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THE CHRONICLE February 1989 - Vol. XI - Issue 1 - Page 202
LEBANON MISSOURI
There are communities scattered across the county which were settled, long ago, by families from Wilson County. Still today, you will find families as well as streets, villages, creeks, etc., with familiar names - matching names here in Wilson County.
One such place is Laclede County Missouri, located in the south central part of that state in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. First settled around 1820, the county was organized in 1849. The site of the county seat was located on a hill where an Indian village, Wyota, had stood. Most people assumed the town would bear that name, but the Rev. Benjamin Hooker begged to have it named Lebanon in memory of his old home town in Tennessee and his wish was granted.
Benjamin Hooker was only one of a group from Wilson County who migrated to Laclede County, some before the county was formed. Benjamin arrived there in 1842. Benjamin had married Martha Clemmons in Tennessee in 1824. He was a minister of the Christian Church. He was a son of Benjamin Hooker, Jr. and Ann Frizelle who moved from North Carolina to Wilson County around 1808. The father, Benjamin Sr. died in Bertie County, NC in 1774. Benjamin Jr. died in Wilson County in 1834, age 70 and his wife, Ann, died in 1862 at age 93.
Benjamin III's brother, Matthew, arrived in Missouri a year before his brother, Matthew had married Nancy Cloyd in 1829 in Wilson County. She died a year later leaving one daughter, Mary Jane, who came to Laclede County and married Alfre Case. In 1832, Matthew married, also in Wilson County, Nancy Tate, daughter of Zacharias and Rebecca Williamson Tate.
Diane Graves Weathers, editor THE CHRONICLE
Wilson County TN