James Hook's Family

After receiving his discharge in Raleigh, North Carolina, James went directly home and found his parents preparing to move to Wapello County, Iowa. He helped cover and prepare the wagons, which were fitted with schooner bodies, and assisted at the public sale of all the surplus personal property which was held early in September, 1865. The journey was begun on September 18th and for six weeks the two wagons rumbled over rough prairie roads, James driving one team and Jesse Ankrom the other, and late in October arrived at their destination. The trip was uneventful. The weather was fine and so many other movers were on the road that the time, especially the evenings, assumed something of a social aspect with travelers from many parts telling stories and singing songs, and young folks dancing around the campfires.

James helped on his father's farm (see map page 22) during the spring and summer of 1866 and in the winter taught the Kirkpatrick School. On November 21, 1867, he married Virginia, daughter of Harvey and Mary Caroline (Vannoy) Eller, who lived on the farm now occupied by the town of Farson, Iowa, which Harvey Eller had purchased from James' father in 1864. The wedding was solemnized in the old log house on the Eller farm which gave way in 1875 to the modern frame house which still stands. After the wedding feast the bride and groom rode to their future home (an addition built on the old James Baker house) on horseback.

Virginia Eller, wife of James Hook, was born on Parlear's Creek near New Hope Baptist Meeting House in Wilkes County, North Carolina, October 18, 1845. Her father's farm where she was born lay in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains about six miles northwest of Wilkesboro. It was, in fact, at the foot of Rendezvous Mountain which served Colonel Cleveland for signal fires during the Revolutionary War. Fires from the summit of this great wooded mountain could be seen from the Pilot in Surry and the peaks of the Blue Ridge in McDowell, and were lighted to rally the mountaineers from Virginia to South Carolina and from Guilford to the Holston Settlements in eastern Tennessee. It was from this point that Virginia's great grandfather Nathaniel Vannoy and her great great grandfather George McNiel started with Colonel Benjamin Cleveland on that famous campaign in the Revolutionary War that ended victoriously at Kings Mountain. Nathaniel Vannoy was Sergeant Major in Colonel Cleveland's Regiment and George McNiel was Chaplain.

Virginia did not obtain much schooling in North Carolina. She was barely seven years of age when her parents decided to move west to Iowa where her great uncle David Eller lived. It was early in the fall of 1852 that preparations for the journey to Iowa were begun. A strong wagon was fitted with a schooner body over which was bent six bows of green hickory. Strong tenting cloth was sewed to the bows, means for folding the cloth over the ends of the enclosure were -provided, and well planned provisions of all kinds were stored inside. All surplus belongings were disposed of at public sale and late in September preparations for the journey had been made.

Friends and relatives alike tried to dissuade Virginia's parents from starting on such a hazardous journey. And well they might. The oldest child of the family was William, barely ten years of age. Jesse, the youngest, was a baby of only seven months. Between these were Cleveland aged eight, Virginia aged seven, Nancy aged five, Mary aged four, and Anderson aged two. The family was going alone, something rather unusual of long journeys in those days. There was really no economic reason for their leaving Wilkesboro. Their forefathers had lived there amid peace and plenty for almost a hundred years. All these reasons were advanced by troubled friends and relatives, but to no avail.

It is hard for modern minds to comprehend the character of their forefathers whose faith in Almighty Providence would prompt them to undertake such a perilous journey in those times of bad roads, sparse civilization, bad food, no doctors and uncharted wilderness inhabited by Indians and crossed by dangerous streams and high mountains.

None of the neighbors ever expected to see the family again and as its members piled into the wagon sad goodbyes were said and farewell songs sung. Virginia's Uncle James sang the song that her father had sung to his mother, but even this did not deter those hardy and courageous spirits whose eyes were set westward with grim determination that would not yield. Several young men relatives on horseback escorted the travelers until they passed safely over the range beyond the "jumping off place" northwest of Wilkesboro, after which the lonely wagon with its sacred charge passed on and out of sight below the western horizon.

The wagon was drawn by four horses, the father riding one of the wheelers and driving the lead team. Water was carried in kegs and the supply was replenished at each opportunity. All cooking was done over camp-fire. The first cook stove that any of the family had ever seen was at Danville, Kentucky. At night the father and the older children slept in a tent, while the mother and younger children slept in the wagon. During the entire trip there was not a night that religious services were not held. What a blessed sight that little group must have made as they assembled at nightfall along the lone trail to invoke the blessings of God upon their journey.

