. J. Taylor,Jr., An Index to Georgia Tax Digests 1800-1802 (Atlanta, 1986), 39; "Washington County Surveyors Records," Georgia Genealogical Magazine 42 (Fall 1971), 447 (5); Washington County File, Box 49, File 4-2-465, Georgia Dept. of Archives and History; Tattnall County, GA, Deed Book A-B-C-D, 30, 32, 34, 91, 107, 192 and Deed Book D-E-F, 387; Tattnall County, GA, Land Grants 1801-1837, Book C, 7, 35, 171; Bulloch County, GA, Deed Book AA, 1806-1813, 178, 255; Silas Emmett Lucas, The Second or 1807 Land Lottery of Georgia (Vidalia, GA, 1968), 79; Dorothy Williams Potter, Passports of Southeastern Pioneeers 1770-1823 (Baltimore, 1982), 142-143; Letter from Henry Smith to Clerk of Court, Tatter (sic) Co Ga, Feb. 20, 1820, copy in possession of author; Tattnall County, GA, Minutes of Inferior Court (Ordinary Purposes), 1805-1816, Aug. 6, 1810, June 5, 1815, Aug. 7, 1815; Tattnall County, GA, Inferior Court (sitting for Ordinary and County Purposes), 1805-1839, 15, 16, 18, 38, 40, 41, 68, 122, 123, 137, 138, 146; Tattnall County, GA, Superior Court Minutes, 1805-1823, 84, 218, 267, 278; Tattnall County, GA, Mixed Records of Inferior and Superior Courts, 1807-1845, Capt. Jesse Durrance's District, Feb. 9, 1819; Charleston, SC Southern Christian Advocate, Oct. 7, 1853; "Tattnall County, Ga. 1820 Census," Huxford Genealogical Society Quarterly 2 (Fall 1975), 207; Lucile Hodges, A History of our Locale, Mainly Evans County Georgia (Macon, GA, 1965), 3-7, 9, 19, 33, 34, 137. I have concluded that Stephen Hooker (1769-1833), was the son of James Hooker of Hertford County, NC, by a process of elimination. Huxford, in Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, IV, 144, was wrong when he stated that Stephen was the son of a Stephen and Martha (Swain) Hooker. The elder Stephen died in 1767 in Tyrrell County, NC, leaving a will which did not mention a son named Stephen. The younger Stephen was born in 1769. There was no Martha (Swain) Hooker. Huxford was referring to Martha (Jones) Hooker, the wife of Nathan Hooker of Burke County, GA. There is no evidence that Nathan had any children. Nathan and the elder Stephen had three other brothers: William (III), John and James. John had a son named Stephen but he was born ca. 1748. This Stephen also had a son named Stephen who was living next to his father in Tyrrell County, NC, in 1800. William Hooker (III) has been suggested as the father of Stephen (1769-1833), based upon the close relationship between William's son Nathan, and Stephen Hooker in Montgomery and Tattnall Counties, GA. Huxford says Nathan and Stephen were brothers in Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, IV, 144. However, it was a supposition on his part, as revealed in a letter from Huxford to Lillian Carpenter, Nov. 8, 1956. Percy H. Hooker, a descendant of William Hooker (III), did extensive research on his family and did not include a Stephen as a son of William (III). Indeed, he had correspondence regarding the family history with Gladys (Sandlin) Locklear in 1967. Gladys (Sandlin) Locklear was a great granddaughter of Wm. B. Hooker. We are then left with the fifth brother, James Hooker. James first married Zilpha Spruill, daughter of Samuel Spruill, and had at least two children, Elizabeth and Samuel. Zilpha was dead by 1760. A 1779 tax list for Hertford County, NC, mentions "orphans" of James Hooker. Samuel and probably Elizabeth were adults by that time so it is clear that James married a second time and had more children. One of these was Stephen Hooker, born 1769. In colonial tradition, the eldest son was named either for the father's father or the mother's father. Stephen named his first son, William Brinton, after his wife's father. Then, acccording to the established pattern, he named his second son, James, after his father, James Hooker. The third son was named for the father. It is also interesting to note that there was a Nathan Hooker who was captain of a militia unit in Washington County, GA, in 1793. It is doubtful that this could be the same Nathan who was the son of William (III), because Edgecombe and Tyrrell County, NC, deed records show that Nathan was still living in North Carolina at that time. The Nathan in Washington County, GA, in 1793 may well have been a brother of Stephen Hooker (1769-1833). There is a Nathan F. Hooker, born ca. 1794/1800 who was listed in the the censuses of Wilkes County, GA in 1820 and Houston County, GA, in 1830. Could he have been a son of the Nathan of 1793 Washington County? Also, a William Hooker received a land grant in 1806 in Burke County, GA. It is likely that this William was William Hooker (IV), son of William (III). William (IV) reportedly moved to Mobile, Alabama. Washington County, GA, militia papers at Georgia Dept. of Archives and History; Augusta, GA Chronicle, Jan. 11, 1806. William Brinton Hooker's name first appears on a public document in Bulloch Co., GA, in a receipt dated Aug. 2, 1808, from John Sikes for $40 in notes from "William Brinton Hooker," for a sorrel mare. Hooker was only eight years old at the time so it is possible that the horse was put in his name to shield his father from possible creditors. Bulloch County, GA, Deed Book AA, 1806-1813, 178.

4. State of Georgia, Military Records, 1808-1829, II, microcopy at Georgia Dept. of Archives and History, Atlanta; State of Georgia, Secretary of State, County Officers Commission Book 1814-1826-Indexed, 638, 474-476, 480, 543-545, 808, 809, 842; County Officers Commission Book 1826-1833-Indexed, 328, microcopy at Georgia Dept. of Archives and History; Huxford, Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, III, 144; IV, 144-145, 382. Hooker's militia district became known as "Hooker's District." Robert Latimer Hurst, This Magic Wilderness: Parts I and II Historical Features of the Wiregrass (Waycross, GA, 1982), 85; John Forsyth to William B. Hooker, Sheriff of Ware County Jan. 23, 1829, Georgia Governors’ Letterbooks, 1809-1829, 605, Georiga Dept. of Archives and History; C. T. Trowell, Exploring the Okeefenokee: Letters and Diaries from the Indian Wars, 1836-1842, Research Paper No. 5, Manuscript Series No. I (Douglas, GA, 1992), 2, 322. Bill was Wm. B. Hooker’s nickname. See "'Uncle Ed’ Hilliard Escapes Indians With Tobacco Plug," Tampa Tribune, May 1, 1960, and Myrtle Hilliard Crow, Old Tales and Trails of Florida (St. Petersburg, FL, 1987), 48.

5. Huxford, Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, III, 145; Acts of the General Assembly of the State of Georgia, 1828 (Milledgeville, GA, 1829) 130. Winaford’s mother was Mariah Henderson, herself the illegitimate daughter of John Grissett and Winnefred Dyess. Grissett's marriage to Winnefred was bigamous and she later married David A. Henderson. Mariah then assumed the Henderson name. Huxford, Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, III, 131, corrected in IV, 381, and again corrected in Huxford Genealogical Society, Inc., Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, VIII (1988), 404. See Virginia W. Westergard and Kyle S. VanLandingham, Parker and Blount in Florida (Okeechobee, FL, 1983), 160-163.

