An online fundraiser recently was launched to repair the roof on the 120-year-old Hooker Church and school next to Hooker Cemetery in Hooker, Missouri.
The cemetery and church building, aka The Little White Church, are next to Route 66.
Rick Wieners, whose grandfather and father are buried in the cemetery, launched the campaign on GoFundMe.com with a goal of $20,000.
Those who don’t trust GoFundMe can send checks for the effort. Checks can be made out to “Hooker Cemetery Association” and mailed or delivered to:
Infuze Credit Union
P.O. Box 2009
Waynesville, MO 65583
Wieners wrote on the campaign:
If you are reading this, it is likely you also have relatives buried in the Hooker cemetery. Maybe you’ve also been to the church for funerals and many other different activities through the years. If you feel moved to support this church renovation project in honor of our relatives please do so. The people who settled here are the reason we are here. This land is a place where many of us will also be returned to. Please join me in giving generously to the new roof campaign. The new roof will allow us to keep our building and have a way to honor the pioneers of Pulaski County, Missouri.
In an update on the GoFundMe post, photos from inside the church show clear damage from roof leaks.
According to Laura Shelden on the So You’re From Pulaski County, Missouri page on Facebook, the building was constructed in 1905 and last underwent repairs during the 1970s.
She also wrote that Hooker School was designated “Missouri’s Smallest High School” in 1929.
Wieners stated in an email he never was aware of a congregation affiliated with the church. It simply was used for funerals, revivals, pie auctions and other events.
Because the school/church was next to the cemetery they just kept using the building for funerals until it became too dangerous to enter due to the damage caused by the leaking roof. They would display the deceased in the casket in the church, talk over the deceased and then the pallbearers would simply walk to body to the graveyard where the graveside service was held. So simple.
Wieners said he recently obtained a quote for $12,000 from a company in nearby Crocker, Missouri, to repair the roof.
According to data at FindaGrave.com, the earliest burial at the cemetery is 1888.
Hooker itself is considered a ghost town. It was built on a newer alignment of Route 66 that bypassed nearby Devils Elbow. Hooker had a post office until its closing in 1955. The church and cemetery are the only tangible remnants of the town.
(Hat tip to Louie Keen; image of the Hooker church and cemetery in Hooker, Missouri, via GoFundMe.com)