My Genealogy Hound

James M. Crocker, an early settler of Lauderdale County, is a son of William J. and Peachey (Wait) Crocker. His father was born in South Carolina, and his mother in Virginia. When young she moved to South Carolina, where they were married and lived until 1826, when they moved to West Tennessee, locating in Benton County, and in 1832 they moved to what is now Lauderdale County, where they spent the rest of their lives. They had thirteen children-only two living. Both parents were Primitive Baptists, and the father was a soldier in the war of 1812, a strong Whig, and a successful farmer. He died in his seventy-fourth year, in 1856, and the mother in her seventy-third year, in 1862. James M. Crocker is of English descent, and was born August 25, 1825, in South Carolina; was raised on a farm and had little schooling, and always cared for his parents until their death. In 1853 he married S. A. Condray, born November 9, 1832, and by this marriage had four children, three living: John B., Frances E. L. and James F. Mr. Crocker and the oldest son are members of the Missionary Baptist Church, and Mrs. Crocker of the Primitive Baptist Church. The daughter is of the Christian Church. In 1864 Mrs. Crocker died, and the next year he married Louisa, a sister of his first wife, born September 26, 1836. They have had no children. Mr. Crocker owns 142 acres of land, which he has acquired by his own labor; he has taken great pains to educate his children well. The oldest son, John B, is a graduate of East Tennessee University, where he made one of the highest records ever made by a student of that college, and is now head draughts­man in the Nile Tool Works at Hamilton, Ohio. For fifty-four years our subject has been a resident of Lauderdale County, and has a reputation for honesty and integrity that will be a legacy for his children that they may justly prize.