Senator John Abbott Lake Crookham View All Years

John Abbott Lake Crookham

Mahaska County

Pioneer, lawyer, banker, statesman and philanthropist, was a son of George L. and Sarah (Lake) Crookham and was born in Jackson county, Ohio, October 30, 1817. Judge Crookham was reared on the home farm in Jackson county, Ohio, until he lacked two months of his majority, when he went to Kanawha and took a contract for and cut forty thousand hoop pales. He also entered one hundred and sixty acres of land in Jackson county, at one dollar and a quarter per acre. He then returned to Illinois, sold his land and started to Oskaloosa in August, 1845. He bought two lots in this city but remained here only a short time. He returned to Illinois to a point above Burlington, where he taught school for twelve months and continued his study of the law. Returning again to Iowa he was admitted to the bar in Lee county and practiced his profession there until August, 1847, when he again came to Oskaloosa and engaged in the practice of law. He at once entered into the immediate life of the people and the community and became widely known on account of his activity and his endless zeal in the pursuit of his work. It was natural that in the early organization of the county the first judgeship should fall to his shoulders, where it rested most worthily for a term of four years, from 1851 until 1855. On March 26, 1855, Judge Crookham was appointed commissioner by Governor Grimes to relocate the state capital of Iowa, and it was he who drove the corner stake that located the site and this in accordance with the requirement that the capital should be within a certain radius of the forks of the Coon and Des Moines rivers. Judge Crookham was never an office seeker and though recognized as one of the most astute politicians in this part of the state and always an enthusiast for the success of the republican party, yet he never sought the honor of office at the hands of his friends. He represented the house in the state senate in the sessions of 1864 and 1867 and took an active part in formulating a great amount of valuable legislation during his term. He served as chairman on the committee on banks and banking in the senate and was the most prominent member of the judiciary committee. The Judge was twice married, first to Elizabeth Delashmutt. The Judge's second marriage was solemnized with Anna Clarissa Carter, a native of Pennsylvania.

Senate District 18