"Isabella Beecher Hooker was prominent in the movement to secure equal rights for women. She was born in Litchfield, Connecticut, the daughter of Reverend Lyman Beecher by his second wife, Harriet (Porter) Beecher. When Isabella was four years old, the family moved to Boston, where her father became pastor of the Hanover Church. Six years later, they moved to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he assumed charge of Lane Theological Seminary. There she attended the school established by her sister, Catharine Beecher, and in the stimulating atmosphere of the Beecher home was early awakened to an interest in theological questions and public affairs. 'Our family circle,' she says 'was ever in discussion on the vital problems of human existence, and the United States Constitution, fugitive slave laws, Henry Clay and the Missouri Compromise, alternated with free will, regeneration, heaven, hell and 'The Destiny of Man.'

"After the death of her mother in 1835, Isabella went to Hartford, Connecticut, to live with her sister Mary, who had married a prominent lawyer for that city, Thomas C. Perkins. In their household, Isabella became acquainted with a young law student, John Hooker, sixth in descent from Thomas Hooker. She married John on August 5, 1841. Until 1851, they lived in Farmington Connecticut and then moved to Hartford. With his brother-in-law Francis Gillette Hooker, John bought 100 acres of land just outside the city and established Nook Farm."