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.

Goodspeed’s Biographies of Lauderdale Co., TN