Crooks - William B.
WILLIAM B. CROOKS
Source: Zach, Karen Bazzani. Montgomery Medicine Men...Crawfordsville: Montgomery County Historical Society, 2002.
WIlliam B. Crooks was born 8 miles northwest of Hamilton, Ohio in February 1803. He and his wife, Martha M. Johnson were parents of a large family, one of whom was James born October 26, 1825 who was also a successful doctor. William moved his amily about often, first going to Parke County when son James was but a year old, then coming to the Waynetown (then called Middletown) area where he practiced buty a few years (and is found as executor of several early Montgomery County estates), moving father north to Michigan City in the spring of 1834, then Lake County and back again to the Bridgeton, Parke County area in 1838. While in Lake County, he was associate judge. Always, he was a friend to the poor. He was especially noted in treating the deadly milk sickness disease from which so many of Indiana's early settlers suffered.
The Crooks' ancestors came from Glasgow, Scotlong to America in 1720. An excellent account of this family's roots, as well as a picture of James Crooks, MD can be found in the History of Parke County (Chicago: HH Iddings, 1881). Don Thompson, past Wabash College librairan, also wrote an excellent account of James Crooks in the June 1981 Montgomery Magazine which mentions William often. William Crooks passed away in 1856 in Parke County.