Andrew Hooper, Fourth Child of Revolutionary Soldier Absalom Hooper, Sr. (Part 3 – Hooper Family)

Andrew Hooper was the fourth of twelve children born to Absalom, Sr. and Sarah Salers Hooper, and one of the three Hooper brothers who settled in Union County, Georgia by 1840.

Andrew Hooper was born about 1792 and died in 1849. His place of birth is held to be Pendleton District, South Carolina. He grew up in Haywood County, North Carolina where his parents moved when he was young. It was there he met and married Dicie (sometimes spelled Dicey) whose maiden name is unknown.

Like his father before him who had served in the Revolutionary War, Andrew also heard the call of his country during the “unpleasantness” known in the annals of US history as the War of 1812 against Great Britain. His term of service was short, from February 16, 1815 when he volunteered until March 12, 1815 when he was honorably discharged. His army pay for the twenty-six days was $6. 93. However, as will be seen later, he had another recompense coming after his death.

It is not known precisely when Andrew Hooper migrated to Union County, Georgia to settle along Fodder Creek in what became Towns County in 1856. Andrew and his wife Dicey were residents and in the Union Census of 1840, having in their household himself and his wife who were listed as between 40-50 years of age with six children. Ages and genders of the children were two males between 10-15, one male between 20-30, one female between 5-10 and two females between 15-20. It is assumed that Andrew Hooper was a farmer at Fodder Creek. He may have assisted his brother Absalom, Jr. with his grist mill.

The known children of Andrew and Dicey Hooper were:

(1) Jonathan Hooper (1820-1880 ?) who married Lucinda Barrett (believed to be part Cherokee) in Union County on February 9, 1854 with William Burch performing their ceremony. After Towns was formed from Union County, Jonathan and Lucinda moved to the head of Byers Creek in Towns and made a living by sawmilling and farming. Jonathan was a cripple, small of stature. They had Millie Ann, Robert Richard, Jonathan “Pink”, Icey (or Dicea, after her Grandmother Hooper), Green Berry (died as infant), Mary Ollie, Gus, and Ulysses Allen. After Jonathan’s death, Lucinda married a Rizley.

(2) Sarah Hooper (1821-?) married Noah Shook and had children Mary, Jonathan, Permelia and Rebecca by 1850, with additions and/or name changes of Adaline, Dicea and Sarah (listed in 1860 census).

(3) Matilda Caroline Hooper (1824-1911) married William Burton Rogers on November 5, 1843. They lived in the Cynth Creek section of Towns County and at their deaths were interred in the Lower Hightower Cemetery. Children of this couple were Disa Manerva, Jonathan Burton, Melton Augustus, Martin W., Christopher Columbus, Freeman H., Elihu Montgomery, N. Leander, and David.

(4) William J. Hooper (1828-1878) married Jemima Hooper, his first cousin, daughter of his Uncle Absalom Hooper, Jr., in Union County, GA on August 16, 1851 with M. L. Burch, justice of the peace, performing the ceremony. William enlisted in the Confederate Army in May, 1864 with Young’s Battallion, Company 1, Hampton’s Brigade. He was seriously wounded at Lovejoy Station when Sherman was marching through Georgia. Although surviving, his wounds troubled him the rest of his life. By 1870, Jemima Hooper and her widowed sister, Hannah Hooper Gilbert and children, were living in the widowed Jemima’s household.

(5) Andrew Green Hooper (1829-1898) married Martha Talitha Berry. Their children were Dicie Rebecca, John Chapman, William Alonzo; Margaret Haseltine, Louisa Arah, Highley Al, and Andrew Young. Andrew, like his brother William, enlisted in the Confederate Army, Company D, 24th Regiment. He survived the war. His widow Margaret received a Confederate pension after his death.

(6) A female child was listed in the 1840 census without a name, born between 1830-1835. No further information is found on her.

A short time after Andrew Hooper’s first wife Dicey died in 1847, he married Mary Cantrell on July 2, 1847. Mary Cantrell may have been a widow, bringing some of her own children to live in Andrew’s household. The 1850 census has some children not quite identifiable by names of children of Andrew and his first wife Dicea. These were Mary, 29; Nancy, 12, Jane 9; Sarahan 6, Mahala 4, and John 1. It is known, however, that two of these were identified as “minor children” of Andrew Hooper and received a land grant on June 30, 1857 for their father’s service in the War of 1812. It could be that Mary Mahalia (known as “Polly”) may have been a child born to Andrew and Dicey, and that her mother died at childbirth. At any rate, children 7 and 8 of Andrew Hooper were:

(7) Mary Mahalia “Polly” Hooper born in 1846 or 1847. She married David Nicholson.

(8) John Harley Hooper (1849-1912), son of Andrew and Mary Cantrell Hooper married Martha Evaline Brewster. Their seven children were Jane, Martha Ann, Mary Etta, William Luther, John, Georgia and Lula.

Andrew Hooper and his family joined the lure of new lands in the 1830s and became a part of growing Union County sometime between 1834 and 1840. Numerous descendants still reside within the mountain region near where their ancestors took up residence.

c2010 by Ethelene Dyer Jones; published Nov. 4, 2010 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville, GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.