6. Cora Hinton, comp., An Early History of Hamilton County, Florida, 2d ed. (Jasper, FL, 1983), 17, also 2,3,7,18, 24, 25-27, 47,56, 62,107; Returns of Election of August 4, 1828, Hamilton County Election Returns, Territory and State Elections Returns (1824-1870), box 1, record group 156, series 21, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, hereafter, Hamilton County Election Returns; U. S. Original Census Schedules, 5th Census, 1830, Hamilton County, Florida, (Population and Slave Schedules); Marriage License and Certificate of William B. Hooker and Mary Hair; Huxford, Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, IV, 151; Hamilton County, Marks and Brands Book 1, 3; Clarence E. Carter, ed., Territorial Papers of the United States, Florida Territory, 1828-1834, XXIV, 659; Hamilton County Deed Book B, 300-302 and Deed Book C, 140-143; Laws of Florida (1834), 163; A Journal of the Proceedings of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida ... 1840 (Tallahassee, FL, 1840). 43-45; "Piedmont Baptist Association," Huxford Genealogical Society Inc. Magazine, 6 (Sept. 1979), 1227-28; Augusta GA, Southern Christian Advocate, Feb. 19, 1863; Richard Livingston, "Levi Pearce 1806-1874," South Florida Pioneers 21/22 (July-Oct. 1979), 38-41; "Benjamin Moody 1811-1896," South Florida Pioneers 8 (April 1976), 9-11. "Rates of Ferriage," Minutes of County Court, 1840, Old File No. 132, Envelope Steel File No. 31, found in Hamilton Co. Steel File 1A, 1837-1859; Tallahassee Floridian, Sept. 19, 1835; Letter from Alene (Forrester) Whitehead to Virginia (Watkins) Creighton, May 31, 1973. In his capacity as Justice of the Peace, Hooker performed the marriage ceremony for his brother Stephen C. Hooker and Elizabeth Jane Smiley, Sept. 14, 1831; his sister Nancy Hooker and Benjamin Moody, Feb. 7, 1833; and his brother James Tarpley Hooker and Sarah D. Pearce in March 1833. James Tarpley Hooker died in 1836, from wounds received in the Second Seminole War. His brother, Wm. B. Hooker was Administrator of the Estate. St. Augustine Florida Herald and Southern Democrat, Aug. 22, 1839, Apr. 2, June 19, 1840; Huxford Genealogical Society, Inc., Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, IX (1993), 256-258. Stephen Caswell Hooker died in 1837 and his brother William was appointed Administrator in 1838. Hamilton County, Estate of Stephen C. Hooker, 1838, File 11B. See Westergard and VanLandingham, Parker and Blount in Florida, 83-90, 352-353.

7. McLemore’s Company, Compiled Service Records of Volunteers Who Served in Organizations from the State of Florida during the Florida Indian War, 1835-1858, record group 95, National Archives, Microcopy M-1086; Jacksonville Courier, Dec. 31, 1835.

8. Tallahassee Floridian, Jan. 30, 1836. A slightly different version appeared in the Jacksonville Courier, Jan. 28, 1836.

9. Reed’s Company, Record of Events, Compiled Service Records, Indian War, National Archives.

10. John T. Sprague, The Origin, Progress and Conclusion of the Florida War (New York, 1848, facs. ed., Gainesville, FL, 1964), 165. Hooker’s obituary stated that he "acted a conspicuous and gallant part in the battles of Wahoo Swamp and Withlacoochee; was with Gen. Clinch when he rescued Gen. Gaines command at Camp Izard;" Tampa Florida Peninsular, June 17, 1871.

11. Greenleaf Dearborn to "My dear wife," July 6, 1838, Letters of an Indian Fighter, Special Collections, Jacksonville, FL, Public Library; Capt. Hooker’s company was in service from April to July, 1838, but there is no muster roll on file. See Bounty Land Application of Wm. B. Hooker, Warrant No. 23,365, Act of 1850, National Archives. Hooker also served in the companies of Capt. Law in 1836 and Capt. Niblack, Jan-June, 1837. Muster Rolls, Florida Indian Wars, II, 64-68, Florida State Archives; Reed's, Law’s, Niblack’s and Brown’s Companies, Compiled Service Records, Indian War, National Archives. From Sept. to Dec. 1840, Hooker provided "wagon hire" to the U.S. Government and was allowed $369 in payment. Quartermaster Records, record group 92, OB 362, National Archives. Methodist preacher, John L. Jerry, who lived in Hooker's JP district in the early 1830s and who is buried at Swift Creek Cemetery in Hamilton County, bemoaned the state of affairs in north Florida in a letter of Aug. 29, 1838: "Eleven years ago I formed this mission....
Four years ago I travelled it again. We then had four temperance societies, numbering three hundred members, and not one grog shop in Hamilton or Columbia counties. Religion flourished, and peace and harmony prevailed; but her glory is departed! Our temperance officers are now the first to take the bottle, and our old grey-headed Methodists and Baptists drunk, drunk, wallowing in their filth! and little boys drunk, and blaspheming the name of God, and quarreling and fighting! Whiskey shops are scattered all over our once happy land! Go to the different posts and your ears are saluted witht the horrid yells of drunken men, and others are gambling from morning till night.
I now see and feel the value of the glorious Gospel of Jesus more than ever. I believe that if this people had been entirely destitute of the gospel, they would have sunk down into heathenism; but lest you think that I am carried away by my feelings, I will draw a veil over the rest--though I have not given you the worst. But notwithstanding all the corruption that has prevailed in East Florida, there are here and there a few among the males who have stood firm and undaunted. The females are worthy of all commendation --many of them still enjoy religion.... "
"Moral Effects of the War in East Florida," Charleston, SC Southern Christian Advocate, Nov. 2, 1838; List of "poles" in Hall's, Hooker's and Zipprer's Districts, early 1830s, loose papers in Hamilton Co. files; Hinton, An Early History of Hamilton County, Florida, 51-52.

12. Hamilton County Election Returns, Oct. 8, Nov. 7, 1838; Fla. Centennial Commission, Florida Becomes a State (Tallahassee, 1945), 48, 133, 146, 208-21l, 221; Carter, Territorial Papers, Florida, 1839-1845, XXVI, 88-89.

