Duval County FlArchives Biographies.....Croom, Hardy August 27, 1874 - 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Nancy Rayburn http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00025.html#0006128 March 25, 2010, 6:29 pm

Source: The Lewis Publishing Co., Vol.III   pg. 92-3 1923
Author: The History of Florida:  Past & Present

	CROOM, HARDY.  The entire business career of HARDY CROOM has been 
passed in connection with transportation systems, and during a period of more 
than a quarter of a century spent in this line of work he has become a man of 
wide and thorough experience.  At the present time he is manager of the 
Jacksonville Traction Company, a position in which his ability and executive 
management are doing much to give the people of this city their best and most 
efficient of service.
	Mr. CROOM was born in Jefferson County, Florida, and like a number of 
men who have succeeded in city affairs, is a product of the farm, his birth 
having occurred on his father’s farm August 27, 1874.  He is a son of HARDY C. 
and AGNES A. (WARE) CROOM.  His father, a native of Leon County, Florida, born 
in 1840, became one of Florida’s pioneer orange growers, and for many years 
carried on that business in conjunction with general agricultural pursuits, in 
Jefferson County, where he died in 1904, at the age of sixty-four years.  He 
was a man who bore an excellent reputation in his community for business 
integrity and personal probity, was a member of the Masonic fraternity and in 
politics gave allegiance to the democratic party.  His religious faith was 
that of the Episcopal Church, to which also belonged his wife, who was born in 
Jefferson County, this state, and died in 1921, when seventy-two years of age.
	The only child of his parents, HARDY CROOM spent his boyhood on his 
father’s farm and orange grove and acquired his early education in the public 
schools.  Later he pursued a course at the University of Florida, from which 
he was graduated as a member of the class of 1896, and when he left that 
institution had no inclination for a rural career.  Accordingly he secured a 
position in the drafting department of the Plant System Railway, with which he 
remained until 1901, in that year entering the service of the Jacksonville 
Street Railway, now known as the Jacksonville Traction Company, of which he 
was made superintendent.  Mr. CROOM held that position until 1907, when he was 
advanced to the post of manager, a position which he still retains.  He is a 
thorough railway man, fully informed as to all details of management and able 
to handle the problems of traffic and transportation, and has brought the 
system to a high standard of efficiency.  As a fraternalist he maintains 
membership in Temple Lodge, F.and A.M.; the local lodge of the Knights of 
Pythias; and Jacksonville Lodge, Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks.  His 
religious connection is with the Episcopal Church.  Politically he is a 
democrat, but his duties have been such as to keep him from taking other than 
a good citizen’s part in public affairs. 
	On June 5, 1902, Mr. CROOM was united in marriage with Miss LETTIE 
GIRARDEAU, who was born in Jefferson County, Florida, and to this union there 
have been born three sons: HARDY J., HOWARD and ARINTON.




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