Daniel Hooker

Daniel Darius Hooker (December 22, 1831 – April 26, 1894) was an American molder and tool manufacturer from Milwaukee, Wisconsin who served two terms as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly. He was elected as a "Democratic Trades Assembly" candidate in 1882 (the Milwaukee Trades Assembly, a labor federation which was also an antecedent to that state's Union Labor Party, ran its own direct candidates against Democrats in other districts); and re-elected in 1884.

Background Hooker was born in Perryburg, New York, on December 22, 1831, and received a public school education. He came to Wisconsin in 1854 As of 1883 he was a manufacturer of tools.

Assembly Hooker had never been a candidate for office before being elected in 1882 from the 5th Milwaukee County Assembly district (the Fifth and Twelfth Ward of the City of Milwaukee), as a "democratic trades assembly" candidate, with 1,054 votes to 943 for Republican D. W. Chipman (incumbent Republican William Lindsay was not a candidate). He listed his party affiliation as "Trades Assembly" (one of two such) in the Wisconsin Blue Book, and was assigned to the standing committee on state affairs.

Hooker was re-elected in 1884, again as a "democratic trades assembly" candidate, drawing 1,869 votes to 1,674 for Republican John Toohey and 59 votes for Prohibitionist Otto Miller. He was now listed as a Democrat, and remained on the state affairs committee.

In 1886, Hooker had become simply a Democrat, and alderman Theodore Rudzinski was the "People's Party" nominee. He unseated Hooker with 1,705 votes to 832 votes for D. W. Chipman, 759 votes for Hooker, and 18 votes for Prohibitionist J. Y. Wolf.

In later years, he was remembered as the "father" of the law requiring fire escapes on large buildings.

Later life Hooker went to work for the Milwaukee post office in approximately 1884 (the Assembly was not at that time a full-time job). He had worked there for ten years, and was a directory clerk, at the time of his death at his home in the Fernwood neighborhood of Milwaukee. He died on April 26, 1894