13. Perry Green Wall to William B. Hooker, Oct. 18, 185l, original letter in possession of J. E. Wall, III; U.S. Original Census Schedules, 6th Census, 1840, Hamilton Co., FL (Population and Slave Schedules); "With Land Tax Suspended 1841 Territorial Treasury Was Just About Bankrupt," Tampa Tribune, Oct. 18, 1956; St. Augustine Herald and Southern Democrat, Jan. 23, 1843; Hamilton County, Orders of Court, 1841, Old File No. 135; Hamilton County, Deed Book B, 300-302 and Deed Book C, 8-9, 140-143, 361-362; William B. Hooker Family Bible. Passed by Congress in 1842, the Armed Occupation Act opened up much of central Florida to settlement. A single man or head of family could receive 160 acres if he could bear arms, build a house and live on the land five years and cultivate five acres. Excluded from the act were persons owning 160 or more acres of land. See Canter Brown, Jr., Florida's Peace River Frontier (Orlando, FL, 1991), 66. Hooker’s 489 acre tract in Hamilton Co. was made up of four parcels. The first was purchased Sept. 24, 1833, and the last three were purchased (2) Feb. 6, and (1) March 7, 1837. The tract was located in Sections 4, 8 and 9, Township 2 South, Range 16 East. A patent for the first parcel was issued Oct. 20, 1835, and the last three patents were issued Sept. 20, 1839. The Ichetucknee tract in Columbia Co. was purchased in 1837 but the patent was not issued until July 10, 1844. Historical Records and State Archives Surveys, Work Projects Administration, Alphabetical List Tallahassee and Newnansville Land Office Receiver’s Receipts, 4 vols., I, H-28; U. S. Tract Book Vol. 3, Newnansville, Range 15 East and US. Tract Book Vol. 4, Newnansville, Range 16 East, Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection; Patent 4420, Vol. 10:364; Patent 6750, Vol. 15:120; Patent 6751, Vol. 15:121; Patent 6849, Vol 15:207; and Patent 121, Vol. 1:65, U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Eastern States Office, Arlington, VA. Hooker also bought property in Section 34, Township 4 South, Range 17 East in Columbia Co., Feb. 10, 1838. The patent was issued July 10, 1844. Tract Book for Township 4 South, Range 17 East, Florida. Dept. of Environmental Protection. For more on Hooker’s legal problems in Hamilton Co., see Hamilton County Criminal-Common Law Docket 1839-1845; Middle District of Florida, Superior Court Minutes (book is titled in front as Hamilton County Tax Deed Book A); and Hamilton County Circuit Court Minutes 1844-1854. Hooker was indicted in the June 1839 Term by the Hamilton County Grand Jury on two separate charges of larceny. The first was for taking a hog and the second was for taking and marking six pigs. Witnesses for the Territory were Joseph and Thomas Holden. Trial was held in the Fall Term, Oct. 24, 1839. A 12-man jury was sworn, considered both cases and Hooker was acquitted. This case followed an earlier, unsuccessful civil case for trover, brought earlier in the year by Joseph Holden and Alex Stapleton. Also, in the October 1839 Term of Superior Court, Hooker was indicted for libel. The following April, the case was continued and an alias capias issued against Hooker. Trial finally occurred on Dec. 4, 1840, when a 12-man jury found Hooker not guilty. One of the witnesses for the Territory was Jonathan K. Prevatt, whose sister, Rachel, married James Tarpley Hooker, William's brother. Rachel died in 1832, James died in 1836 and in 1839 James D. Prevatt, the maternal grandfather, was appointed guardian of their two minor children. Hamilton County Court records indicate that there was some controversy surrounding this action. William B. Hooker, who was serving as Administrator of his brother's estate, by order of the Columbia County Court, was inititally appointed guardian but the order was crossed out and and his name was replaced with Prevatt's. At any rate, the libel prosecution may have been an offshoot of the family feud over the handling of James T. Hooker's estate. See Hamilton County, Minutes of County Court, 1840, found in envelope, steel file 31, in Steel files 1A, 1837-1859. In 1841, the Legislative Council approved an act creating the Hamilton Academy, to "be situated in or near the village of Jasper in the County of Hamilton." William B. Hooker, along with Peter W. Law, Joseph B. Watts, Wm. Roberts, Archibald McNeil and Israel M. Stewart were named as Trustees. Laws of Florida (1841), 37-38.

14. John Solomon Otto, "Hillsborough County (1850): A Community in the South Florida Flatwoods," Florida Historical Quarterly 62 (October 1983), 191; Armed Occupation Act Files of Wm. B. Hooker, John Parker, John I. Hooker, and William Parker, record group 49, National Archives; Original Survey (Plat Map) of Township 29 South, Range 20 East, Florida Dept. of Environmental Protection; Family Record of Stephen Hooker. etc.; Hillsborough County, Deed Book B, 80-81, 387-389; Westergard and VanLandingham, Parker and Blount in Florida, 83-90,160-163; Livingston, "Levi Pearce 1806-1874," 39-40; Kyle S. VanLandingham, "John Irving Hooker 1822-1862," South Florida Pioneers 15/16 (January/April 1978), 8-9; Paul E. Dinnis, Flickering Flames Along the Alafia circa 1850-1900 (Brandon, FL, 1976?), 9; Richard McKendree Tydings, "The Reminiscenses of an Itinerant Preacher," intro. by Ruth S. Irvin, Tampa Bay History 6 (Fall/Winter 1984), 80. A. M. Randolph surveyed Township 29 South, Range 20 East in the first quarter of 1843. He shows Hooker's house and fields located in the SE 1/4 of Section 2, although Hooker's patent for 160 acres was for the NE 1/4 of Section 11. In Florida’s "first statewide election," May 26, 1845, William B. Hooker and John Hooker voted at Wacahootie in Marion County. Brian E. Michaels, Florida Voters in Their First Statewide Election (1987), 70-71. The patent for Hooker’s Armed Occupation Act land was dated August 1, 1849. AOA file of W. B. Hooker. See Superior Court Minutes for Alachua, Hillsborough, Benton and Levy Counties, Eastern District of Florida, Spring Term 1845, for litigation involving Capt. Hooker in Hillsborough Co. in early 1845, specifically, Jacob Summerlin v. Wm. B. Hooker and Wm. M. Reed. Original Ledger at P. K. Yonge Library of Florida History, University of Florida. In Florida and the southeast an unmarked calf was called a harry-dick, a hair dick or a heredic, a corruption of the word heretic. The term maverick was not used. See "A Florida 'Harry-Dick,'" Tampa Florida Peninsular, April 27, 1867; Julia E. Harn, "Old Canoochee Backwoods Sketches," Georgia Historical Quarterly 24 (December 1940), 383.

15. "Celebration of the Fourth of July at Tampa Bay," Jacksonville The News, July 30, 1847; Florida House Journal (1844), 158; Florida Senate Journal (1844), 227. County commissioners were elected to 2-year terms in a countywide at-large election. The top four candidates were elected. In Oct. 1847, Hooker came in third, with 66 votes. Returns of Election of October, 1847, Hillsborough County, Florida State Archives; William B. Hooker Family Bible. Wm. B. Hooker served as private in Capt. John Parker’s company during the Seminole Indian scare in 1849. David J. Coles, "Captain John Parker’s Mounted Volunteers: A Muster Roll from the 1849 Indian Scare," Florida Genealogist 12 (Summer 1989), 101-104. He also furnished corn and fodder to Parker’s company from July to Oct. 1849 and received $60.91 1/2 in payment from the state in 1853. Office of the Comptroller, Territorial and Statehood Military Expenditures, Vouchers for Goods and Services Furnished by Civilians, record group 350, series 43, Florida State Archives.

16. Hillsborough County Tax Books, 1847, 1848, 1849, 1850, Florida State Library; U.S. Original Census Schedules, 7th Census, 1850, (Agricultural Schedules); Orange County Tax Books, 1851, 1852, 1854, Florida State Library; Hillsborough County, Record of Marks and Brands, 3-14. The ear marks registered were swallow fork and under bit in each ear and for his children swallow fork and under keel in one ear and under keel in the other.

17. D. B. McKay, "Story of Mrs. Blount Recalls Rugged Days," Tampa Tribune, Sept. 28, 1948.

18. "Peace River Reminiscences," Bartow, FL Courier-Informant, Sept. 21, 1890; Jacksonville Florida News, June 28, 1856; Tallahassee Floridian and Journal, July 1,1854; Hillsborough County, Commission Minute Book A, 1846-1863, 45-46, 72; Tampa Florida Peninsular, March 10, 1855; Hillsborough County Tax Book, 1855, Florida State Library.

