Colusa
County
Biographies
JAMES W. CRUTCHER
On the roster of officials of Colusa
County appears the name of James Wilson Crutcher, for he is now serving as
clerk and recorder. He was born in
Montgomery County, Missouri, and is a son of Samuel Crutcher, a native of
Kentucky. On the paternal side the
ancestry can be traced back to Samuel and Elizabeth (Lee) Crutcher, the
great-grandparents of our subject. They
were married in Patrick County, Virginia, and in their family were five
children, namely: Elizabeth, Cornelia,
Frank, Charles and Samuel. The last
named, Samuel Crutcher, Jr., was the grandfather of him whose name introduces
this review. Having arrived at years of
maturity, he married Nancy James, of Virginia, and in 1810 he removed to
Lincoln County, Missouri, where he made his home for twenty years, when in
1830, he took up his abode in Montgomery County, that state. His children were William, John, Sophia,
Lucella and Samuel.
The last named was the father of our
subject. During his early life he
accompanied his parents to Missouri and his death occurred in Montgomery
County, that state, at the age of seventy-three years. He was one of the pioneer families of the
locality and carried on agricultural pursuits for many years. He also embarked in merchandising, but that
venture was not so successful. In going
to Missouri he located at Middletown, and the first goods sold in the northern
part of Montgomery County were sold in one end of his house, in 1836, by
Matthew Wilberger and Samuel King. The
latter sold his interest in the little store to Mr. Crutcher, and later the
firm of Wilberger & Crutcher removed their stock of goods to the present
site of Middletown, placing them on sale in a little log cabin which was soon
afterward destroyed by fire, and thus they were financially ruined. Mr. Wilberger, Mr. Crutcher’s partner,
surveyed and laid out the town of Middletown in 1836, while John Dugan built
the first house there.
Samuel Crutcher, the father of our
subject, was three times married, his first union being with Eliza A.
Holladay. After her death he wedded a
Mrs. Holloway, who was a widow. For his
third wife he chose Mrs. Jane Randolph, nee Winters. His first wife was born in 1815 and their
marriage was celebrated in 1836. She was
a member of the Christian Church and died in that faith in 1847. In their family were eleven children.
On the maternal side Mr. Crutcher,
of this review, can trace his ancestry back to his great-grandparents, Stephen
and Ann (Hickman) Holladay. The latter
was a daughter of James and Hannah (Lewis) Hickman, of Clark County, Kentucky,
and was born in Culpeper County, Virginia, in 1754. His death occurred in Clark County in
1836. About the year 1783 she became the
wife of Stephen Holladay, a farmer, who is described as having dark hair and
hazel eyes and whose weight was about two hundred and twenty pounds. They reared seven children, the eldest being
Elliott Holladay, the grandfather of our subject, who was born in 1786, two
years after his father removed to Kentucky.
In 1812 he volunteered at Winchester, Kentucky, to fight the Indians who
were on the war path, causing great trouble to the people of the new state. He became a member of Captain John Martin’s
Company and participated in the hard-fought engagements of the 18th
and 22nd of January, 1813. On
the latter date he was taken prisoner at Winchester at the defeat on the River
Raisin. He suffered greatly from cold
and cruel treatment and finally was obliged to give up his gun in order to save
his life. After being exchanged he made
his way home, where he arrived in April, 1813.
The following year he married Rachel Johnson, who was born in 1791 and
whose parents were from Maryland.
In 1833 Elliott Holladay went to
Missouri and after selecting a location returned to his Kentucky home, which
was about twelve miles from Lexington.
