Colonel John W. CROCKETT

COLONEL JOHN WATKINS CROCKETT, who for many years was connected with the bar of Henderson, was born in Jessamine County, Kentucky, 17 May 1818, and died in Madisonville, Kentucky, 20 June 1874.

 His father, John W. CROCKETT, was a native of the same county and was a farmer by occupation.

 His grandfather, Joseph CROCKETT, was born near Charlotteville, Virginia, and was colonel of a Virginia regiment during the war of the Revolution.

 His mother was Louisa BULLOCK, of Jessamine County, Kentucky, a member of the prominent family of that name in this state.

 John Watkins CROCKETT was educated in the common schools of Jessamine County, and in Hancock County, Illinois, while residing there with his sister, Mrs. Hannah Crockett BELL.

 At the age of twenty-one he returned to Hopkinsville, where he read law with his cousin, Joseph CROCKETT, an attorney of renown, who later became one of the justices on the supreme bench of California.

 John was admitted to practice at Paducah, Kentucky, and removed to Henderson a short time before the inauguration of the Civil War.  His sympathies were with the south, and his conscientious convictions of the supreme right of the states to sever their union with the national government led him to give his influence and support to the Confederacy.  He was sent as a delegate to the convention held in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and there was elected to represent the second congressional district in the Confederate congress.  He maintained this position during the greater part of the war, devoting his time and abilities to advancing the cause of the south, and when the war was over returned to Henderson, where he resumed the practice of law.  To that work he devoted his energies until 1872, when failing health caused him to leave the bar and he returned to Madisonville, where he died in 1874.

 John Watkins CROCKETT was twice married.  He first wedded Mrs. SMEDLEY, and of this union there are two surviving children, -- John W. and Mrs. Lucy Crockett THORNBERRY, of Montgomery, Alabama.  For his second wife Mr. CROCKETT chose Miss Louisa INGRAM, daughter of Wyatt H. INGRAM, a merchant of Henderson, Kentucky.  The only surviving child of the second marriage is Ingram CROCKETT, who is teller in the Planters’ Bank of Henderson, and who, aside from his duties in the bank, gives much attention to authorship, having written many beautiful poems which have appeared in such standard publications as the Youth’s Companion and Frank LESLIE’S, and have also been published for distribution and for sale.

 In concluding the sketch of John Watkins CROCKETT it is but just to give an account of his forensic ability, which has seldom been equaled.  He was by nature an orator.  He possessed a vigorous intellect, wide information and keen wit, and his command of language was such as to make his speech apt and fitting at all times.  Careful in arranging and preparing his cases, he was never at a loss for forcible and appropriate argument to sustain his position and he met in the arena of the courtroom and in public debate such men as Archibald DIXON, Lazarus W. POWELL and others of like caliber, and rarely was worsted in the combat.

 He was of a genial, generous nature, courteous and frank and ready at all times to aid the unfortunate and needy.  Though eighteen years have passed since he was laid in the tomb his memory is still enshrined in the hearts of many friends, and his virtues and goodness still live in the recollection of those who knew him.

 Source:  “Lawyers & Lawmakers” by the Henderson Co. Historical & Genealogical Society, Pages 387 & 388, excerpts from The Lawyers & Lawmakers of Kentucky, arranged and edited under the supervision of H. Levin, of the Illinois Bar, dated 1897.