Biography of Jesse S. Crume (1849- )
Portrait and Biographical Record of St. Charles, Lincoln and Warren Counties (Chicago: Chapman Pub. Co., 1895), page 506.

JESSE S. CRUME, ex-Sheriff of Lincoln County is now making his home in township 60, range 2, and is engaged in cultivating six hundred acres of as fine land as can be found in Missouri. He has passed the principal portion of his life in Lincoln County and has always taken great interest in its upbuilding. He made an efficient and trustworthy public officer, and has been a life-long supporter of the Democracy. He has frequently served as a district-school Director, and was once a candidate for Collector, and though he did not make a strong canvass, came in second of four contestants for the office.

Jonathan W. CRUME, father of our subject, was born near Taylorsville, Nelson County, Ky., October 14, 1821, his parents being John and Jane (KIRKHAM) CRUME, natives of Virginia and Kentucky, respectively. John CRUME was born in 1781, and when thirteen years of age was taken by his father to Kentucky, where he was married. In 1830 he came to Lincoln County, bringing his family with him, and settled on a farm east of Troy, where. he lived until 1880. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, as a member of a Kentucky regiment. His wife, born in the Blue Grass State in 1783, died in 1856. Her father, Michael KIRKHAM, a native of Ireland, settled in Kentucky prior to the Revolution. John and Jane CRUME had eight children: John, Sallie, Philip, Elizabeth, Taylor, Jonathan W., Mary Jane and Jesse. Jonathan W. never attended school, its there were no educational facilities during his boyhood in Kentucky. Indians were still numerous, and whenever the citizens held court they assembled for muster. Mr. CRUME was one of the most expert hunters in the country, his shot being almost invariably true. Prior to the war he was a Whig, but later became a Democrat, and voted for his party nominees until shortly before his death, which occurred January 28,1891. He joined the Masonic order in Auburn at an early day, and was for a time a member of New Hope Lodge and a charter member of Solon Lodge, which was instituted about 1868.

In 1842 Jonathan W. CRUME married Leah Jane, daughter of Littleton and Ellen P. (JOHNSTON) DRYDEN. The former was born in Worcester County, Md., January 26, 1797, and died on the 16th of February, 1867; and the latter, born on the 18th of January, 1803, died February 14, 1867. For many years they had been members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and both were placed to rest in the same grave. Mr. DRYDEN removed from Maryland to Hannibal, Mo., in 1833, and worked at his trade as a hatter for three years, after which be settled in this county, buying a claim where the village of Snow Hill (now Brussells) stands and continuing to operate his homestead until his death. Leah J. CRUME was born in Maryland in 1828, and was about thirteen years old when her parents came to this county.

Jesse S. CRUME, who was born near Troy, this county, April 17, 1849, is one of eight children. Elizabeth married S. A. HARROLD, who lives on a portion of the old homestead. Littleton Thomas has resided in California for the past fifteen years. Ella is the widow of Dr. A. H. CHENOWITH, of Troy. John Wesley resides on a part of the old homestead. Julia is the wife of J. W. ALEXANDER, who is on the St. Louis police force; and Willie and James Alexander died in childhood, aged four and nine years, respectively.

The early education of our subject was obtained in the district log schoolhouse, near the home of his boyhood. He pursued his studies until his twenty-fourth year, but when only eighteen years of age actively engaged in farming. Going to Cap Au Gris, he bought a share in his brother's store and remained in business for about two years. He then married and returned to his native township, settling on an eighty-acre tract of timber-land near his father's home. He cleared the land and made many improvements on the place, which he sold in 1882. He then removed to the farm where his father had first located, and conducted the same for six years. His headquarters for the next four years were in Troy, on account of his duties as Sheriff of the county. When his term of office had expired he removed to a farm near Elsberry, and in the fall of 1894 finally located where he is at present.

