A short Biography of General Henry Northey Hooper Jr.
(December 16. 1834 - August 13, 1902)
Very few are familiar with the name Henry N. Hooper within the Theosophical Movement, even though he influenced many New Yorkers to join the Society.
The New York Times wrote the following about Henry N. Cooper upon his death:
Gen. Hooper was born in Boston sixty-seven years ago, and was educated at the Lawrence Scientific School at Harvard. As a young man he went to South America, and was for some years Superintendent of the Bushenthal sheep ranch in Paraguay, then one of the largest in that country.
At the beginning of the civil war he returned to the United States and enlisted in the Thirty-second Massachusetts Regiment, in which he was commissioned as Second Lieutenant. He later became First Lieutenant in the Fifty-fourth Massachusetts Regiment, and before the end of the war rose to the rank of Colonel.
After the war Col. Hooper was commissioned Brigadier General and placed in charge of the Department of the Colorado, in charge of operations against hostile Indians in Colorado, and the neighboring territories. When the Indian uprising was quelled, Gen. Hooper resigned his commission in the army and went to New Mexico, where he was in charge of the Maxwell ranch, at that time one of the most extensive in the West. After several years as Superintendent here, he became interested in mining enterprises, and later, with Henry Maxwell of New Mexico, undertook the financing of a railway from Galveston, Tex., to San Diego, Ca. Arrangements were made with an English syndicate to furnish $40,000,000 for the undertaking. . . . After this railway venture Gen. Henry N. Hooper again became interested in gold mining.
He also spent some time with his wife and eldest daughter in Colfax County, New Mexico where he worked at a hotel. [WikiTree]
In 1879 he retired from active business, owing to poor health, and moved to Brooklyn, New York. In the early 1880s he accepted a job as superintendent at the Reliable Steam Power Company on Plymouth Street in Brooklyn until about 1885. The family was living at 502 3rd Street, Brooklyn. [1880 US Census] [WikiTree].
Consolidated Edison Company operated the New York steam system. It is quite likely that Hooper met Thomas Edison at some occasion and perhaps got introduced to theosophy. (Col. Olcott documented that Edison A. Thomas - Applied for membership in the TS on April 5, 1878. [See ODL, First Series (1974), p.466])
There is no historical record as to how Hooper became interested in theosophy but we do know that he joined the Brooklyn Branch with his eldest daughter on March 28, 1886 and both also attended the Aryan T.S. regularly. They were endorsed by A.B. Griggs and William Q. Judge. He attended the first Convention of the American Section held in New York on April 24, 1887. Hooper became the first official President of the Brooklyn Branch of the American Section of the Theosophical Society which was Chartered on April 22, 1889. Brooklyn was one of the most active branches in the American Section. He served in that capacity until Henry T. Patterson (1850-1930) was registered as the new president in 1895. [Report of Proceedings, 1895, p.2]
During his time in Brooklyn he managed a rental complex and occupied himself doing architectural work. He had been suffering from Bright’s disease for twenty years and decided to move to the newly organized Point Loma in June 1901 in the hope that change of climate would relieve his illness.
He was elected a Companion of the first Class in the Commandery of the State of New York, October 2, 1895—Insignia No. 104—and was transferred to California May 7, 1902.
When his wife Laura died on May 29th, 1902 after 39 years of marriage, he simply followed her and passed away two months later, on August 13th . They were both 67.
