Charles Henry Crooks: Brilliant and Flamboyant

1883 - 1926

Charles Henry Crooks and Nellie Reed Williams, on their wedding day

Charles Henry Crooks

      Charles Henry Crooks was born June 16, 1883, in Gilman, Illinois, the son of Thomas Armor Crooks and Meroa Louisa Yeomans. He had 2 siblings: Helen Redfield Crooks (1885) and Fred Raymond Crooks (1888). Helen married William McFarland, a farmer from Loda, Illinois, and a man 20 years her senior. Raymond served as the principal of several Illinois schools, graduated from and taught at the University of Illinois medical school and practiced medicine. He lived in Chicago from about 1913 until his death in 1966. Dad had much more contact with his McFarland cousins than his Crooks cousins. Even though Raymond was the attending doctor at Charles' death, when Dad went to visit his Uncle Raymond while attending the University of Chicago, he received a very cool reception.

       According to Old Gilman Lore, Charles graduated from Gilman High School when he was 13 years old. While in school, he shared honors with Calvin Coolidge for writing the best essays in the U. S. on the topic "The Causes of the American Revolution". He later graduated from a business course at Grand Prairie Seminary. later attending Oberlin College in Ohio. After the Spanish-American war, when he was about 21, he went to the Philippines to help set up a school system. This involved training the more educated Philippines in the organization and administration of local schools. When he returned to the States, he served as principal of several Lake County schools. He later worked in a telephone factory in Waukegan with his cousin, Arthur Yeomans, which is how he probably met Nellie! For a time, he worked at Marshall Fields as a security guard, but the time frame is not clear. In about 1910, he was a sales manager for the Cincinnati Clock Company.

      In January 1920, he was living with his aunt, Anna Yeomans, in Waukegan. On February 11, 1920, he married Nellie Reed Williams in Waukegan, and they moved to New York. A month later, though, he returned to Illinois for his father's funeral. By March, they were residing in Cincinnati, Ohio and by January 1921, they were living in Brooklyn, New York, where his first son Raymond (Dad) was born.

     By 1922, he returned to Chicago, where he lived with his family at 1141 Laurel Avenue in Chicago. His next 2 children, Dorothy (1922) and George (1924) were born there.  He worked as a real estate salesman and no doubt encountered lots of people. This is probably how he contracted the streptococci infection which resulted in the lobar pneumonia that killed him on December 22, 1926, at the age of 43. His attending physician was his brother Raymond. Services were held at his home on Laurel Avenue. His obituary mentions that he was a Mason.

    Dad remembers his Mom describing Charley as a flashy dresser who wore expensive ties. The McFarland cousins said he worked at lots of different places and quickly rose to the top wherever he worked. His brother, Ray, was evidently jealous of him.  Dad's cousin, Bob McFarland, said that Charlie was an avid reader. He would get several books from the library after school on Friday, stop by his father's store to get a box of cookies and have all the books read by Monday.

Written by Dorothy Crooks, his granddaughter.

Ira Munson Carroll: Passionate Rolling Stone

1890-1956

Ira Munson Carroll, in police uniform

Ira Munson Carroll, while in the navy during World War I

Ira Carroll, with his wife, Lillian Blanche (Kaufman) Carroll
Photo taken Sept 1955, their last picture together

      Ira Munson Carroll was born February 6, 1890, in Danbury, Iowa, the son of George Eden Carroll and Emily Louise Stackhouse. He was the youngest of 4 children, his siblings being: Charles Eden (1877), Maude Emily (1881) and Effie (1882). Effie died before Ira was born.

      In about 1893, when Ira was 3 years old, his family moved from Danbury, Iowa, to Sioux City, Iowa, about 50 miles to the northwest. By 16 years of age, he was working, first as a laborer, then as a driver. He was a driver for at least 3 different companies, including 1 retail grocery and 2 companies specializing in meats. This work was no doubt facilitated by his father, George, who sold groceries. By 1914, he was working as a fireman. He was a pipe man, responsible for holding the hose nozzle and directing the spray. At this same time, Arthur Jordan was a driver for the fire department. Gramie's sister Winifred had married Arthur and both Lillian and her mother were living with Arthur and Winifred!

      On April 8, 1914, Ira Munson Carroll married Lillian Blanche Kaufman (Gramie!) in Sioux City, Iowa. Their children were Robert Edwin (1915), Richard Charles (1917) and Lois Elizabeth (1920). In 1915 and 1916, Ira was working as a machinist at an auto radiator repair shop. By early 1917, he was farming in Corsica, South Dakota. (According to Mom, this was a tree claim, which meant he could obtain 160 acres if he planted 10 acres of trees.) When Ira registeredfor the WWI draft, he claimed an exemption based on family and crops. In late 1917, son Richard was born in Odebolt, Iowa, 70 miles east of Sioux City. (The move appears to have been related to the war.) Ira went on to serve as a fireman in the Navy Reserve from May through November 1918. He appears to have served at the Dunwoody Naval Training School, but may have had a stint at the Great Lakes Naval Training school in Chicago.
 
      After the war, he worked as a policeman in Sioux City. He also worked for the National Fidelity Life Insurance Company, in both Sioux City and Kansas City, MO. About 1923, Ira left Lillian and his 3 children with Lillian's sister, Winifred, in Omaha, Nebraska, and went to both Florida and California looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow! When Ira returned, they moved to a South Dakota farm in the Garden City vicinity. Ira farmed, raised pure-bred Hampshire swine and worked as an auctioneer.  The family lived through the Dust Bowl and the Depression, but always had food to eat.

      By 1935, the family moved back to a Sioux City apartment, where Ira and son Dick worked as truckers. They later moved to a farm outside the city, but the home burned down in about 1938. Gramie was the one to discover the fire! Ira continued to work in farming and gardening, but they did move back to Sioux City. By 1950, they had moved to Mitchell, South Dakota, where Ira worked as a business manager for the Faith Home School and Church, where Mom went to high school and where Uncle Bob had strong connections!

      Ira died on November 14, 1956, age 66, in Sioux City, and is buried in Logan Park Cemetery. About a week later, Gramie applied for a flat bronze military marker to be embedded in his tombstone. Causes of death were congestive heart failure and diabetes.  In the late 1940's, he had had a stroke, was given 3 months to live and wanted to make one last trip to Seattle to see Mom and baby George.

      Ira had numerous occupations in the course of his life! When Mom asked Gramie "what is a rolling stone", Gramie replied "that's what your father is, dear." Ira never went to college, but learned psychology, German and handwriting from correspondence courses. He was a powerful man and taught boxing and wrestling at the YMCA. He was also a passionate and volatile man. One grandson remembers that when you walked into a room with Ira present, he was either the life of the party or it was as if someone had just died. Mom remembers him sobbing as if his heart would break when he had to put down 2 injured horses. Ira was ordained by the Wesleyan Immanuel Mission in 1953 and was active in the Nazarene Church. Ira wrote Mom a wonderful letter in 1944, beginning with "Who am I that God should give me such a wonderful daughter?"

Written by Dorothy Crooks, his granddaughter.