BIO: Samuel Percy Hooker; New York State
surname: Hooker

submitted by W. David Samuelsen (no relation)
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Copyright.  All rights reserved.
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http://www.usgwarchives.org/ny/nyfiles.htm
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An Illustrated Legislative Manual
The New York Red Book
Containing the Portraits and Biographies of the U.S. Senators, Governor, State
Officers and Members of the Legislature; also with the Portraits of Judges and
Court Reporters, the New Constitution of the State, Election and Population
Statistics, and General Facts of Interest.
By Edgar L. Murlin
New Constitution Compiled by R. C. Cumming, O. L. Potter and F. B. Gilbert
Published, Albany, J. B. Lyon Company, Publishers, 1909

Copyright by J. B. Lyon Company, 1909

     Samuel Percy Hooker of Le Roy, Chairman of the State Highway Commission,
was born in Black Earth, Wisconsin, December 5, 1860, but his parents removed
to Le Roy in 1866, where he has continually since resided. Mr. Hooker was
educated at the Le Roy Academic Institute and Phillips Exeter Academy,
graduating from the latter in the class of 1879. He then entered the office of
S. C. Wells, manufacturer of patent medicines in Le Roy, and remained there
until 1892. Between 1892 and 1897 he was with George H. Wells & Co. in the
same line. He married in 1882 and has one daughter, Marjorie.

     Mr. Hooker has been active in the political affairs of the State since
1887 and has been a member of the Republican County Committee of Genesee
county most of the time since that date. In 1896 he was elected a Justice of
the Peace.

     He is a director in the Le Roy National Bank and is a member of the
Batavia Club of Bavaria, New York, and Oatka Hose Company of Le Roy, and the
Masonic order.

     Mr. Hooker was elected to the Assembly of the State of New York and
served for five terms, which was an innovation for Genesee county, it having
been the rule that a member should serve but two years. In 1904 and 1905 he
served as chairman of the Committee on Internal Affairs in the Assembly and
had much to do with the perfecting of the good roads legislation. In the
session of 1905 he introduced fourteen bills directly affecting the highway
law, all of which were passed and became part of the comphrehensive laws
relating to State aid for improving the highways.

     Mr. Hooker was one of the leading candidates for Speaker of the Assembly
in 1906,but withdrew at the request of Governor Higgins and actively supported
Mr. Wadsworth, was subsequently chosen to the position. He was chairman of the
Committee on Railroads in that session and was universally commended for the
work done by this committee. As a member of the Rules Commiittee he became one
of the leaders of the so-called reorganized Assembly and had much to do with
the success of the new organization.

     Nominated for State Senator by the Republican party in 1906 in the
Forty-fourth Senatorial district, composed of Genesee, Livingston, and Wyoming
counties, Mr. Hooker received 14,288 votes to 7,604 cast for John J. Coffey,
Democrat.

     As a Senator Mr. Hooker was appointed in 1907 chairman of the Senate
Committee on Trades and Manufactures and a member of the following Senate
Committees: Insurance, Banks, Internal Affairs, Villages.

     In the Senate of 1907-1908 Mr. Hooker was a member of a committee that
studied the laws relating to the improvement of highways and drew up a
codification of these laws which contained a provision for the appointment of
a Highway Commission, under which he was appointed a State Highway
Commissioner.

     Governor Hughes on January 6,1 909, nominated Mr. Hooker for State
Highway Commissioner for a term of six years, and he was immediately confirmed
by the Senate by a unanimous vote.