THE HOOKER COUNTY GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY

by Betty Brown

Entry T49 from the History of Hooker County Nebraska
with permission of the Hooker County Historical Society

The Hooker County Genealogical Society
was formed May 17, 1977. The four charter
members were Bessie Dickinson Bradley,
Betty Fletcher Brown, Marlyn Piercy Eppen-
bach, and Mildred Miller Starr. From the
successful efforts of these few charter mem-
bers, the organization has grown to eighteen
members by 1987, our 10th anniversary year.
The purpose of this society is to encourage
and instruct members in the art and practice
of genealogical research as to locating, collec-
ting, and preserving manuscripts, docu-
ments, and other material of genealogical
value; and to establish and maintain a library
of such material for future generations.

The 1987 officers are Betty Fletcher
Brown, President; Nora Beth James Kehr,
Vice-President; Gladys Bordes Long, Secre-
tary; Lila Hermansen Pile, Treasurer; Betty
Fletcher Brown, News Reporter; Virginia
Farrar Ericksen, Newsletter Editor; Joellen
Loudon Phillips, in charge of queries and
Marlyn Piercy Eppenbach, in charge of
clipping filing. Other members at the present
time are: Ruth Barnebey, Diana Staal Brost,
Mabell Osenbaugh Ericksen Cox, Lessie
Belle Boyer Johnson Ferguson, Thelma
Kepler Hatfield, Patricia Wilcox McNitt,
Martha Scott Osborne, Wayne Osborne, Vera
Pierce Sautter, Grace Humphrey Wiese, and
Betty Lou Rutledge O'Brien Long.

A quarterly newsletter is published for our
members and exchanged with other genea-
logical societies. Projects of the group have
been to research and make indexes of the
cemeteries of Hooker County and the
surrounding area and to copy records from
the Hooker County Courthouse such as
Declarations of Intent and Naturalizations,
Hooker County Land Patent Records-Book
I, Marriage Records, Hooker County Brand
Records, Index to Deeds, County Tax lists
from 1888 through 1902, the 1900 and 1910
Census for Hooker County, NE, as well as
some church and school records. Cemetery
Indexes for Cedarview, Long, Virginia, Dry
Valley, Eclipse and Seneca Cemeteries, Early
Naturalizations of Hooker County and Hook-
er County Land Patent Record-Book I have
been put into booklets and are for sale to the
public.

Each member is encouraged and assisted
in preparing their own family genealogy and
provided with the proper forms and materials
to make proper records of their findings.

Our library includes microfilms of the
Hooker County Tribunes published before
1938, as well as thirty-two volumes of bound
Hooker County Tribunes from 1953 through
1985. We are collecting and sorting papers for
the years 1939 through 1952 and 1956. Our
library also includes family history books,
area histories, other cemetery indexes, books
and microfilms of census records, the 1890
veteran and widows census, and census
indexes for local as well as other states; books
to assist in researching in Nebraska, other
states, Federal records, in foreign countries,
with military research, immigration records;
many helpful books on how to prepare
correspondence, where to write for records,
how to read old handwriting, the proper way
to prepare your genealogy and to keep your
records. Other material found in our library
would be newsletters from other societies, old
and new telephone books, a map file, 25 years
of the Nebraska Cattleman Magazine, and
several years subscription to the Genealogical
Helper. We are continually adding to an
extensive 3x5 card file which gives pertinent
vital statistics of past and present residents
of Hooker county and the surrounding area;
and we have a large clipping file of actual
newspaper clippings of births, marriages, and
obituaries of people who have lived in this
area, or have families living here.

Our society meets at 7:00 p.m. the second
Tuesday of each month at the Hooker County
Library meeting room where our records are
housed. Dues are $2.50 a year.