April 13, 1873, Mr. CRUME married Hettie A., daughter of Charles MONROE and Susan (HINES) THOMASON, the former of whom was born in Virginia in 1821, being a son of John and Elizabeth (GARWOOD) THOMASON. His father, who was a soldier in the War of 1812, was born and reared in Botetourt County, Va., and moved to Missouri in 1830, the journey being made overland in wagons. The family settled near Auburn, where he died in 1836. In 1842 C. M. THOMASON married Susan HINES, and two years later settled on his mother's homestead, where he spent the ten ensuing years, then removing to a farm near the Cuivre River. Two years later he disposed of his property there and went to Nebraska, stopping in St. Joseph, where his mother died. He then took passage on a steamboat for Lincoln County, and, landing at Cap Au Gris, settled on the bluffs of the Mississippi, where he made his home for a time. When the town of Winfield was founded he removed thither, and continued to make his home there until his death, which occurred at the residence of J. S. CRUME in 1886. His body was interred in the cemetery at Winfield.

Susan HINES was the daughter of John and Hettie (GALLOWAY) HINES. Her father, who was reared in Virginia, moved to Missouri in 1823, his wife and child making the journey on horseback in company with a brother, who walked. After a year in Lincoln County, he moved to Ohio, the journey being made in a wagon of his own manufacture. Two years were spent in Ohio, after which he returned to Missouri and settled at Old Alexandria, which was the county seat at that time. Removing thence to Troy, he conducted a blacksmith shop. Later he settled on a tract of land lying on Sugar Creek, which he entered from the Government, and upon which he remained for about five years. A similar period was spent at New Hope, where he had a shop. Thence he went to his farm on Sugar Creek, where Mr. and Mrs. THOMASON were married. Mr. HINES finally became a member of the family of the latter, with whom he remained until his death in the year 1849. Mrs. HINES was born in Maryland and went to Virginia with her parents in childhood. In 1820 she became the wife of Mr. HINES, and three years later came to Lincoln County, Mo. After the demise of her husband, she made her home with the family of C. M. THOMASON until her death, at the age of eighty-four. There were eleven children in the family, two of whom died young.

Six children came to grace the union of Mr. and Mrs. CRUME, namely:  Arthur L., born May 21, 1874; Mina M., February 15, 1876; Irene S., March 4, 1878; John L., September 19, 1879; Hubert J., July 17, 1881; and Ella G., December 25, 1887. The eldest is attending the Iowa Business College at Des Moines, while the younger children are students in the Elsberry schools. Mrs. CRUME is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church South, with which she has been connected since 1884.

Politically a Democrat, Mr. CRUME has always given his allegiance to that party. Though only a boy, he was an enthusiastic upholder of the Southern cause, and with one of his brothers intended to enlist, but was prevented by his father. His people were slave-owners, and one of the old negroes brought by his grandfather from Maryland to Missouri is still living and resides under the roof of Mr. CRUME. Among the relies and treasures of our subject is a powder-horn which his great-grandfather took from Virginia to Kentucky in 1794; and a sister has a gourd used for keeping the supply of powder, and which was brought out at the same time. It was formerly about two feet long, but has been broken and is now hardly half that length. John Wesley, a brother, owns a knife formerly the property of the same ancestor, and used in skinning deer; he also owns a small hand-sickle made over one hundred years ago. Our subject has the old rifle which belonged to his father, and which has brought down many a deer.

Fraternally Mr. CRUME has been a Mason since 1871, at which time he became a member of New Salem Lodge No. 270, but in the winter of 1894 he became identified with New Hope Lodge No. 199, at Elsberry. He is an Odd Fellow and a Knight of Honor, and in these various societies has held different official positions At one time he was identified with the Temperance Benevolent Association, and for a few
years belonged to the Grange. 

File submitted to HERITAGE PAGES of LINCOLN COUNTY, MISSOURI by Michael Parker, 18 April 1999.  Link change or update: 23 May 2000

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