In 1800, when Beaver County was established, a settler, reportedly from Maryland, named Matthias Hook, was already living in the "south side" of the new county at a place he called "Hook's settlement." He had been there at least since 1797, and probably longer. Land from two original (1800) Townships, Hanover and Second Moon, was taken to form Greene Township in 1812. A little settlement grew up near "Hook's settlement" in Greene Township which would eventually bear his name.
In 1818, a post office was established here with Joseph McFerran the Postmaster; "Hookstown at that time," according to one account, "probably consisted of a cross roads, a mill, a couple of houses and Mr. McFerran's store." Variously called "Newton," and "Nineveh," with "Moscow" reportedly being suggested as well, the town was listed as "Hookstown" in Harris's 1837 DIRECTORY, and described as "an industrious, flourishing village" with a grist and saw mill run by R & D Wright. "Also 2 tanneries; 2 smith shops; I wagon maker; 2 tailors; 2 hatters & c." Matthias Hook had died in 1836, but when the borough was incorporated by an act of the legislature dated April 18, 1843, this name "Hookstown" won out over its competitors.
The little town with its mill and stores served the farmers in surrounding Greene Township. In 1844 a select school was opened here by the Reverend J. P. Moore. In 1845, what came to be known as "Hookstown fever" (probably typhoid) struck the new borough. Lingering several months at Hookstown, the disease afflicted 86 of the 350 residents, killing at least 8, including 2 doctors.
A United Presbyterian Church was established in 1846 by the Reverend Thomas Calahan. Hookstown members of the Mill Creek Presbyterian Church, wishing a more convenient place to worship, established their own Presbyterian Church in Hookstown in 1854. One of their members was Dr. Milton Lawrence, who had come to Hookstown in 1826 and at various times served as Beaver County Prothonotary and Associate Judge.
In August, 1862, a company of men was raised for Union Army service in Hookstown and the surrounding vicinity by the Reverend Marcus Ormond, pastor of the Hookstown U.P. Church from 1859-1867. Harry J. Boyde remembered that "at the time of enlistment one hundred men . . . marched into the Hookstown Church, signed the roll and pledged themselves to the defense of the Union." "He who doeth all things well," Ormond said, "was pleased to assign to us the letter H," and the company he had raised served through the war as Company H, 140th Pennsylvania Infantry.
By 1870, Hookstown's population was 259. A directory published in Caldwell's ATLAS in 1876 listed J. B. McCready as the "Proprietor and Miller of Hookstown Grist and Saw Mills," Thomas Swearingen as a druggist and storekeeper and J. C. Armstrong as "Hawker and Peddler." (The Weyand and Reed Directory that same year listed the latter gentleman as "huckster.") In 1886 the Mill Creek Valley Agricultural Associates was formed. The Associates, according to Bausman's 1904 history, "holds its annual fairs at Hookstown. These fairs are largely attended by the citizens of the whole county."
The population of this country village has remained remarkably stable since Bausman wrote. In 1900, it was 259, exactly the same as it had been thirty years before; in 1970, it was 276. And the Hookstown Grange Fair, held each year in August, still is "largely attended by the citizens of the whole county."
Resident children of Hookstown attend the South Side Area School District.