19. James McKay Account Book, Misc. MS 59, University of South Florida Special Collections, Tampa.

20. Grady McWhiney, Cracker Culture: Celtic Ways in the Old South (Tuscaloosa, AL, 1988), 67, 78. Of course, laziness, according to McWhiney, was not considered a bad thing by Southerners. It "did not mean being indolent, shiftless, slothful, and worthless; it meant being free from work, having spare time to do as they pleased, being at liberty, and enjoying their leisure." The standard work on the Florida cattle industry is Joe A. Akerman, Jr., Florida Cowman, A History of Florida Cattle Raising (Kissimmee, FL, 1976). Other excellent sources are John Solomon Otto, "Florida's Cattle-Ranching Frontier: Hillsborough County (1860)," Florida Historical Quarterly 63 (July 1984), 71-83; "Florida's Cattle-Ranching Frontier: Manatee and Brevard Counties (1860)," Florida Historical Quarterly 64 (July 1985), 48-61; "Open-Range Cattle-Herding in Southern Florida," Florida Historical Quarterly 65 (January 1987), 317-334; W. Theodore Mealor, Jr., and Merle C. Prunty, "Open-Range Ranching in Southern Florida," Annals of the Association of American Geographers 66 (September 1976), 360-376; George H. Dacy, Four Centuries of Florida Ranching (St. Louis, MO, 1940), and Frank Lawrence Owsley, Plain Folk of the Old South (Baton Rouge, LA, 1949).

21. Carter, Territorial Papers, Florida, 1839-1845, XXVI, 1070-1082; Memoir of Reconnaissances With Maps During the Florida Campaign, April 1854-February 1858, record group 393, National Archives, Microcopy No. M-1090. See also Brown, Florida's Peace River Frontier, 69, 79-80 and his later book, In the Midst of All That Makes Life Worth Living Polk County, Florida, to 1940 (Tallahassee, FL, 2001), 37-40, for inconsistent and conflicting descriptions of the "neutral zone." U.S. Government Survey Plat of Township 31 South, Range 23 East; Brown, Florida’s Peace River Frontier, 378-379; James W. Covington, The Story of Southwestern Florida, 2 vols. (New York, 1957), II, 111; Park Devane, "First Florida Roads Built by Military," Sebring News, March 18, 1976; Joe Warner, The Singing River (1986), 37; KarI H. Grismer, Tampa: A History of the City of Tampa and the Tampa Bay Region of Florida (St. Petersburg, FL, 1950), 316; Hillsborough County, Deed Book C, 615. Capt. Hooker was chairman of a public meeting held at the county courthouse in Tampa, June 4, 1853, for the purpose of "taking into consideration some rumor or statement concerning a large cow-trail, which was reported to have gone from the stock range of the citizens towards the Indian Nation, and to devise means appropriate to that emergency." Hooker appointed a vigilance committee of 22 persons, including himself, Jacob Summerlin, Alderman Carlton, Capt. Jernigan and others to monitor the situation. Fearing that a mission into Indian territory might provoke hostilities, it was decided to "postpone going in pusuit of the supposed lost stock until October next," after the inauguration of Gov. Broome. Jacksonville Florida Republican, July 21, 1853.

22. Bartow Informant, Aug. 26, 1882; D. B. McKay, "The Hooker Family," Tampa Tribune, Apr.13, 1952.

23. Manatee County, Copy Deed Record A, 72-73; Military Bounty Land Warrant Files 25234, 25235, 27501, 27513, 52450, Act of 1847, record group 49, National Archives; Hillsborough County, Circuit Court Minute Book 1, 1846-1854, 402 and Minute Book 2, 1854-1866, 8, 24, 76, 78, 187, 243, 280, 348-349, 366-368, 382, 393, 436, 575, 636, 686; Hooker v. Johnson, 6 Fla. 730 (1856); 8 Fla. 453 (1859); 10 Fla. 198 (1860); Original Census Schedules 8th Census, 1860, Manatee County, FL. (Mortality Schedule); Warner, The Singing River, 131, 149; Mercer v. Hooker, 5 Fla. 277 (1853); Hooker v. Gallagher, 6 Fla. 351 (1855); Parker et al. v. Hendry, 8 Fla. 53 (1858). See Mary McMurria, "The Mystery of Fort Hamer," Bradenton Herald, Sunday Magazine, Jan. 29, 1967. One criminal prosecution against William B. Hooker has been found in the Hillsborough County records. He was indicted Oct. 17, 1855 by the grand jury "for selling unwholesome provisions." He was tried before a jury three days later and acquitted. Hillsborough County, Circuit Court Minute Book 2, 1854-1866, 75, 83

24. Hillsborough County, Deed Book A and B, numerous entries; Hillsborough County, Marriage Record A, 6; Family Record of Stephen Hooker, etc.; Historical Records Survey, Roster of State and Local Officers Commissioned by the Governor of Florida. 1845-1868 (Jacksonville, 1941), 142; Hillsborough County, Commission Minute Book A, 1846-1863, 18, 44; Jacksonville News, Feb 12, 1848; Hillsborough County, Deed Book A, 349; Hillsborough Lodge No. 25. F.&A.M., Minute Book 1852-1857, 24, 32-34; Hillsborough Lodge No. 25, F.& A.M. 1850-1976 (n.d.), 3-6, 23; Lake City Florida Index, Feb. 16, March 23, 1900; Kyle S. VanLandingham, "John Henry Hollingsworth: 1822-1893," South Florida Pioneers 6 (October 1975), 5-7; Wm. B. Hooker Family Bible; Tampa Florida Peninsular, Jan. 9, 1858. Elizabeth Brinton Hooker, Capt. Hooker’s mother, d. July 24, 1853, in Tampa. "The influence of her devoted life is seen, in the character of her children and grandchildren. Some time previous to her death she lost her sight and was the subject of affliction. She murmered not. God’s grace was sufficient for her. She rejoiced alway and prayed without ceasing. Her example was of great service to the cause of religion. Long will the ministers of Christ remember her." Charleston, SC Southern Christian Advocate, Oct. 7, 1853.

25. Gary Mormino, ed., "‘The Firing of Guns and Crackers Continued Till Light’: A Diary of the Billy Bowlegs War," Tequesta 45 (1985), 57.

26. Savannah Daily Georgian, Jan. 20, 1856.

27. Capt. Wm. B. Hooker to Gov. James Broome, Jan. 3, 1856, Florida House Journal (1856), 23-24. The original letter can be found in Office of the Governor, Correspondence of Gov. J. E. Broome, record group 101, series 777, Box 2, Indian and Military Affairs, Jan. 1853-Feb. 1856, Florida State Archives. The original letter appears to be in the handwriting of Henry A Crane of Tampa. It matches original copies of Crane's correspondence when he served in the Union army during the Civil War. See US Army Continental Commands, 1820-1920, record group 393, Dept. and District of Key West, 1861-1868, Letters Received 1861-1865, National Archives, microfilm at P. K. Yonge Library, University of Florida. Crane’s handwriting is evident in another letter,-- one from Aaron T. Jernigan to Gov. Thomas Brown, Feb. 9, 1852. See Office of the Governor, Correspondence of Gov. Thomas Brown, record group 101, series 755, Box 2, Indian Affairs, 1849-Feb. 1852, Florida State Archives.

28. Tampa Florida Peninsular, Feb. 16, March 1, April 5, 12, 1856.

29. Francis A. Page to A. Pleasanton, Jan. 31, 1857, Letters Sent, Registers of Letters Received, and Letters Received by Headquarters, Troops in Florida, and Headquarters. Dept. of Florida, 1850-1858, record group 393, National Archives, hereafter, M-1084.. This file contains a number of letters from Capt. Hooker, in his own handwriting.

