Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Hooker, Isabella Beecher

HOOKER, Isabella Beecher, philanthropist, b. in Litchfield, Conn., 22 Feb., 1822. She is the youngest daughter of Lyman Beecher, and was educated at her sister Catherine's schools in Cincinnati and Hartford. In 1841 she married John Hooker, a successful lawyer of Hartford, Conn., and ever since has been a careful student of social, political, and religious questions. In middle life she became a convert to spiritualism. Her work in later life developed into a series of “conversations,” which were originally confined to Hartford, but which now extend to New York, Boston, and other cities. Her method consists generally in the reading of a short essay, after which she illustrates the subject by familiar conversation. Mrs. Hooker is well known at the woman's clubs, the meetings of the philanthropic societies, and in quarters where the advocates of woman's rights and the more refined and intelligent believers in spiritualism are accustomed to meet. She has published “Womanhood: its Sanctities and Fidelities” (Boston, 1873).