Polk County GaArchives Obituaries.....John Lane Crocker November 18 1903
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(Cedartown Standard, December 11, 1902) &  (Cedartown Standard, November 20, 1902) 
Mr. John Lane Crocker, Once more we have been made to realize the certainty of 
death. It is again with sad hearts that we have seen the eyelids of a tender 
and loving friend kissed down by the lips of death. We know that death is 
inevitable. It must come to all. Then, Death, oh, where is thy sting! On 
Tuesday, November 18, 1903, Mr. John Crocker, the eighteen-year-old son of Mr. 
and Mrs. W. T. Crocker, formerly of Polk but now of Haralson, accidentally shot 
himself in the stomach with a double-barrel shotgun, the effects of which 
proved fatal about twelve hours later. Mr. Crocker was in the act of removing 
his gun from a wagon when, by some mischance, it fired the entire contents of 
one barrel directly into his abdomen. Dr. Cobb, Raid, Eaves, Chapman and 
Liddell did all that human brains and hands could do to save his life; but 
their efforts were spent in vain, for the gun-shot had produced a wound beyond 
the reach of medical skill. The remains of the unfortunate young man were laid 
to rest Thursday, November 19, in the cemetery at New Harmony church, near 
Cedartown, amid a great throng of sorrowing friends and relatives. I know how 
vain it is to try to gild a grief with words, and yet I wish to take from every 
grave its fear. Here in this world, where life and death are equal kings, we 
should be brave enough to meet what all have met. Life begins with a sigh that 
is never hushed until death relieves the sufferer of his sorrow and puts the 
troubled child to sleep. Life, like a cloud which is soon broken and destroyed 
by the restless winds, is only of short duration. Today man stands upon life’s 
highway with ruddy cheeks, but tonight disease strikes the roseate beauty from 
his lips and tomorrow the ghastly form of death settles upon his brow. This 
loved and loving son, brother and friend died in the early morning of life 
while the shadows were still falling toward the west. He had not passed on 
life’s highway the stone that marks the highest point, but being weary for a 
moment he laid down by the wayside, and using his burden for a pillow, fell 
into that dreamless sleep that kisses down his eyelids in the serenity of 
death. While yet in love with life and raptured with the world, the voice of 
death softly whispered in his ear and bade him to lay down all his earthly 
burdens and pass into the great beyond, from whence no traveler ever returns. 
Today we see a man enjoying perfect health and his heart beating high with 
hope; but tonight we see these vanish away like the evening shadows, and 
tomorrow we behold his lifeless body inclosed in a coffin and his hands folded 
forever upon a motionless breast. Yesterday, in his strength, kindness, and 
manliness, he filled the home with joy and gladness, and his voice was sweeter 
than music; but today death has invaded that happy home and taken away this 
dear one and changed the joyous tones of his beloved one into funeral notes. 
Yet after all, it may be best that he died in his youthful days than if he had 
lived to have traveled the whole length of life’s rough and uneven road. Weep 
not dear friends and relatives, for this departed one, but let us hope to meet 
him on Canaan’s fair and happy shore, where all is peace and rest. (A Friend) 
(Cedartown Standard, December 11, 1902) 
The remains of Mr. John Crocker, who shot himself accidentally last week near 
Buchanan, were brought here by the sorrowing parents, Mr. and Mrs. W. T. 
Crocker, and interred last Wednesday at New Harmony. (Cedartown Standard, 
November 27, 1902) It is a terrible chapter of fatalities which The Standard 
has to record this week, all of which closely affect our people. And one of the 
saddest is the accident which ended the life of Mr. John Lane Crocker, a son of 
ex-sheriff and Mrs. W. T. Crocker, who moved from this vicinity to Haralson 
county two years age. The young man was just returning from a hunting trip 
Tuesday afternoon, and in taking his gun from the wagon, pulled it toward him 
by the nuzzle. The hammers caught in some way, and both barrels were 
discharged, striking him in the abdomen, and inflicting injuries from which he 
died yesterday morning. Drs. Liddell and Chapman were summoned from Cedartown, 
but his wound was of such a nature that no medical skill could aid him. The 
deceased was a bright and promising young man, and the host of friends of the 
bereaved family sympathize with them most sincerely in this great trouble which 
has befallen them. (Cedartown Standard, November 20, 1902) 


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