On the 16th of August, 1834, he started with his family for
Missouri. They spent a month on the
road, making the trip in wagons. There
were eleven white people and eleven slaves in the party and eventually they
reached their destination in safety. The
father died in Missouri in 1869, and the mother in 1874, each being
eighty-three years of age at the time of their death. They held membership in the Christian Church,
with which Mr. Holladay united in 1810, his wife in 1841. They were the parents of eleven children, all
of whom were born in Clark County, Kentucky, with the exception of Margaret, the
youngest, whose birth occurred in Pike County, Missouri. Seven of the eleven are yet living, three
sons and four daughters. The sons,
Samuel W., Lewis and Owen, aged respectively eighty-two, seventy and
sixty-seven years, have never been married, and they now reside together upon
the old home farm in Pike County, Missouri, where they have lived for
sixty-five years. The place comprises
five hundred and ten acres of rich and valuable land, unsurpassed by any farm
in the bluegrass region of Kentucky. The
daughters living are Mrs. Martha Jane Purse, of Kansas City; Mrs. Emily
Crutcher, of Bowling Green, Missouri; Mrs. Margaret J. Smith, who is living
near Cyrene, Missouri; and Mrs. Sarah Pritchett, of Montgomery County, same
state. Those who have passed away are
James W., Mrs. Mary Crutcher, Mrs. N. A. Hickman and Mrs. Eliza Ann Crutcher; the
last mentioned being the mother of the subject of this article. J. W. Crutcher, whose name introduces this
review, was reared under the parental roof until nineteen years of age and
pursued his education in a district school near his home and later in Watson
Seminary, in Ashley, Pike County, Missouri.
In 1863, at the age of twenty-one
years, he came to California, crossing the plains to Sacramento, where he
arrived in December of that year. On
January 1, 1864, he went to Placer County and took charge of a turnpike road
which was at that time the property of Jefferson Wilcoxson,
of Sacramento, where he remained until the spring of 1868, during this period
living alone and doing his own washing and cooking. He then returned to Sacramento, and in the
fall and winter of that year he took a course in the Pacific Business College
in San Francisco. In February, 1869, he
returned to Sacramento and took a position in the office of Jefferson Wilcoxson, his former employer, where he remained until the
summer of 1870, when he went to Jacksonville, Oregon, and where he secured a
position as a bookkeeper in the store of Major J. T. Glenn. Remaining there until the summer of 1874, he
returned to the Golden state, locating at Jacinto in Colusa County, where he
became the bookkeeper for Dr. H. J. Glenn, with whom he remained until 1876. In October of that year he located at
Williams, where he established a grocery store, successfully conducting that
enterprise until the fall of 1896, when he sold out and for two years
thereafter he had no business except that of notary public and insurance.
On the 3rd of June, 1875,
Mr. Crutcher was united in marriage to Anna E. Houchins, near Jacinto, in
Colusa County, a native of Missouri, and to them were
born twelve children, but three are now deceased. Those living are Clarence W., born March 19,
1876; Samuel Earl, March 1, 1881; Leona, October 17, 1882; Ella, June 11, 1884;
James W., Jr., November 17, 1885; Everett Crawford, September 25, 1889; Harry
Houchins, October 23, 1890; Glenn Ellis, October 1, 1892; and Anabel, January 19, 1895.
Those deceased are Edward Wallar, born January
15, 1878 and died November 28, 1878; Essie Glenn, born October 1, 1879 and died
July 2, 1888; and Leonard, born March 10, 1888, and died November 4, 1888. Those living are all yet at home, and one
son, Clarence W., is serving as deputy county clerk.
Mrs. Crutcher is a daughter of
Samuel Houchins, now deceased. Samuel
Houchins was a native of Mercer County, Kentucky, born January 14, 1827. In 1844 he entered Bacon College, at
Harrodsburg, Kentucky, and remained in that institution four years. In 1849 he married Miss Belinda Burks, a
native of Kentucky, and in the following year removed to Monroe County,
Missouri, locating near Paris, the county seat.
He came to Colusa County in 1872, was elected superintendent of schools
in 1875, holding that office by re-election until 1882, and in 1888 was elected
auditor of Colusa County and re-elected in 1890 and continued to hold that
office up to the time of his death, May 27, 1892.
The first office that Mr. Crutcher
filled was that of justice of the peace in Williams, in the years 1877 and
1878. He has never been an aspirant for
political honors, and with that exception never sought preferment along
political lines until 1898, when he was elected county clerk and recorder. He is still serving in that position and is a
most capable official. In politics he
has always been a staunch Democrat since casting his first presidential vote
for George B. McClellan. Socially he is
connected with the Masonic fraternity, and his wife is a member of the
Christian Church. They are prominent
people of the community in which they make their home, enjoying the high regard
of many warm friends, and in this volume they well deserve mention as worthy
citizens in this section of the state.
Transcribed by
Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
“A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of Northern
California”, Pages 167-173. Chicago Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. 1901.
© 2010
Gerald Iaquinta.
Golden Nugget Library's Colusa County Biographies