Father Charles Crutcher b. 1775 and died 1 Jun 1864
Mother Elizabeth Jones Crutcher b. 7/2/1780, d. circa 1844
(Parents' memorials not yet located in order to give links that would also link all the siblings together. I'm working on it!)

Children of parents Charles Crutcher and Elizabeth Jones Crutcher:
1. William Crutcher (Memorial 106999321)
married: America Arnold (Memorial 106999171)
2. Frances "Frankey" Crutcher
married: James C. Triplett
3. Elizabeth "Betsy" Crutcher
married: (unknown) Hayes
4. Mary "Polly" Crutcher
married: Robert Brooks Martin
5. Sarah "Sally" Crutcher
married: John F. Thomas
6. Julia Ann Crutcher
7. Ambrose Crutcher (Memorial 106999139)
married: Mary A. Holladay
married: Nancy Tabathus Sloan
8. Thomas Crutcher (this memorial)
married: Esther J. Glenn (Memorial 106999247)
9. Milton Crutcher
married: Martha E. Cox
married: Emily Holliday

From:
HISTORY OF MONROE AND SHELBY COUNTIES, MISSOURI,
WRITTEN AND COMPILED FROM THE MOST AUTHENTIC OFFICIAL AND PRIVATE SOURCES,
INCLUDING A HISTORY OF THEIR TOWNSHIPS, TOWNS AND VILLAGES
TOGETHER WITH A HISTORY OF MISSOURI; A RELIABLE AND DETAILED HISTORY OF
MONROE AND SHELBY COUNTIES-THEIR PIONEER RECORD, RESOURCES
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PROMINENT CITIZENS ; GENERAL
AND LOCAL STATISTICS OF GREAT VALUE; INCIDENTS AND REMINISCENCES.

