The Madisonian. (Richmond, Ky.) 1913-1914, 1913-09-09
of fifty-two years resigning bul
two years before his death.

Iof fifty-two years, resigning but
two years before his death.
Major John Crooke was a man.
of fine mind and for his day and
generation he had wide informa-
ton. In those days it was the
case that almost all men of some
education were called upon to
teach school and it is not strange
that he had some. experience in
pedagogical capacity. He also
taught numerous young men the
art of surveying, which, by the
way, was one of the chief accom-
plishments of General Washing
ton. One of the numerous quaint
anecdotes which have been told
of him, is, that whenever a young
man would ask him how far he
should be advanced in mathemat-
les in order to master surveying,
he would answer, add two and
two and put down four, but do
not put down something else"
Which was his way of saying that
carefulneSs and accuracy were the
principal requisites. When Rich
mond was established as the
county seat he laid off the city
limits in rectangle and called it
the town tract of fifty acres. The
largest survey on his books was
made for John Jones for 10000
acres about the Three Forks of
the Kentucky river. Kentucky at
that time, of course, did not have
the perfect system of surveying
now used in the West and it was
but natural that a great deal of
litigation arose. Major John
Crooke was very gifted as a
mathematician and he made Ia
bles of numbers, such as the table
of Logaritmims and the Traverse
table He made more than thirty
maps of the different states and
territories, of the United States,
Mexico, and so forth, and laid off
the counties in good colors, all
with his pen. He was skilled as
a draughtsman and always used a
quill pen. He made several maps
of Madison county with connect
ed plats of all the lands. He also
surveyed most of the lands in the
early litigations in Madison and
other counties. When it is re-
membered that during the time
that he was surveyor, Madison
county extended to the Virginia
line on the south side of the Ken
lucky river, it will be easy to be-
lieve that he needed deputies and
a partial list of them is as follows:
James Kincaid, Richard Smith,
David Williams, Jones Hoy, Geo.
Walker, James Mccormick, Dan
iel Boone young Daniel, VIII
liam O'Rear, Thomas Moseley,
Thomas Campbell, Wallace EstilI,
Joseph Barnatt, James Anderson,
Irvine Anderson, John r. Crooke,
Kiah Crooke and others.
j This versatile pioneer made an
arithmetic of his own; understood
navigation; could box the com
pass; made almanacs and could.
foretell the eclipses of the sun
and moon. Late in a certain
May on the margin of one of his
almanacs he put down Frost"
opposite certain date some time
in advance. The weather at that
time was already quite mild. At
the battalion muster on the day
before the date he had noted he
was rallied about his prediction,
for twas still warm and equitable.
! Said he, Wait and see." That
evening a -cloud rolled up from
the North and there was brisk
shower and it cleared off cold.
Next morning, behold there was
: a white frost over everything. To
quote from one of his biographers
He was thenceforth put down as
an almanac maker and a sure
8 prophet"
Major Crooke, Captain John
: White and Cir Tohn spa+ Y;cLe ,.,o~o