30. Tampa Florida Peninsular, March 8, April 5, 12, 1856; Brown, Florida’s Peace River Frontier, 110, 112. See also Joseph M. Pearce to Col. Munroe, March 5, 1856 and Bvt. Col. John Munroe to Adjutant Gen. Samuel Cooper, Apr. 27,1856, M-1084. The Tampa Florida Peninsular reported in its June 28, 1856 issue: "A letter, from Wm. W. Stallings, informs us that the fence of Capt. Hooker's plantation, on Manatee, was fired by Indians, on the 16th inst. The Indians were trailed some distance, but not overtaken.".

31. Tampa Florida Peninsular, June 21, July 5, 1856; Huxford, Pioneers of Wiregrass Georgia, III, l43-l45; Brown, Florida’s Peace River Frontier, 113-115. On Apr. 24, 1858, Hooker was appointed guardian for the six minor children of William and Winaford (Hooker) Parker. Winaford had d. May 8, 1856. On behalf of his orphan grandchildren he applied for and received a U.S. government pension of $3.50 a month for five years commencing June 14, 1856, based on Pvt. Parker's service. The pension was granted Nov. 29, 1858, under a 1836 law. Pension File 26852, National Archives.

32. Tampa Florida Peninsular, July 5, 1856. Capt. Hooker's report was also printed in the July 19, 1856 issues of the Tallahassee Floridian and Journal and the Pensacola Gazette.

33. Ibid.

34. Ibid.

35. There has been some confusion regarding the spelling of the surname of Brevet Colonel John Munroe, who was a Major in the 2nd U.S. Artillery. Many letters to him spell his last name Monroe and the Tampa Florida Peninsular often spelled his name as Monroe. Matthew P. Lyons to Col. Munroe, July 7, 1856; Page to Hooker, July 14, 1856; James D. Green to Munroe, July 30, 1856; Statement of John Parker, July 28, 1856, M-1084.

36. Tampa Florida Peninsular, Aug. 6, l856.

37. Roll of Capt. Wm. B. Hookers Company, Compiled Service Records, Indian War, National Archives; Florida Department of Military Affairs Special Archives Publication Number 72 Florida Militia Muster Roles (sic) Seminole Indian Wars (Vol. 5), 29-34.

38. James W. Covington, The Billy Bowlegs War, 1855-1858 The Final Stand of the Seminoles Against the Whites (Chuluota, FL,1982), 52. See also Brown, Florida’s Peace River Frontier, 110-115 and Janet S. Matthews, Edge of Wilderness A Settlement History of Manatee River and Sarasota Bay (Tulsa, OK, 983), 219, 232-233.

39. Brown, Florida‘s Peace River Frontier, 112.

40. Page to Pleasanton, Jan. 31, 1857, M-1084. James D. Green and Matthew P. Lyons supported the Union during the latter part of the Civil War and were active in Republican Reconstruction politics in the Tampa Bay and Peace River Valley areas. Green subsisted until his death on a series of Federal and state appointments. Spessard Stone, "Capt. James D. Green, South Florida Unionist," Sunland Tribune 18 (November 1992), 25-28; "Tories of the Lower Peace River Valley," Sunland Tribune 22 (November 1996), 55-62. Lyons became a complete reprobate. F. C. M. Boggess in A Veteran of Four Wars (Arcadia, FL, 1900), 75, wrote of Lyons, "He has been always guilty acts; was separated from his wife and he is now living on charity; is not respected by any one and he has acted so badly that he is hiding from those he once endeavored to swindle. His family would have nothing to do with him."

41. Tampa Florida Peninsular, Aug. 30, Sept. 13, Nov. 1, 1856. Canter Brown, Jr., Tampa Before the Civil War (Tampa, FL, 1999), 144; Hillsborough County Election Returns, Florida StateArchives.

42. Manatee County, Copy Deed Record A, 72-73; Hillsborough County, Deed Book B, 781-783; Tampa Florida Peninsular, Sept. 25, 1858, July 16, 1859. The names of Hooker’s ten slaves mentioned in the 1858 contract were Will, Dolly (his wife), Richard, Joshua, Frank, Solomon, Henry, William, Florence and Amanda. In Jan. 1842, in Hamilton Co., he mortgaged four slaves as security for a $526 loan from Redin W. Parramore. The four were Will, 24; Dolly,19; Peter, 4; and Nancy, 2. In 1853 he used three of these slaves, Nancy, Dick and Josh in his farming operations at his plantation in the Manatee section. In Hillsborough County, Hooker mortgaged six slaves: Parrish, 39; Lucky (Suky?), his wife 32; Charles, 16; George 15; Connor, 3; and Doctor, 2, to Wm. W. Tucker in 1853. Finally, on July 29, 1861, Hooker’s "servants" Paris, George and Sooky became members of the First Baptist Church of Tampa. Hillsborough County, Deed Book B, 132, 782; Hamilton County, Deed Book B, 231-232; Hooker v. Johnson, 6 Fla. 730, 733 (1856); Tampa Tribune, Sept. 20, 1953.

43. City Council Minutes (August 21, 1857-May 1882), II, 17, 21-26, City of Tampa Archives, Tampa; Canter Brown, Jr., "Politics, Greed, Regulator Violence and Race in Tampa, 1858-1859," Sunland Tribune 20 (November 1994), 25-29.

44. William B. Hooker Family Bible; Family Record of Stephen Hooker, etc.; Tampa Florida Peninsular, July 25, Aug. 8, 1857, June 26, Oct. 17, 1858, Aug. 6, 1859; Mary H. Hooker Memory Book, in possession of L. E. Vinson, Tarpon Springs, FL; Lillie B. McDuffee, The Lures of Manatee (Manatee, FL,1933), 114; Wm. Henry Rosier and Fred Lamar Pearson, Jr. , The Grand Lodge of Georgia: Free and Accepted Masons, 1786-1980 (Macon, GA, 1983), 85-88; Joe Knetsch, "Forging the Florida Frontier: The Life and Career of Captain Samuel E. Hope," Sunland Tribune 20 (November 1994), 31-41; Kyle S. VanLandingham, "James T. Magbee: 'Union Man, Undoubted Secessionist, and High Priest in the Radical Synagogue,' " Sunland Tribune 20 (November 1994), 7-23. The Charleston, SC Southern Christian Advocate, Sept. 4, 1857, included an obituary of Julia Loretto Hooker by Denis B. Lyne: "She was inclined to piety from her youth up, professed religion, and united with the M.E. Church, while yet quite young, and ‘ran well for a season,’ but, last year, withdrew from the church, in good standing. After separating from the church, she indulged, for a short time, in worldly amusements; for which, under deep conviction of the evil, her heart paid a dear penalty, according to her own sincere acknowledgements. In conversation with the writer and his Presiding Elder, upon the injuries the head and affections sustain, from the influence of the giddy dance, she remarked with much feeling, ‘ the worst of all is, it injures the heart most.’ Soon afterward, in the month of May last, she was happily reclaimed at a revival meeting in Tampa, and joined the church again. After that time, until her death, her light shone brightly among men, and her conversation was of heaven. In a letter written by her to our Presiding Elder, stating the sad event of the sudden and accidental death of a lovely youth of her acquaintance, she dwelt with pleasure on a promise she made him, that she would never dance again during life; and fervently prayed, ‘May God help me to keep this promise.’ ‘His death,’ she said, ‘had taught me a lesson--to be prepared before the hour cometh.’ In the same letter she regretted deeply, not having gone out into the congregation, to persuade a young friend to the altar for prayer, and said, ‘ by the help of God, I will never again fail to do my duty in this thing.’ After her union with the Church, she was often heard to say, ‘Oh! I have more happiness in one moment of religious enjoyment, than I had in all my life-time, in the amusements of the giddy world.’ During her illness which was long and severe, borne with christian meekness, and perfect resignation, she did not say much about her future prospects. The life of the Christian is the only criterion by which to judge of the death of the righteous. Surely, she had nothing to do, but, like one of old, ‘to draw up her feet and die.’ The strength and vigor of her intellect; her vivacity, and loveliness in spirit, and nature, rendered her at once a favorite in the community at large, as well as in the large circle of her relations. But she has passed away like the morning dew, too precious to be left on earth." Julia, Mary, Meroba and Sarah Hooker were students or "scholars" in the class of Mrs. Otwayanna Roberts in Tampa in 1856. In 1860-61, Sally and Flora Hooker were enrolled in a Tampa school. Office of the Comptroller, Vouchers, Common Schools, record group 350, series 565, box 8, Florida State Archives.