The wagon rumbled slowly and safely over the mountainous region of Tennessee, through Cumberland Gap into Kentucky, thence to Danville and Louisville, Kentucky, Vincennes, Indiana, Springfield, Illinois, Keokuk, Iowa, and over the old Fort Des Moines Road to Brookville where Virginia's great uncle, David Eller, lived.

The journey was full of new and thrilling experiences. The roads in some places were hardly more than trails; three great mountain chains had to be crossed. Rivers and streams had to be forded. Food for the younger children was scarce and much of the time the only water obtainable was from streams that were muddy and questionable. While crossing Tennessee the travelers got their first glimpse of a railroad train. They came to a crossing and the father and older sons got out to examine the tracks, leaving the mother and the smaller children in the wagon. Almost without warning a train came along and so frightened the horses that they all but upset the wagon. The incident struck terror to the heart of the poor little mother. She often related it in later life.

As the wagon neared Danville, Kentucky, the faithful mother, worn by the long and arduous journey, fell ill. Permanent camp was made in the thought that an indefinite delay might result. Did Providence have a hand in locating that camp? It would seem so, because next day it was found to be near the home of a former friend and neighbor named Cones who placed one of his cabins at the family's disposal. Here the brave mother obtained a much needed rest. The expense of the delay, however, added to other expensive misfortunes to the wagon, and the need for extra food forced the father to sell one of his four horses and to resume and complete the journey with only three.

The Ohio, Wabash and Mississippi Rivers were provided with steam ferries which enabled the travelers to cross without mishap. Not so, however, with the White River in Indiana. This river was crossed by an old row ferry which all but capsized with its load in midstream. The listing of the ferry caused the horses to become frightened and for a moment it seemed inevitable that the wagon, team and all, would be precipitated into the water. The team was hastily unhitched, the wagon blocked, and by moving the horses so as to better distribute the load, the ferry was balanced and a crisis overcome.

It was on the prairies of Indiana and Illinois that the family had great difficulty finding camping places that afforded spring water suitable for drinking purposes, and wood with which to make a camp-fire. On some days it was necessary to subsist on cold victuals and questionable water from little streams.

The old Fort Des Moines Road westward from Keokuk guided the family to the David Eller homestead which was located on what was later known as the old Marion Tracey Farm, two and one-half miles southeast of Brookville in Jefferson County. The family arrived there the latter part of November in the year 1852, and well that it did not arrive later, because winter began early that year and heaped untold hardships upon later arrivals who had no warm homes to move into.

The David Eller homestead was a beautiful farm of more than two hundred acres, part prairie and part timber, that sloped gradually to the southeastward toward Cedar Creek. It had a bearing orchard on it from trees that had been brought by David from his first home in Indiana. The building where David lived was a double log house set in the shape of an "L" with a lean-to to the east and south. One of these log structures was about 20 x 24 and the other 16 x 18 and both were weather-boarded on the outside with oak and basswood lumber sawed at the old saw mill nearby from timber grown on David's holdings. There was a large fire-place in each house fully equipped with cranes and stone ovens for cooking. David welcomed his nephew and family and shared his house with them for three months until they could arrange a lease on some property nearby. It was in this vicinity that two more children, Israel Curtis and Martha Clementine Eller, were born.

In 1856 the family moved to the Agnes Davis Farm north of Ottumwa, near Dalonega, where they lived until the latter part of December of that same year. They then moved to an eighty acre farm, which they had recently purchased, that was located in the extreme northern end of Wapello County just south of Martinsburg, Iowa. The following extract from a letter written by Virginia's brother Israel Curtis Eller on July 3, 1923 tells in vivid language of experiences in this new home.

"We first moved into the old Chilacotha Schoolhouse where we lived while dad finished the house in which we were to live. He built it of newly sawed green oak lumber with split oak shingles and barely got it enclosed when we moved in about Christmas time. That was the coldest winter ever experienced in that country and we almost froze to death. Try as he would, he and Will and Cleve could not keep us in fuel, which they had to haul from Skunk River Timber several miles away. We had no heating stove, but had a big, wide consuming fire-place built from Skunk River limestone. The weather boarding of the house did not fit snugly and as it began to season and warp one could see daylight through it, and the roof at many places allowed snow to drift in. I remember this distinctly as brother Jesse, sister Martha and myself had no shoes and when we got cold mother would put us on a feather bed where we would play until we got warm.

