Bio: Calvin S. Croom, Caddo Parish La
Source: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northwest Louisiana
The Southern Publishing Company, Chicago & Nashville,  1890

Submitted by: Suzanne Shoemaker
sueshoe@hotmail.com



**********************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm
**********************************************
 


Calvin S. Croom is next to the oldest citizen in Ward 3, Caddo Parish, La.,
and has long been a prominent merchant in this region, although his birth
occurred in Greene County, N. C., June 11, 1825, his parents being Isaac
and Olive (Godwin) Croom, also natives of that State.  About 1826 they
removed to Jackson, Tenn., and from there to Houston County, Tex., in 1839,
thence to Caddo Parish, La., in 1844, making their home here until their
respective deaths in 1876 and 1844, he being eighty-three and she fifty
years of age.  The father was a successful farmer, a member of the Baptist
Church, and in politics was a Democrat.  He was a Scotch-Irish descent, a
son of Charles Croom, of North Carolina.  To his union nine children were
born, of whom the subject of this sketch was the fourth, three now living,
and after his wife's death he married Mrs Elizabeth Robertson.  Calvin S.
Croom began to learn the printer's trade when a boy of ten years, in
Jackson, Tenn., and followed this calling in Austin and Washington, Tex.,
continuing until 1852, during which time he worked on the Caddo Gazette and
also on the first daily paper published at Shreveport.  After giving up his
trade he came to Mooringsport and opened a mercantile establishment and
warehouse, which he has conducted with the best of success ever since.  he
has been in business in Caddo Parish longer than any other merchant now
residing there, and served one term in the capacity of magistrate.  In
February, 1863, he joined an independent company, which afterward became
attached to the Third Louisiana Cavalry, and was on active duty until
April, 1864, when he was detailed as a ferryman at Mooringsport, serving in
that capacity until the close of the war.  On January 12, 1851, he was
married to Miss Margaret Ann Mooring, a daughter of Timothy Mooring, one of
the oldest settlers of the parish, who had come in 1837 from Henderson
County, Tenn.  Mrs. Croom was also born in that State, and by Mr. Croom has
become the mother of six children:  Mrs. Thomas Cooper, W. H. B. (in the
mercantile business), Mrs. Eliza Hales (of Gilmer, Tex.), Calvin B. (of
Lake Charles, La.), Mrs. E. R. Hales (of Gilmer, Tex.), Mrs. Margaret I.
Wood (of Queen City, Tex.).  Mrs. Croom has been a member of the Methodist
Episcopal church from girlhood, and is a truly charitable and Christian
lady.  Mr. Croom is a Democrat, a thoroughgoing business man, full of
enterprise and energy.  He owns extensive tracts of land aggregating 2,500
acres and has a large portion under cultivation.