45. Tampa Florida Peninsular, June 19, 1858, July 16, 1859, Aug. 25, Sep. 15, 1860; George W. Pettengill, Jr., "The Story of the Florida Railroads," The Railroad and Locomotive Historical Society Bulletin No. 86 (July 1952), 24.

46. Tampa Florida Peninsular, May 21, 1859.

47. Tampa Times, May 21, 1926; Sanborn Map Co., Insurance Maps of Tampa, Florida, 1 (New York, 1931); "Famous Orange Grove Hotel, Tampa Landmark, is Doomed," Tampa Tribune, May 10, 1945; Sunland Tribune 19 (November 1993). 71. By 1860, "William B. Hooker with vast holdings in land and cattle may have stood at the pinnacle of the town's [Tampa] financial elite." Canter Brown, Jr., Tampa in Civil War and Reconstruction (Tampa, FL, 2000), 12.

48. "Manatee County Early Shipments," South Florida Pioneers 13 (July 1978), 14-15; U.S. Original Census Schedules, 8th Census, 1860, Hillsborough, Manatee, New River Counties, FL, Population, Agricultural and Slave Schedules; Hillsborough, Manatee County, Tax Books, 1860, Florida State Library; James McKay, Jr., "Oldest Resident Citizen Recounts Tampa's Deeds," Tampa Times, Dec. 20, 1921; Bill Neeld, "Bill Neeld Recites Joys and Hardships Featuring County's Pioneer Period," Tampa Times, Oct. 17, 1930; Kissimmee Osceola Sun, June 3, 1976; Brown, Florida’s Peace River Frontier, 130-31; Columbia County, Tax Books, 1856, 1857, 1858, Florida State Library; Westergard and VanLandingham, Parker and Blount in Florida, 24; Hair Family notes in possession of the author. The 1860 Hillsborough County census is in error where it names Wm. B. Hooker's wife as Sarah.

49. Tampa Florida Peninsular, Oct. 13, 1860.

50. Hillsborough County, Deed Book C, 200-201; Manatee County, Tax Books, 1860, 1861, Florida State Library.

51. U.S. Original Census Schedules, 8th Census, 1860, Hillsborough Co., FL, (Population Schedule); Canter Brown, Jr., Ossian Bingley Hart: Florida's Loyalist Reconstruction Governor (Baton Rouge, LA, 1997), 112-113; Grismer, Tampa, 134;Tampa Florida Peninsular, Dec. 1, 1860, Jan. 19, March 16, May 4, 1861, Aug. 17, 1867, July 1, 1871; "Sunny South Guards Feted With Poetry, Banner on Departure," Tampa Tribune, July 17, 1960; Kyle S. VanLandingham, "The Union Occupation of Tampa: May 6-7, 1864," Sunland Tribune 19 (November 1993), 9; McKay General Store Account Book, 388, May 7, 1862, University of South Florida Special Collections, Tampa; Hernando County, Deed Book N, 735-739; Hernando County, Tax Book, 1863, Florida State Library; Confederate Papers Relating to Citizens and Business Firms, record group 109, M-346, National Archives. This file also reveals that Hooker received $48 reimbursement for furnishing "6 days hire for one four mule team with forage inclusive @ $8.00….per day." The team was used by Capt. Samuel Hope’s Brooksville Guards when they transferred from Bay Port to Tampa. Capt. Hooker was a frequent customer at the McKay General Store in Tampa. He purchased large quantities of corn and oats in June 1860, and bought a sewing machine for $40 in Aug. 1860 for "B. Hagler." Meroba "Mariby" Hooker bought 1 pr. Marting gert on Aug. 11, 1860. Hooker bought 2 guitar strings for 30 cents on Sept. 19 and on Sept. 21, 1860 he bought 9 wool hats at 90 cents each for a total of $8.10; also 1 pr. shoes for $1.60. On Oct. 2, he bought $30.42 worth of goods which included 50 lbs. of coffee, 10 lbs. of tobacco, 3 yds. black silk, 4 yds. of pink muslin, and 47 1/2 yds. of "Denims." On Nov. 26, he bought a saddle bridle and "wip" for $27. On Aug. 8, 1861, the captain bought an "umbrellar" for $2 and on Sept. 12, "1/2 Gal[lon] Whisky" for $1.25. He received a credit on Dec. 23 for bringing in 5 bushels of potatoes, at 4 bits a bushel for a total of $2.50. Another credit, Jan. 7, 1862, was for 5 lbs. of sheep wool at 4 bits per lb. or $2.50. The book shows he owed $692.04 on his account on Jan. 8, 1862, received $2.50 for 5 bushels of potatoes and wrote a note in the amount of $689.54 to "settel" the account. On Jan. 23, 1862 Hooker purchased a quart of "old whisky" for $l. He also bought a plug of tobacco for 35 cents on Feb. 10. On Feb. 11, he bought 1 fine black coat for $14 and 1 fine hat for $4.50. Finally, on July 11, 1862, at Brooksville, he purchased 1 linen coat for $7 and 1 silk handkerchief for $1. The account book is owned by the Tampa Historical Society and is housed in the University of South Florida Special Collections. A note in the front of the book, by Theodore Lesley, refers to it as a Friebele account book, perhaps because entries from early 1862 on are at Brooksville. However, D. B. McKay, in Pioneer Florida, II, 349, refers to it as the account book of his grandfather, James McKay’s store. Also it is identified as a McKay account book in an undated article from a Tampa newspaper entitled "Names of Early Residents Found in Day Book of 1860," found in the Henderson-Weedon Family Scrapbooks, Vol. I, (Henderson Family), Florida Collection, Florida State Library. It also should be pointed out that there are several other interesting entries in the account book. Capt. Hooker bought 1620 bricks for $22.68 on March 8, 1861 and on Apr. 4, 1861 he purchased 1 keg of nails, 100 lbs., for $5.50. Several months earlier, on Sept. 12, 1860, he was charged $77 to " C Bouquardys order." Constant Bouquardez was the builder of Hooker’s Tampa mansion, later the Orange Grove Hotel. Anthony P. Pizzo, Tampa Town: 1824-1886, Cracker Village With a Latin Accent (Miami, FL, 1968), 24. All of this indicates that Hooker’s home or adjoining buildings may have been completed as late as early 1861 even though construction was well underway in 1859. The Hillsborough County Courthouse was authorized in 1853 but not completed until 1855. Grismer, Tampa, 122. Actually, work was still going on at the courthouse as late as 1860. "Minutes Hillsborough County Commissioners Meetings," Florida Genealogical Society, Inc. Journal 18 (1982), 8.