"The winter of 1857-8 was nearly as bad as the former one. Father had a nice little start in cattle when the deflation in everything came in 1857 and father owed a store bill in Dalonega. The creditor put the account into judgment and had an execution issued and the constable came and drove off every one of our cattle except one, our old milk cow, which was exempt or he would have taken her. I remember it well. Father was at the timber for wood; Will and Cleve were working and the others were in school, and I remember how mother cried. And why would she not cry, when you think of her surroundings with a family of ten children, none yet grown and all suffering from cold and hunger? None but the stoutest heart could have endured it. It makes me cry now when I recall it."

Four more children-John, Thomas, Jacob, and Edson C. Eller were born at this home, the former of which was just a baby during the trying winter of 1857-8. Other children of Harvey Eller tell of the terrible experiences of these early years. Food was scarce, warm clothing almost unobtainable, and the family subsisted for the most part on pumpkin molasses and corn bread. In another letter written by Israel Curtis Eller dated February 12th, 1924, he again describes the house that his father built on this new land.

"This house was built in the fall of 1856 when Fremont was running for President; that is how I am helped to remember the date.

"You must know that those days were before railroads, and all pine lumber had to be freighted from Mississippi River points, and as all the settlers were poor, the buildings were of logs or sawed boards sawed by local saw mills run by water power.

"The house built was a frame structure having three rooms. One room was about 20 x24 with a partition running through it from north to south which cut off a room about 7 x20- In the latter room were three beds, two of them end on end and the other setting crosswise, which left just enough room for us to get in and to bed. There were nails driven in the walls and partitions all along for us to hang our clothes on. The larger room contained one bed and a trundle bed underneath it, so with some of us sleeping at the foot we had room enough.

"The house was built of green oak and hickory; frames, joists, rafters, plates and studs hewn out of logs and weather boarding sawed to about i x 6 inches. It fitted pretty tight at first, but soon warped and was quite open.

"The third room was a shed, or lean-to, about 10 x24 which served as a kitchen and dining room, and here mother had her loom where she wove homespun wool and flax sufficient to clothe us and make our bedding. She not only did the weaving, but would also card, spin, and dye the material and then cut and make it up, so our clothing if not very fine was good and comfortable. After doing all this, mother always had a meal for a traveler or a neighbor, and she was a wonderful cook as everyone who fed on her bounty could testify.

"The house was without plaster and we had no stove except an old broken backed cook stove, one of the first made and the first mother ever used. Most of the cooking was done over the fire-place. Our sufferings during the first winters were great, but we were all healthy and strong and soon forgot."

In late 1864 Harvey Eller sold this farm and on November 24th of the same year purchased from James Grant Hook of Vinton County, Ohio, later Wapello County, Iowa, the unimproved quarter section of land which became the permanent Eller home in Wapello County. It was located one and one-half miles west of the village of Maryville and to-day includes the entire town of Farson which was founded in 1898 in a field immediately back of the Eller house and barnyard. What a pity that this new town was not christened Eller or Ellerton! It is a sad commentary on the friends and relatives of the Eller family in that community that they permitted another and much uglier name to be fastened upon it.

While building a house upon this new land the Eller family lived on the McIlroy Farm shown on the map as the Goldsby Place. The new house was finished in the fall of 1865 and was occupied in December of that year.

Israel Curtis Eller in his letter of February 12, 1924, from which other extracts have already been taken, writes as follows of his parents' home after they sold their former home to Elisha Godfrey

"We had to give possession at once, or as soon as the corn was husked. Father rented the eighty acre tract adjoining the Mary Baker Farm on the south, afterwards known as the Mcllroy Farm, and we moved there in November 1864 and lived there a year, meantime breaking out 40 acres on the Farson place and building a log house, a log barn, a frame smoke house, and digging a well. Both house and barn father bought of Mr. Lazure who lived about two miles northwest of old Abington, Iowa. In the spring of 1865 father sold the best horse he had for $250.00 and with the money purchased three yoke of cattle. While he and brother Jesse moved the log house and barn from the Lazure place, dug the well, built the smoke house, etc., brother Anderson and I plowed the ground on the Mcllroy place, sowed the spring wheat and oats, and got ready for corn planting. This was all done with the cattle. Anderson plowed with the heavier cattle and I did all the harrowing and dragging with the lighter cattle. Then we all planted the corn and changed about on cultivating it. You will understand that at this time there was not a two horse cultivator in that country, so we plowed the corn with single shovel cultivators drawn by one horse. My sisters often hoed the crops. Father and Jesse then took the cattle and broke 40 acres of prairie on the Farson Farm. They rode the two year old colts down to the farm, took their dinners with them and plowed all day with the cattle, then turned the latter out to graze over night. Next morning they would drive them into a corral, yoke them and resume work.

