George W Crooks

CROOKS

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 3/20/2009 at 00:17:28

George W Crooks, It is a well known fact that the peace, prosperity and well being of every community depends upon the wife interpretation of the laws, as well as upon their judicious framing, and therefore the records of the various persons who have at different times made up the bar will form an important part of this volume A well known jurist of Illinois said ”In the American state the great and good lawyer much always be prominent for he is one of the forces that move and control society. Public confidence has generally been reposed in the legal profession. It has ever been the defender of popular rights and the champion of freedom regulated by law, the firm support of good government. No political preferment, no mere place, can add to the power or increase the honor which belongs to the pure and educated lawyer.” Mr Crooks is one who has been honored by and is an honor to the legal profession of Boone county and has attained distinction through ability. Since January 1874, he has been a practitioner at the bar of Boone and is now a member of the firm of Crooks & Snell.
Mr Crooks is a native of Clay county, Indiana although he has spent the greater part of his life in this state. He was born July 22, 1836, a son of Jacob and Hannah (Croy) Crooks, both of whom were of German lineage. On coming to America the paternal ancestors established homes in Ohio and Kentucky. The father our subject served his country as a soldier in the war of 1812. He was a farmer by occupation and in 1845, accompanied by his family, emigrated westward to Iowa, when it was yet a territory, settling in Jefferson county, near Fairfield. In the spring of 1847 he removed to Boone county, and secured a government claim a few mils south of Boone, continuing the cultivation of his land until his death which occurred in 1853. His wife long survived him and died in 1882.
Mr Crooks of this review was but nine years of age when the family came to Iowa, and in his youth he largely assisted in the arduous task of developing and improving a new farm. He remained upon the old homestead until 1855 when he removed to Boonesboro and since that time has resided continuously in town, either in Boonesboro or the city of Boone, with the exception of two years passed in Madrid, Iowa. In 1860 he was married to Miss Rebecca Nutt and the following year was commissioned first lieutenant to enlist a company to enter the Union service. He assisted in raising the company and left he county for the redezvous, in August 1861, but on account of ill health he was unable to be regularly mustered into the United States service. In every way possible however, he rendered aid to the Union cause at home. In June 1863, he was appointed sheriff of Boone county and filled that position until January 1874, when he entered upon the practice of law.
Mr Crooks had previously studied law and after careful preparation for the bar was admitted at the December term of the district court in 1873, by Honor D D Chase, then judge. In the following January he entered into partnership with the I N Kidder, with whom he remained until 1882. The following year he entered into partnership relations with R F Jordan and association which was continued until 1891. Through the two succeeding years Mr Crooks was not actively connected with the bar, but in 1893, formed a partnership with the Honor J J Snell that has since been maintained. In 1878 he was elected to represent Boone count in the state legislature. H has long occupied a foremost position in the foremost rank of the legal practitioners of Boone county. His life has been one of untiring activity and has been crowned with a big degree of success, yet he is not less esteemed as a citizen than as a lawyer, and his kindly impulses and charming cordiality of manner have rendered him exceedingly popular among all classes. The favorable judgment which the world passed upon him in his early ears has never been set aside nor in any degree modified. It has, on the contrary, been emphasized by his careful conduct of important litigation, his candor and fairness in the presentation of cases, his zeal and earnestness as an advocate and the generous commendation he has received from his contemporaries who unite in bearing testimony to his superior mind and high character.

1902 Boone County History Book