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Clarabel Crooker (1852-1938)
James T. Crooker (1824-1897)
Martha Jane Davis Crooker (1827-1919)
Evanette Crooker (1865-1866)
Sally Davis White (1793-1880)
James Thurston Crooker was born in 1824 in Merrimack, New Hampshire. He married Martha Davis, who was born on November 21, 1827. The couple were married in Boston on April 16, 1846. James and Martha Crooker had four daughters: Clarabel, Anna, Evanette, and Grace.
Anna Cora Crooker was born in 1861 and died in Boston in 1864. Evanette was born on September 4, 1865; she lived only a year and died in 1866 of dysentery.
Born on September 28, 1852 in Boston, Clarabel Crooker was born on September 28, 1852 in Boston. Grace Crooker was born in 1867.
By the 1870 census, the Crookers were living in South Dedham. James was a “pattern maker,” one who produces patterns either on fabric or metal. It is likely that James was a metal pattern maker working in one of the small foundries in the village.
James T. Crooker died on December 2, 1897; the cause was a cerebral thrombosis. The family was living in Hyde Park at the time. Still, he was buried in South Dedham along with his infant daughter, Evanette.
In 1900, still living in Hyde Park, Clarabel Crooker was a clerk supporting her mother. The two remained together until Martha Davis Crooker’s death on March 14, 1919 at 91 of mitral stenosis and acute bronchitis. In 1920, Clarabel registered to vote in South Boston and remained there until her death in 1938. She is buried along with her parents and sister in the Old Parish Cemetery.
Also interred in the family lot is Martha Davis Crooker’s mother, Sally Wait Davis. Sally Wait was born on April 30, 1793 in New Hampshire. She married William Davis in Weston, Vermont on March 9, 1815. Sally and William Davis had two children: daughter Martha and son Nathaniel. Sally Wait Davis died in Walpole, Mass. on March 30, 1880. When the Crooker gravestone was erected, Sally’s name was inscribed incorrectly as Sally Davis White rather than Sally Wait Davis.