"The home on the Farson Farm was a story and a half log house 24 x 24 with a shed porch to the east which was open. There was just one room downstairs and one room upstairs. It was quite primitive. The upstairs was not plastered, but there was room enough for six beds which with one bed downstairs where our parents slept, there was room enough. The house was heated by the cook stove with a little common coal stove added in the winter season.

"The upstairs was reached by a little ladder in the southwest comer made of two fence boards with cleats nailed on, on which the treads rested, and there was a trap door at the top which, on account of the cold, we kept closed as we went back and forth in the winter season. We continued to occupy this house until the summer of 1875 when we built the big square frame house which is still standing. We built that house the spring before Brother John, who hauled all the lumber therefor, was drowned.

"Sister Virginia married James Hook in this log house in 1867. We were then, as I have always felt, the most happy and contented family in the whole countryside."

It was in the old log house on the Farson Farm that the last two children of Harvey and Mary Caroline Vannoy Eller were born. Maggie was born in 1866 and Otis R. was born in 1870. It is remarkable to note that every child of this large family of fifteen lived to adult manhood and womanhood and honored their Christian parents by doing well in their chosen walks of life. The first death to sadden their fireside came on June 15, 1875 when John Quincy Eller, a promising lad of eighteen, was drowned in Competine Creek. With some other boys he had gone swimming when the stream was swollen by recent rains. He was caught in the swift current and drowned before assistance could reach him.

Virginia, even though she was the oldest daughter in the family, managed by the help of her parents to go to such schools as were available quite regularly during the first years in Iowa. She joined the Martinsburg Baptist Church in 1862. In 1863 she entered Axline's Academy in Fairfield, Iowa, now Parsons College, and attended for two and one-half years. Thereafter she taught in various schools in the neighborhood and boarded "around" at the homes of the scholars. Her wages part of the time were only one dollar and twenty-five cents per week and were never over eight dollars per month. One of her scholars writing of her in later years said "She was a very kind teacher and we all loved her. The Ellers were intellectual, loved school and music, and made the most of their opportunities."

The Ellers were, indeed, all that Virginia's old scholar said of them. They were in addition true Christians in the most practical sense. The daily habit of both father and mother was to begin the day by reading the Holy Scriptures and family prayer. They lived up to their religious precepts and instilled the finest Christian ideals into the heart and mind of every one of their children.

Virginia's brother Israel Curtis Eller in one of his letters telling of his early life recites the following interesting incident about his sister Virginia, who was usually called Jennie

"In 1866 Elder Tracy came down from Fremont to hold a protracted meeting in the old schoolhouse that stood about forty rods northwest of Old Maryville. He had preached and sung for about two weeks without asking for converts. On this particular night at the supper table at our house Elder Tracy said he was going to extend an invitation to those who wanted the prayers of those in attendance to simply rise in their seats. Polly Baker, who later married Chris Breon, was at our house. She and Jennie were great friends. About two wagon loads of our people went down to the meeting that night and after a powerful sermon by Elder Tracy the invitation was extended to those who wanted the prayers of God's People to stand while the congregation sang. About six verses of a good old song were sung and no one arose. The Elder exhorted them again and the song was repeated. Sister whispered to Polly that since they were not very well known that it might be well if they stood up and that perhaps others would follow. As they arose the Elder shouted `Amen' and before the thing ended over a hundred had stood up. It was the biggest meeting the Elder ever had, resulting in many conversions and the organization of a very strong church. I heard the folks talking about the meeting when they came home. I did not attend. I had no shoes."

School houses in those early Iowa days served not only for school purposes, but as Churches and Sunday Schools, and community gathering places as well. Virginia did not teach school after her marriage in 1867. James taught several winter terms. In 1867 he taught the Deuser School. In 1868 he taught the North Union School, better known as "Blue jeans" because the scholars always wore jeans trousers and jackets. Virginia had also taught this old school which came to mean so much in the lives of the pioneers of that section and their children. The school was established in 1862. All of the children of James and Virginia Hook obtained their early schooling there. William Hook, brother of James, was its second teacher, Virginia Eller its third teacher, James Hook its seventh teacher, Cleveland Eller its fourteenth teacher, and Mary Hook and Sarah Hook-daughters of James and Virginia-its twenty-ninth and thirty-ninth teachers respectively. The original building with an addition built in 1884 served until 1902 when a new and better building was erected. This building was abandoned in 1920 when the district was consolidated with the Hedrick Schools. Thus passed one of the pioneer schools of the state of Iowa, one that was replete in traditions and that numbered among its old students hundreds of men and women who had drifted to all parts of the country-from Los Angeles to New York. More than a hundred came back on August 20, 1920 to bid farewell to the old landmark when a great "Blue Jeans" reunion was held on the school grounds.

