FIFTH GENERATION

126. Bennett Hardy HOOKS was born on 22 Oct 1890. He died on 12 Jun 1929 in Apex, NC. He was buried in Apex Cemetery, Apex, NC. He was a carpenter/store clerk in Apex, NC. ⁽⁵¹⁾

He was married to Bertha Gertrude HOLLAND (daughter of Bryant H. HOLLAND and Della R. WALLS) on 17 Oct 1912 in Raleigh, NC.⁽⁵³⁾ They were married by Aron J. Wood, Justice of the Peace. The marriage license was issued on the same day as they were married. Their two witnesses were not family members. (source: Wake County Marriage Register) Bertha Gertrude HOLLAND was born on 28 Aug 1896 in Wake County, NC.⁽⁵⁴⁾
[ Bertha was always known to her children and grandchildren as very sensitive about her age. She would never discuss how old she was, and she even let it be known she didn't wish the year of her birth to be engraved on her tombstone. As such, absent any official or written family records, there was always general uncertainty in the family as to when she was actually born. The birth year carved on her tombstone was 1895, but in fact she was born on August 28, 1896. The original 1900 Federal Census entry for the family of Bryant H. and Della Holland of White Oak Township, NC, lists Bryant as age 32 (born in 1867), Della as age 22 (born in 1877), with 3 children living in the house at that time: Thomas H. (b. Jan 1894), Bertha G. (b. Aug 1896), and Carrie A. (b. Apr 1899). Bertha's pattern of sensitivity about her age seems to have started sometime after her marriage and the birth of her first child. She married B. Hardy Hooks on October 17, 1912, and the official Wake County Marriage Registry clearly shows her age as 16 (which confirms her birth in 1896). When Mary Louise was born, 13 months later, Bertha was asked her age "at last birthday," and she gave it as 17 (also correct based on the Census record). (Hardy seems to have been a little "free" with calculating his age at this time, though there appear to be logical, or at least feasible, explanations for it. On the Wake County Marriage Registry, he is listed as age 22, but on the day they married, he was 5 days shy of turning 22. No doubt it was considered to be "close enough." Also, on Mary Louise's birth certificate, he is listed as 22, although he had turned 23 just 3 weeks prior to her birth. It is possible that the new father said he was 22 simply out of habit. The ages he gave for himself at the time of his other children's births were correct.) However, 2 years after Mary Louise was born, at the birth of Alma, Bertha gave her age as a year older than she really was. By the time Edna Ruth was born, 9 years after that, the age she gave was once again correct. (No age information of any kind was put on James' birth certificate.) Everyone in the family always assumed Bertha didn't want anyone to know how OLD she was. But what if she really didn't want people to know how YOUNG she was, relative to when she got married and when her first child was born? We now know that she got married and then became pregnant at age 16, and gave birth a little over 2 months after her 17th birthday. Did her sensitivity to her young age begin when, at age 19 (but telling people she was 20), she gave birth again, already having a 2-year-old at home? And was she willing to give a correct age again only years later, when she was into her late 20's, at the birth of her last child? (Sources: 1900 Federal Census, Wake County Marriage Register, & Wake County Bureau of Vital Statistics) ]
She died on 5 Oct 1991 in Raleigh, NC. She was buried on 7 Oct 1991 in Apex Cemetery, Apex, NC. Bennett Hardy HOOKS and Bertha Gertrude HOLLAND had the following children:

+157 i. Mary Louise HOOKS.
+158 ii. Alma Gertrude HOOKS.
+159 iii. James Bennett HOOKS.
+160 iv. Edna Ruth HOOKS.