Thomas Hooker: A ToastThomas Hooker: A ToastReligious and colonial leader, outstanding speaker, and a major player in the spread of Christianity, these are just some of the ways someone may describe Thomas Hooker. This intelligent human being set the standard for orators and reverends everywhere, whether it be through his lectures or his Sunday morning preachings. Without this influential man, the history of Connecticut itself would be altered.
Hooker had always been a religious man his whole life. He passion blossomed as he migrated from the Esher parish in Emmanuel, to the Chelmsford Cathedral, and finally to the Americas where he found a home. He finally settled in Cambridge in the Massachusetts Bay Colony where he found his niche at The First Parish in Cambridge. It soon became known “Mr. Hookers Company” and Hooker fit right in.
Although Hooker was a prestigious clergyman, he still represented democratic views for the common man. Hooker ran into many battles because of this state of mind, one including opposition from a fellow clergyman John Cotton. Thomas Hooker believed that all men should have the same voting rights regardless of property ownership, which received much resistance, thus making him the major leader in the suffrage movement for Puritans everywhere. Because of his dedication and his passion for his beliefs, Hooker gave up his life in Massachusetts and moved to a new and different state of Connecticut. This display of selflessness shows a man willing to give up everything he has worked for to fight for something he believes in.
W. V. Stoltenburg, Father of Reform (1859-1913), a leader of the revolutionary movement of all Europe, who died during the first revolution, died at the age of 81 in June 1864. According to his death certificate, he received the most honorifics in the family: the Order of the Order of the Knights Templar.
He was known as “W. V.”