Crocker was born in Jamesville, New York to Isaac and Elizabeth Crocker. He earned a degree in civil engineering at Rensselaer Institute in Troy, New York. He went on to read law in South Bend, Indiana.[1] While there, he started a practice that earned him a reputation as an abolitionist.[2][3][4] In June 1850, Crocker lost a civil case brought by a slave owner for helping four slaves escaping from Kentucky.[5] In July 1850, Crocker attended the Liberty Party convention in Syracuse, New York, where he retold the story of helping the slaves.[6] In June 1851, he spoke at the Christian Anti-Slavery State convention in Indianapolis, Indiana.[7][8] In August 1852, he was named a delegate from Indiana to the Free Soil Party convention.[9] In 1852, he and his second wife Margaret Ellen Rhodes Crocker moved to Sacramento, California.
When they arrived in Sacramento, Crocker resumed his legal career. He was also involved in politics. On March 8, 1856, he chaired the state's first meeting of the Republican Party.[10][11] In 1863, Governor Leland Stanford appointed Crocker as an associate justice of the California Supreme Court, which position he held from May 21, 1863, to January 2, 1864.[12] In 1863, elections were held for all seats on the Supreme Court due to an 1862 amendment to California constitution and 1863 enabling law, and Crocker chose to step down rather than seek re-election.[12]
The stress of all of his work took a toll on Crocker. He suffered from a stroke in June 1869. He retired from his other pursuits and took up less stressful hobbies. With a net worth of a million dollars from railroad investments, Crocker and his family traveled throughout Europe and collected art.[14] His family renovated their home to include an art gallery. Their home and the art that they had acquired would eventually become the Crocker Art Museum.[15]
Crocker Gravesite
After his stroke, Crocker's health never fully recovered. On June 24, 1875, he died in Sacramento.[16][17] He is interred in the Sacramento Historic City Cemetery in Sacramento, California.[18]
Personal life
On September 3, 1845, Crocker married Mary Norton in Mishawaka, Indiana. She died on April 12, 1847, in South Bend, Indiana. They had a daughter, also named Mary.
On July 8, 1852, he remarried to Margaret Rhodes in New York in a ceremony performed by Henry Ward Beecher.[15][12] They had four daughters: Aimée Crocker, Jennie Louise Crocker Fassett, Nellie Margaret and Kate Eugenie Gunn; and two sons: Edwin Clark, who died as a baby, and Elwood Bender, a relative whom they adopted.
^"Liberty Paper at Washington City". The Daily Union (Wash, D.C.). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. November 2, 1846. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
^"E. B. Crocker (advertisement)". The National Era (Wash, D.C.). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. June 20, 1850. p. 100. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
^"Movements for California". The New York Herald. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. April 1, 1849. p. 4. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
^"Important Decision". Indiana State Sentinel. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. June 20, 1850. p. 1. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
^"Anti-Slavery Christian Convention". The National Era (Wash, D.C.). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. July 10, 1851. p. 112. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
^"First Republican Club". Sacramento Daily Union. Vol. 92, no. 24. California Digital Newspaper Collection. 14 September 1896. p. 6. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
^"To the Pacific Coast". Evening Star (Wash, D.C.). Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. October 12, 1909. p. 17. Retrieved September 12, 2017.
^"San Francisco. It's Men". Chicago Tribune. Library of Congress Historic Newspapers. June 22, 1871. p. 2. Retrieved September 12, 2017. Charles Crocker, a large, stout florid man, is Vice President of the Central Pacific and worth $6,000,000. E. B. Crocker, ex-State Justice, brother to the above, is worth $1,000,000.