52. David W. Hartman, comp., Biographical Rosters of Florida’s Confederate and Union Soldiers: 1861-1865, 6 vols. (Wilmington, NC, 1995), 1, 450; II, 732; III, 904; V, 2036; Dept. of War, Compiled Service Records of Confederate Soldiers who served in Organizations from the State of Florida, record group 109, M-251, National Archives. Wm. Jasper Hooker was indicted at the spring term of Manatee Circuit Court in April 1866 for the murder of one Samuel G. B. Brewer. He killed Brewer Jan. 15, 1864, after Brewer had treated Hooker’s wife "shamefully." He admitted to killing Brewer after Brewer had "advanced" towards him. There was no jail in Manatee so Sheriff Addison took Hooker to Hillsborough where he was released on a writ of habeas corpus and posted a bond for $1,000. His sureties were John Darling and Lewis Dishong. The justices of the peace were Robert Jackson and William Ashley. Circuit court was not held until spring 1866 when he was indicted. A capias was ordered when Hooker was "not found in the County." The case was continued through the fall term of 1867 when the records show "Marked Dismissed on the Docket." Hooker came under the general amnesty granted by Gov. Walker for acts against the peace of Florida which occurred during the Civil War. But Jasper had already left Florida and lived in Texas and Nebraska until July 1893, when he showed up in Florida to visit his brother James, after a 27-year absence. He eventually returned to Tampa, received an Indian War pension and died in Nov. 1904. State of Florida v. William J. Hooker, Murder, Manatee Co. Circuit Court Files; Manatee County, Circuit Court Minute Book 1, 15, 16, 21, 27; St. Augustine Examiner, Feb. 9, 1867; unidentified newspaper, July 19, 1893; Indian War Pension File of Wm. J. Hooker, National Archives.

53. Augusta, GA Southern Christian Advocate, Feb. 19, 1863; D. B. McKay, Pioneer Florida, 3 vols. (Tampa, 1959) II, 352-358. Mary Hooker was apparently unable to read or write most of her life. She signed her name with an X mark on a deed dated May 10 1858. However, she did sign her actual name on a deed dated June 8, 1859, indicating she learned to read and write during this period. Hillsborough County, Deed Book C, 1-2 and Deed Book K, 71-72.

54. Marion County, Marriage License Book C, 14; Letter from George Wheeler to Kyle S. VanLandingham, Oct. 8, 1990; Hartman, Biographical Rosters, II, 745.

55. Kyle S. VanLandingham " ‘My National Troubles’: The Civil War Papers of William McCullough," Sunland Tribune 20 (November 1994), 63.

56. Ibid., 81. Hooker also owned salt works on Tampa Bay which were destroyed by the U. S. Navy June 2, 1864. The works were described as "very fine ones, consisting of four very large kettles and large furnace;" Edward VanSice, Acting Master, U.S.S. Sunflower, to Acting Rear Admiral T. Bailey, June 7, 1864, Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. 30 vols. (Washington, DC, 1894-1922), Ser. 1, XVII, 714-715.

57. Application of pardon of Wm. B. Hooker, Case files of Applications from former Confederates for Presidential Pardons, 1865-1867, Amnesty Papers, record group 94, M-1003, National Archives; House Document No. 116, 39th congress, 2d session, (2 March 1867), Message from the President of the United States, 77; Leland Hawes, "Former Rebels saw error of their ways," Tampa Tribune, June 3, 1990. Hooker averred in his petition that "he did not bear arms during the rebellion, having been over the military age and that he did nothing more than he was compelled to do as a law abiding citizen of the so called Confederate States. ...That he is desirous of returning to his allegiance to the United States and of obtaining a pardon from the President."

58. Tampa Florida Peninsular, April 28, 1866; U.S. Original Census Schedules, 8th Census, 1860, Marion Co., FL (Population Schedule). A story, apparently apocryphal, states that the second Mrs. Hooker’s (Cathcart) children, by her first marriage, were not congenial with Capt. Hooker’s children, so he had two sets of stairs built outside the house. The Cathcart children used the east stairs, the Hooker children the west, while the captain and his wife used the inner staircase. See Stetson Kennedy; Palmetto Country (New York, 1942), 222.

59. Tampa Florida Peninsular, April 28, 1866. Tampa Guide, compiled by the Writers Program of the Work Projects Administration, included a section on the Orange Grove Hotel. It is erroneously stated that the hotel was "removed from its original site in an orange grove to 806 Madison Street." That is incorrect. The building was constructed at 806 Madison Street and was never moved. The Tampa Guide also says that it was at Hooker’s home that "J. A. Butterfield wrote the music for When You and I Were Young, Maggie,..." Federal Works Agency, Work Projects Administration, Tampa Guide (1941), 37-38, 204. The Tampa Florida Peninsular, Feb, 29, 1868, reported: "The Orange grown here is superior in size and flavor to the Cuba Orange. In fact most of the Tropical fruit flourish here. There is some very handsome trees in Tampa. Capt. Hooker, a[t] the Orange Grove Hotel, has beautiful trees and delicious fruit." The "Triumph," or "Early Triumph," grapefruit "originated as a seedling in the grounds of the Orange Grove Hotel in Tampa….is quite seedy...white-fleshed and of exceptionally high quality:" It is described as a cultivar, "resembling grapefruit." Larry Jackson and Julian Sands, Fruit Crops Fact Sheet: Grapefruit, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida.

60. Manatee County, Deed Book D, 95; Interrogatories answered by James D. Haygood, Turner, et al. v. Hooker et al, Bill to Reform and Rectify Deed, Manatee County Court Records, Feb. 25, 1885; Hillsborough County, Deed Book C, 375-380, 393-395, 422, 467-469, 485, 498-499, etc.; Hillsborough County Court Docket, 1861-1869, Fall Term 1866, Spring Term 1867; Receipt of Wm. B. Hooker, March 4, 1867, Lesley Collection, USF; Tampa Florida Peninsular, Oct. 12, 1867; Petition of Wm.B. Hooker and related correspondence, record group 393, Part I, Dept. of Fla., 1865-1869, Letters Received, Box 5, National Archives; Hernando County, Deed Book A, 160-167. In addition. Hooker also had property sold at an April 19, 1871 tax sale for delinquent 1868 and 1869 state and county taxes. However, his son James bought back the property for $161.20 at the sale. Hillsborough County, Deed Book D, 27. Also, Hooker and his wife Nancy faced forclosure proceedings in 1866-67 in Marion Co., for property she had owned in Ocala. Marion County, Chancery Order Book A, 186-187, A-2, 8, 30-32. The actual site of the Fort Hamer military post, Lot 5, Section 17, Township 34 South, Range 19 East, was sold by Hooker to Wm. B. Henderson for $100 on Oct. 23, 1869. Manatee County, Old Miscellaneous Book 1859-1878, 140. See McMurria, "The Mystery of Fort Hamer." In a Deed of Gift, dated March 22, 1867, Hooker gave a piano, valued at $300 to his daughter, Ella. Hillsborough County, Deed Book C, 461.

