One of the self-educated lawyers of Boone county, and one of the best known men in the same locality, is George Washington Crooks, who first saw the light of this world in Vigo county, Indiana, on the 22d of July, 1836. When he was nine years old the family immigrated to Iowa, and after remaining on a farm two years at Fairfield, Jefferson county, removed to Boone county. George farmed until seventeen, and then worked for several seasons in a grist and saw mill, earning a little money and then spending it in securing a common-school education. He was quite studious in boyhood, and picked up a good deal of knowledge out of school during his leisure hours. In 1861 Mr. Crooks was commissioned first lieutenant of a company in an independent regiment, which was finally mustered in as the 10th Iowa Infantry, rendezvoused with the regiment at Iowa City, and there became sick and was finally discharged. He was elected sheriff of Boone county in 1863, and served from June of that year to the 1st of January, 1874, being reelected four times. Though always a democrat and living in a republican county, he usually had a fair majority. He discharged the duties of this office very faithfully and to the satisfaction of all parties. Soon after becoming sheriff he began to read law in the office of C. W. Lowrey, of Boonesboro; continued to read more or less every year; was admitted to the bar in December, 1873, and has since practiced at Boone, being of the firm of Kidder and Crooks. He was elected to the Seventeenth General Assembly in 1877. Mr. Crooks is a sound lawyer, conscientious and true, aiming to do what is exactly right and proper. Mr. Crooks is a member of the Masonic fraternity, and of the Methodist church, and a man whose character is above suspicion. His wife was Miss Rebecca Nutt, of Des Moines, Iowa, chosen on the 19th of July, 1860.