San Diego County Biographies
 
HOOK BROTHERS & OAK.
Joseph F. & Albert W. Hook - Ora Oak

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

 
        In the latter part of the year 1887, Mr. Ora Oak was looking over 
Southern California for a place to engage in business. After considering the 
merits of the many new places that were starting in California at that time, he 
returned to Oakland, most favorably impressed with San Jacinto. In San Francisco 
he met Mr. Joseph F. Hook, an old acquaintance, who was also desirous of 
exchanging city for country business, and they went to San Jacinto with the 
intention of going into business there. But the real-estate values being too 
high they went to Perris.  There they met Mr. George S. Blethen, from whom they 
bought the property on which they have since built. The bargain was closed for 
block 3, January 3, 1888. In the months of February and March following they put 
up their store, and in April, 1888, the Perris Valley Supply Company's general 
merchandise store was opened. In August of the same year they bought the ground 
and built their warehouse
and side-track. In addition to their general store business they handle wagons, 
agricultural implements, lime, cement, and are wholesale dealers in hay, grain, 
honey, etc. From their start they grasped the idea of what Perris needed in the 
way of a supply store, and their success has been beyond their highest 
expectations. The men who compose this firm are hard‑working, pushing men, who 
do business on the live-and-let-live basis, and not only have their eyes been 
wide open to their own interests but also to the development and growth of their 
town. They have been leading factors in the improvements already made in Perris. 
The firm consists of Joseph F. Hook, Albert W. Hook and Ora Oak. They are all 
natives of the State of Maine, which State has developed so many hardy, 
self-reliant sons. Joseph F. Hook was born in 1850, and Albert W. in 1856. They 
came to Los Angeles in 1864, and in 1888 to Perris, where with Ora Oak they 
began business under the firm name of Hook Brothers & Oak. Mr. Oak was born in 
Garland, Penobscot County, Maine, June 21, 1851; his ancestors were pioneers of 
Garland. After attending the public schools of his town, the Foxcroft Academy 
and a few months in the State College of Maine, he came to California, arriving 
at San Francisco January 1, 1872, and engaging with the Bancrofts as entry clerk 
in their large book-publishing house. In 1876 he went to Nevada, where he 
remained five years, having all the varied experiences of pioneer life. In 1881 
he again went to work for Bancroft & Co., spending several years as their 
representative in Old Mexico. In 1886 he came to Southern California, the 
country of his choice.
        Mr. Oak is an apt illustration of the ability of the American to adapt 
himself to any phase of life that presents itself. His firm has, in him, a very 
efficient business man, and they enjoy the trade and confidence of a wide tract 
of country in their vicinity, which they appreciate. They are deserving of all 
their success.
 
SOURCE:  An Illustrated History of Southern California:  Embracing the Counties 
of San Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Orange, and the Peninsula of Lower 
California� Chicago:  The Lewis Publishing Company, 1890.  p.-  306