James taught Sunday School in this old school house in the early seventies. His father and mother were ardent Christians, although the former did not join church. The mother, however, had joined the Methodist Church in Ohio when a girl and being naturally emotional would get worked up to a very high pitch when in church. When she couldn't attend she would spend the time with her Bible and prayer book.

The character of these Hook parents is indicated by an incident that occurred in 1872. Hearing that the children of their son William, who had left Iowa and moved to St. Clair County, Missouri, had been exposed to smallpox, they decided that they must go to their assistance. After a terrible trip, part of which was by stage coach, the old couple arrived at their destination only to find that the family was down with the measles. The old mother was almost exhausted, but she loved her children dearly as did the father, both of whom were always ready to make any sacrifice to help them or make their way easier.

In May, 1869, James and Virginia moved from their one room home in the James Baker house to what later became the Weimer Farm. Their first child Mary had been born August 27, 1868, and the young couple found the small quarters of their first home to be inadequate. The Weimer house was a three room affair, the farm itself was productive and the new and thrifty occupants during their five years residence there laid the foundation for the fine estate which they later acquired.

Old records during this period disclose the fact that James was the trusted friend of several neighbors who had moved away. He was given power of attorney to collect money and make settlements for various ones who not only trusted his honesty, but had confidence in his ability to handle legal matters in a satisfactory way. His standing in the community was always of a high order. He was a friend in need, always giving freely of his broad knowledge acquired by constant reading in his spare moments, assisting neighbors in their troubles, settling disputes, preparing contracts and agreements, interpreting the law, and advising in matters of all kinds.

Three sons were born to James and Virginia during their residence in the Weimer house John (April 18, 1870), Orin (February 13, 1872), and Wallace (January 12, 1874).

Early in the autumn of 1875 (the deed is dated September 14, 1875), James Grant Hook and his wife sold to their son James and daughter-in-law Virginia their entire holdings in Wapello and Keokuk Counties. This sale included the James Baker eighty, the eighty upon which the parents lived, and twenty acres of timber land lying in Keokuk County, north of Waughs Point (later called Hedrick). The consideration was $5,000.00 for the two eighties and $200.00 for the timber land. The old parents moved to Agency City, Iowa, and James and Virginia moved into the old parental home late in the autumn of 1875. Here six more children were born-Sarah (February 22, 1876), Jesse (born June 12, 1878, died September 8, 1880), infant daughter (born September 20, 1880, died immediately), Freddie (born January 3, 1882, died March 19, 1883), James William (January 9, 1884), and Frank Leslie (July 4, 1886).

In 1882 (the deed is dated April 18th), James and Virginia purchased from William Payne the one hundred acre farm that bordered their present farm on the east. The eighty acre plot of this fine farm had first been owned by Rolland Baker who sold it to William Hook in 1865, who in turn sold it to William Payne. The twenty acre portion lying north of the road was a part of the David W. Daily prairie farm of 160 acres which was purchased by William Hook and his father April 24, 1866. William Hook later disposed of sixty acres of his portion of the Daily land to John Lantz.

The addition of the Payne Farm to the holdings of James and Virginia made an estate of two hundred and sixty acres of land all in one parcel. It was a fine farm, very productive and close to the market of Hedrick which lay about two miles to the north-west and through which three railroads were now running. They also owned other farms in the neighborhood from time to time.

James was a great stock man and converted the products of his farm into hogs, cattle and horses, which he raised by the hundreds. In 1888 he traded fifty head of young horses to Samuel Kaufman for 160 acres of land in Box Butte County, Nebraska. In other trades he came into possession of farms in Story and Keokuk Counties, Iowa, vacant and improved lots in Hedrick and Ottumwa, Iowa, and 226 acres of timber property south of Ottumwa on Soap Creek. He also owned a farm in North Dakota and at the time of his death was owner of a large tract of land on the Germania Bench near Burlington, Big Horn County, Wyoming. He believed in owning land, and was engaged in carving out a comfortable farm for each of his children in Wyoming when death claimed him. Besides owning, outright, the farm in Wyoming above mentioned, he had also entered upon hundreds of additional acres which, after his death, went back to the state.

