Oliver Cromwell Crookham was born to George and Sarah Crookham, old settlers of Jackson County, Ohio, in 1824. He was their tenth child.
Pickaway County, Ohio
In 1850, he married Mary Jane Walden in Jackson County. They moved from Jackson County, where both their parents lived, to Pickaway County, northwest of Jackson County, along the Scioto River. The Crookham farm was on the road to Chillicothe and from there, there was the Ohio & Erie canal to Pickaway County.
In the 1850 Census, they are living near Crookham’s brother, Lawrence Crookham. Lawrence has real estate valued at $18,000 and has four men marked at “Mulatto” living with him of free status. Oliver and his wife Mary are listed immediately after Lawrence.
By the 1860 Census, Oliver has acquired real estate almost equal in value to that of his brother. Lawrence in the 1860 census had real estate valued at $14350, and Oliver $11560. Living with Oliver is his sister-in-law Martha Waldon who is working as a teacher. Living next to the Crookham’s are free Blacks. Their father George L Crookham had been an abolitionist and had supported the Underground Railroad. It is unclear if the the families living near the Crookhams in Pickaway were connected with that work.
Greene County, Missouri
By the 1870 Census, Oliver left Pickaway, where his brother Lawrence still lived. He traveled to Greene County, Missouri. Springfield is located in Green County. Land records suggest he bought farmland near Ash Grove in the northwest part of the county. Crookham employed 4 people who had immigrated from Denmark, among them Jacob Knudson who married Amanda Crookham in 1871.
Land Records show that he began buying land in 1866. He made three purchases in 1866, and then one additional in 1867 and 1868. After 1870, he made two additional purchases in 1872 and 1873. Additional land records show that he sold multiple parcels of land, one of which to the Ash Grove Baptist Church and Turstees ME Church. (Greene County Deed Records)
This map of Ash Grove shows that the Baptist Church and ME Church were near Crookham Street in the “Original Town”. Ash Grove was incorporated in 1871. The Baptist Church was built in 1871 and cost $971.
The map shows the names of the people who bought Crookham’s land highlighted in green. The records did not indicate which parcels and so the circled lands are best guesses based on records reviewed.
Greenwood County, Kansas
While Crookham was living in Greene County, Missouri in 1870, and was making multiple real estate transfers, he had also purchased large tracts of land in Greenwood County, Kansas in 1867. The Eureka Herald and Greenwood County Republican announced in July of 1871 that “Mr. Crookham intends to build soon. He will put a fine dwelling.”
Crookham purchased the land in Kansas using a “Agricultural Scrip Patent”. His sales were “in favor of West Virginia”, meaning that the proceeds of the sale of land went to West Virginia for the establishment of an agricultural and mechanical arts college.
O. C. Crookham died in 1874 when Alex Harman shot him over a wage dispute. The Crookham family remained in Greenwood County after his death.
Finding the Yellow Bricks 
My 3rd great grandfather
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