61. Tampa Florida Peninsular, Aug. 1, 1868, June 16, 1869; Hillsborough Lodge No. 25. F.&A.M. Lodge Minutes; Hillsborough County, Deed Book C, 601-602; U.S. Original Census Schedules, 9th Census, 1870, Hillsborough Co, FL; Hillsborough County, Old Wills Book, 85-86. James Newton Hooker attended Emory College at Oxford, GA., in 1869. He moved to Polk Co., where he was a prominent businessman and represented Polk in the state senate. Tampa Florida Peninsular, Oct. 27, 1869; Jacksonville Florida Times-Union and Citizen, Apr. 2, 1899. Meroba and her second husband, Henry L. Crane, were confirmed in the Episcopal Church in 1871. St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church was organized July 24, 1871 and Henry L. Crane was elected a warden and vestryman. Meroba was a prominent woman in Tampa during the late 1800s, active in the Ladies Memorial Society which cared for the town cemetery, and was a charter member of Tampa Chapter, No. 113, United Daughters of the Confederacy, in 1897. Tampa Florida Peninsular July 29, 1871; Tampa Sunland Tribune, Aug. 18, 1877; Charter of Tampa Chapter No. 113, U.D.C. In the Tampa Florida Peninsular, Aug. 1, 1868, there was a story on the "Tampa Bridge Company": "The first we saw or heard of this institution we saw in the proceedings of the Legislature. We presume the intention of this thing is to bridge Hillsborough river at this place, or to bridge Hooker’s folly between Friebele’s and Loui’s places. If the latter, the action of the Legislature is anticipated by some good meaning person, who has already bridged that place by placing a substantial foot plank across it...." Hooker’s Folly was apparently the "Jackson Street gully and one of Tampa’s most conspicuous eyesores...The gully had been made by a small creek which drained the flat lands to the east; heavy rains had caused such serious erosion that a small canyon had been created, dividing the business district into two sections. Before the gully was filled with the [Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad] fill-dirt [in 1890], a large storm sewer was put down by the city to carry off the water. After the fill was made, Jackson Street was opened for development." Grismer, Tampa, 198. An 1886 picture of the gully or drainage ditch can be found in Tony Pizzo’s Tampa Town, 36. See "Plan of Tampa 1886," Sunland Tribune 19 (November 1993), 71, which verifies that Friebele’s and Loui Covacevich’s "places" were located next to the drainage ditch. See also Canter Brown, Jr., ed., Reminiscences of Judge Charles E. Harrison (Tampa, 1997), 20. Hooker's estate proceedings can be found in Hillsborough County, Probate Case Files 725 and 777 and in Hillsborough County, Old Administration Book 1845-1908, 202. A number of fraudulent applicactions for Federal bounty land were submitted in the 1870s. One of these, from a fictitious "Elizabeth Hooker," claiming to be the widow of Wm. B. Hooker, was submitted in 1871.

62. Hillsborough Lodge No. 25 F.&A.M., Minute Book 1867-1873, 121-123.

63. Tampa Florida Peninsular, June 17, 1871. Hooker’s obituary and the Masonic tribute states he was born May 2, 1800. His tombstone says May 10. However, his Family Bible gives May 3, 1800, as the date. His tombstone erroneously gives June 2, 1871, as the date of his death. However, the obituary, Masonic tribute and Masonic minutes correctly state that he died June 11. See Tampa Florida Peninsular, July 1, 1871 and Wm. B. Hooker Family Bible; also Family Record of Stephen Hooker, etc. Also, the original tombstone is incorrect in the date of his wife Mary’s death as it states she died Oct. 10, 1863. Her Obituary correctly gives the date as Jan. 2, 1863. See Augusta, GA Southern Christian Advocate, Feb. 19, 1863. Finally, she was born April 3, 1810, per the Family Bible, not March 3, 1810, as stated on the tombstone. The obelisk also lists the following names: E. J. Hooker, J. L. Hooker, F. A. Hooker, Wm. Hair, J. E.. Stallings, F. J. Stallings, J. J. Stallings, W. J. Parker and J. E. Parker. A new stone, placed at the foot of the original obelisk monument, giving the correct dates, was donated by the author and dedicated at the Tampa Historical Society’s Oaklawn Cemetery Ramble, April 14, 1996. The Hooker plot at Oaklawn is Lot Number 3, Section 1, located in the northwest section of the original cemetery, originally fronting on Morgan Street. Plat of "Tampa Cemetery," City of Tampa, copy provided to author by Julius J. Gordon. At the Tampa Historical Society’s first Oaklawn Cemetery Ramble, May 11, 1977, County Historian Theodore Lesley conducted a tour through the old graveyard. His comments were preserved on tape and later transcribed, with his additions and corrections. On arriving at the site of Capt. Hooker’s grave, Lesley said: "This gentleman is--was--one of the outstanding citizens of the State who lived in Tampa during his days--William B. Hooker--he was a Captain in the last Seminole Wars, was one of the largest cattle owners and the largest slave owner in the (our) area. His home was--referred to in the early days as the Orange Grove Hotel. If you folks remember it--it was where the Courthouse is sitting right now--it was the largest home on the west coast--much larger than your Gamble Mansion!...of course it was not anywhere near as impressive looking as the columns make the Gamble building look. Hooker’s home was tremendous, anyway that’s the way I remember....But it was not at the present Courthouse site--it stood on the corner of Madison and East Streets. This gentleman was a member of the First Constitutional Convention of the State of Florida which met at Port St. Joe. Hamilton Co. delegate...." Typescript of tour conducted by Theodore Lesley through Oaklawn Cemetery, May 11, 1977, copy in possession of author.

64. Tampa Florida Peninsular, July 1, 1871.

65. Charles E. Harrison, Genealogical Records the Pioneers of Tampa and Some Who Came After Them (Tampa, 1915), 110. Harrison incorrectly states that Hooker was born in 1807 in Ware Co., GA, and also reports that he sold his herd to James McKay in 1860 for $60,000. The erroneous birth information was repeated in Grismer, Tampa, 316. See, Brown, Reminiscences of Judge Charles E. Harrison, 7-11, 24.

66. D. B. McKay, "The Hooker Family." See also "Captain Hooker Fought Indians From Okeefenokee South; Built Residence Which Became Orange Grove Hotel," Tampa Tribune, Aug. 26, 1956. This is one of the standard articles on Hooker. Surprisingly, it uses the incorrect June 2, 1871 deathdate from the tombstone and incorporates it into the Florida Peninsular obituary of June 17, 1871. The obituary clearly states that Hooker died June 11, 1871. A follow-up to the Aug. 26, 1956 article was "Completing the Record," Tampa Tribune, Sept. 16, 1956. See Tampa Blue Book and Pioneers, 1914, 62. Another early account of Hooker’s life is "William Brinton Hooker," in "Hilllsborough County Personalities," Federal Writers’ Project, Work Projects Administration (Tampa, FL, 1937), 27-28. Hillsborough County, Commission Minute Book A, 1846-1863, 44, 62.This author’s first account of Hooker’s life was "William Brinton Hooker 1800-1871," South Florida Pioneers 5 (July 1975), 6-12. See also Leland Hawes, "Florida's early cattle king left his mark on the state," Tampa Tribune, May 4, 1997.

A shorter version of this paper was delivered at the "Florida Cattle Frontier Symposium," November 1995. It was revised and enlarged and then printed in the Sunland Tribune, the journal of the Tampa Historical society, Nov. 1996, Vol. 22. The current version, completed in 2003, includes much additional information. Copyright 2003, by Kyle S. VanLandingham

The author is the great-great-great grandson of William B. Hooker.