Crooke Family Papers, 1780-1880

Author

Processed by Luiz E. Simonetti; machine-readable finding aid created by Eric Weig

Title

Crooke Family Papers

Date

1780-1880

Repository

Eastern Kentucky University Archives

Arrangement

The papers are divided by: Survey and Entry Books of Madison County, his Personal Books, State Maps and Survey Maps (filed as oversize). A chronological and topical order was maintained when possible.

Conditions Governing Access note

Access to original manuscripts is restricted for research purposes. KDLA microfilms or photocopies must be used prior to using the original papers. The microfilm can be found in the Archives reading room and photocopies of the survey and entry books are in Box 04.

Preferred Citation Note

[identification of item], Crooke Family Papers, Eastern Kentucky University Archives.

Extent

1.70 cu. ft.

Biography/History

John Crooke, born February 10, 1766, commonly called Major Crooke, was born in St. Mary County, Maryland. He enlisted while yet young in the Revolutionary war, and was with Washington at the capture of Lord Cornwallis at the siege of Yorktown, Virginia. He was married to Anna D. Reeves, the 5th January 1786. John Crooke studied mathematics pretty thoroughly; could master the arithmetic, and made one (book) himself. He understood navigation; could box the compass; made almanacs; and could count the eclipses of the Sun and the Moon; and in one almanac he left a little space along the margin, and late in May, he put down "Frost" and at the Battalion Muster the day before his frost, they laughed at him about his prediction; Says he: hold, wait and see. That evening a cloud came up from the North, rained a good shower, and a cleared off cold, and sure enough in the morning was a white frost. He was thenceforth put down as an almanac maker, and a sure profit. Major John Crooke with his wife, Anna D., and father, Osias Crooke, and two more brothers, Hezekiah Crooke and Absalom Crooke, immigrated from Virginia to Kentucky, in the year 1789. At that time many surveyors were in Kentucky, then part of Virginia, surveying out the military claims of the Revolutionary soldiers; the soldiers were all allowed a preemption of 1,000 acres of land and a homestead of 400 acre, generally laid out together.

Madison was made a county, still of Virginia, in 1785, and James French was her first county surveyor, and held the office for eight years. He held his office from appointment in Virginia. John Crooke was one of his deputies. John Crooke was the first surveyor elected to the office after the establishment of the state, by the magistrates of the county. Major John Crooke made many tables of numbers such as tables of logarithms, and the traverse table, and more than thirty maps of the different states and territories, the United States, Mexico, etc; and laid off all the counties in good colors all with his quill-pen. He made several maps of Madison county, and made connected plats of all the land in the county. He surveyed most of the lands in the early litigations in Madison and much in other counties. When he first became surveyor, Madison county extended to the Virginia line, on the south side of the Kentucky River. He had many deputies, and some of their names were James Kincaid, Richard Smith, David Williams, Jones Hoy, George Walker, James M'Cormick, Daniel Boone, William O'Rear, Thomas Mosely, Thomas Campbell, Wallace Estill, Joseph Barnett, James Anderson, Irvine Anderson, John R. Crooke, Kiah Crooke, and others.

Major Crooke used to teach school, and would also, teach young men the art of surveying. When they would ask him how far a man should be advanced in mathematics in order to study surveying? He would tell them to say "two times two, are four, and set it down, and not put down something else." When the town of Richmond was established, as the county-seat, John Crooke laid off the town limits in rectangle; and called it the town-tract of fifty acres.

In religion he was a Methodist, and a great admirer of John Wesley and Lorenzo Dow; and was himself a local preacher. He lived to a good old age, was eighty-three years old when he died on the 17th of March 1849, at his home near where he was buried on a small hill overlooking the Muddy creek Valley near the village of Crookesville, which was named in his honor.

From the Miller Papers (family files), Eastern Kentucky University Archives.

Scope and Content

The Crooke family papers are an excellent source of information for researchers in early Kentucky history and pioneers in the American west. The papers can also be used to study the life of an educated man of the period. In his letters and diary John Crooke reflects on weather, land, religion, and many more subjects considered important by this pioneer. It is also important to notice that John Crooke was a surveyor, a profession very sought after by people at the time. The information on land for these officers was amazing. John Crooke worked with honor and was elected a county surveyor many times in his life. The papers show his notes and notes from other surveyors after him from the first years of settlement to the end of the 19th Century when his great-grandson was the surveyor in Madison County.

Collection Inventory