In 1887, James and Virginia built upon the site of the pioneer Rolland Baker residence a two story nine room frame house that is still standing. This house, while having none of the modern conveniences, was a palace to the family of Hook and was considered quite the best house in the neighborhood by the most envious neighbors. It faced east and overlooked the valley of the east branch of Wolfe Creek whose black banks and sweeping curves could be seen for miles across the close-cropped pasture lands. It was surrounded by a fine orchard and berry patch, and was flanked on three sides by great black walnut and hackberry trees. The last child of the family, Morris Glen, was born in this house May 7, 1889

By the time the family moved to this new home James had won a high place in the neighborhood and state as a stock breeder. He was partial to Morgan, Ensign and English Shire Horses and Short Horn cattle. Some of his stallions were imported from England and Belgium and became the sires of many fine horses in the community.

His great interest in raising fine stock caused his farm to be christened the "Ensign Stock Farm" by his son John who, in 1892, painted this title in large white letters on the front of the new barn.

During all of these years he and Virginia never overlooked the opportunity to be of service to the community. They supported all worthy projects, contributed to all churches alike, acted upon school boards, and helped worthy and struggling neighbors to get on their feet. They never disappointed any one who came to them for help, or who asked them for the loan of horses or farm machinery. Their children sometimes thought they were imposed upon by tramps, peddlers, lazy relatives, and thriftless neighbors who planned their calls at night fall or meal time and who never went away tired or hungry.

James was a member of the Iowa Short Horn Breeders' Association for many years and gave freely of his experiences to that body. He never permitted himself to be nominated for any political position, although he was many times urged to be a candidate for state representative and various county offices. He was, however, many times a delegate to Republican, county and state conventions, and in that way used his influence toward selecting the right men for office.

He was for many years a justice of the Peace and almost from the beginning of his residence in Iowa was the acknowledged community arbiter. In this last service he succeeded in keeping many disputes out of the courts and reconciled many differences that might easily have developed into feuds and grudges.

He was an enthusiastic member of the J. M. Hedrick Post G. A. R. and several times its Commander. He also served as a delegate to national encampments, and acted on important committees, both in local and national bodies.

The children of James and Virginia remember with vividness and pleasure the beautiful home life which surrounded them on that Iowa farm. A more harmonious home could not have existed. On Sunday all work was suspended, useless noisemaking was forbidden, and the day was spent quietly. Church and Sunday School was attended only irregularly. Biblical topics were frequently discussed around the fireside. and these usually did more to acquaint the children with Christian teaching than Church or Sunday School itself.

It was after the hard times of 1893 that Virginia's health began to show signs of breaking under the strain that she was forced to undergo. Those were hard years. Values of everything almost disappeared, crops were bad, and for a time it looked as if accumulations of a lifetime might be wiped out. When conditions returned to normal, Virginia's health failed to respond. For three years she fought a losing fight, then on March 23, 1897 came the death of her oldest child Mary. This great loss and the worries attending it placed a further drain upon her vitality. The following October she was stricken with a severe cold which developed into pneumonia and caused her death on October 30, 1897.

James struggled hard after the death of his wife to maintain a home for his children. He employed a married couple for the first year to permit his daughter Sarah to finish her college course at Iowa State in 1898. From this time until September 1901, when she was offered a fine position as instructor in publicspeaking in Iowa State College, Sarah kept up the home. When the offer came to her she was determined to reject it, but her father, feeling that he could not deprive her of her great opportunity, urged her to accept, which she finally did with great reluctance.

In 1902, after trying vainly to keep the home going with hired help, James married his second wife, a widow, Mrs. Calla Andrews, nee Ebelsheiser, a member of an old and respected pioneer German family of the neighborhood. Within a year of this union she was stricken with a severe nervous malady that affected her mind and finally caused her death in July, 1905. There were no children by this union.

It was on a trip from Wyoming to visit his invalid wife that James himself died. He had just boarded a train at Ottumwa on the evening of June 30, 1905 to go to his old farm south of Hedrick, when he was stricken with apoplexy and died instantly. On the train at the time was his brother-in-law and comrade of a lifetime Jesse Ankrom-who said that James' last words, addressed to some friend who had asked him how he was feeling, were "I never felt better in my life." The words were hardly uttered when he sank to the floor and immediately expired. He was buried beside his first wife in the Hook family plot in Martinsburg Cemetery.