ILLUSTRATED.
ST. LOUIS: NATIONAL HISTORICAL COMPANY.
1884.
=====================================
THOMAS CRUTCHER
(Clerk of the County Court, Paris).
In the " History of Monroe County " there is no one more justly
entitled to respect and esteem, or who stands higher as a man and
citizen in the estimation of all who know him, than the subject of this
sketch. Mr. Crutcher has been a resident of this county for over half
a century — from early youth — and from the first his life has been one
without a stain or the suspicion of a wrong act, and devoted through-
out with intelligence, earnestness and unfaltering fidelity to the best
interests of those among whom he has lived. Nor has his personal
worth and value passed unrecognized by those around him. Time
and time again he has been called into the public service, and in no single
instance when he was a candidate before the people have they with-
held their confidence and support. Mr. Crutcher is a native of
Kentucky, born in Lincoln county, July 16, 1818. His father was
Charles Crutcher, a native of Virginia, and lived there until nearly
40 years of age and then removed to Kentucky, where he lived until
1831, when he came to Monroe county. His mother's maiden name
was Elizabeth Jones. She was a native of Virginia. Thomas
Crutcher, the eleventh of twelve children, was 13 years of age when
the family removed to this State. They settled in Monroe county,
where the parents lived until their deaths. The father died June 1, 1864,
the mother sometime previous. They were highly esteemed residents
of the county and their memory is cherished by their surviving chil-
dren and by all who knew them as that of those whose lives were
useful and just, and kind and true in every relation, whether in the
family or in the community. Charles Crutcher opened a farm here
and became comfortably situated. He introduced the raising of wheat
in the county and sowed the first wheat ever grown within its borders.
Thomas Crutcher, the subject of this sketch, remained on the farm
only a short time after the family came to Monroe county. His
health being quite delicate, it was thought best for him to engage in some
in-door pursuit. He, therefore, came to Paris in 1834, and entered a
store here to learn merchandising. His opportunities for an education
had been quite limited, but he had picked up a sufficient knowledge of
books to understand reading and writing and the elementary rules of
arithmetic. This sufficed him to begin with, and practical experience
in the store, together with study when not otherwise occupied, soon
made him a young man of superior business qualifications. Later
along he engaged in merchandising on his own account, and continued
it with steadily increasing success for a number of years. Mr.
Crutcher possesses to a marked degree many of the qualities that
make men popular with those around them. Of a kindly, humane
disposition, transparently honest, and manifestly concerned for the
good and the feelings of others, accommodating to the last degree,
generous in impulses, and agreeable and pleasant in manners, he
became one of the most popular business men in Paris and through-
out the county. In 1840, although but 22 years of age, he was
N elected sheriff of Monroe county by an overwhelming majority, and
is said to have been one of the youngest sheriffs who ever occupied
that office in the State. In 1842 he was re-elected, filling the offices
of sheriff and collector for four years without opposition. After the
expiration of his last term he resumed merchandising at Paris, and
continued it until the outbreak of the war. Though sympathizing
strongly with his friends in the South, Mr. Crutcher was devotedly
attached to the Union, but did not feel justified in engaging on either
side in the suicidal and unhappy conflict between the two sections.
In order, therefore, to avoid becoming mixed up in the troubles of the
times in this section of the State, he removed with his family to
Quincy, 111., and remained there until the restoration of peace.
Returning to Paris after the war, he resumed merchandising and fol-
lowed it without interruption until 1873, when he was appointed
county clerk to fill out the unexpired term of William N. Penn,
deceased. At the expiration of this term he was elected to that
office and has since been re-elected, continuing to hold it up to
the present time. On the 12th day of April, 1838, Mr. Crutcher
was married to Miss Esther J. Glenn, a daughter of Hugh
Glenn, Esq., deceased, formerly of Virginia. Mr. and Mrs.
Crutcher had nine children, four of whom are living, namely :
Sarah E., wife of E. W. Crutcher of the State of Nevada; Anna
B., wife of R. H. West of this place; William L., his only son,
now residing in Nevada, on account of failing health, and Essie J.,
wife of James A. Curtright, now deputy county clerk under Mr.
Crutcher. Of the 12 children in the family of Mr. Crutcher's parents,
six sons and as many daughters, only three of the family, including
himself, are living, namely : his youngest brother, Milton, now on
the old family homestead in this county, and Ambrose, four miles south
of Paris. Mr. Crutcher's father lived to the advanced age of 89 years,
and his father's only brother, Samuel, lived to be 88 years of age.
Their father also lived to be 88. Mr. Crutcher, himself, is now 66
years of age. Though not a man of the most robust physique, he is
yet well preserved, and possessed of great natural recuperative power.
He is brighter in mind and conversation than many, a decade or more
his juniors, and indeed, he seems to })e in the meridian of life men-
tally. Having lived in the county for so many years, he is possessed
of an apparently inexhaustible fund of reminiscences and incidents
which throw a clear light upon the condition of society and the country
in the times to which Uiey refer. When Mr. Crutcher came to Mon-
roe county, there was not a school-house or church building in the
county, and the nearest settlement to the present site of Paris was 16
miles' away. The first church was built in 1832, a primitive log
structure, erected by the Old School Baptists, and afterwards the
Methodists came in and built a church, who were soon followed by the
Christian denomination. He contributed to the first Christian Church
erected in the county, and he and wife have been members of that
denomination for over 40 years. But he has lived to see a mighcy
change in the country. And in this wonderful transformation he,
himself, has borne a most worthy part. As a citizen, no one has
taken a more public-spirited and intelligent interest in the general
progress of the country. He has been active in its public and busi-
ness affairs, and in the advancement of the cause of education, of
church interests, and of every movement designed for the general
good. He has alwaj's been a warm friend to popular education, and
has had the satisfaction to see his life-long views approved by the
general sentiment of the country. Where formerly there was not a
school-house in the county, there are now more than a hundred, where
instruction is given to the young. To the churches his liberality has
been limited only by his means, for no one ever showed greater
generosity according to his ability to give. He also took an active
interest in the construction of the railroad running in the county ; and
in everything that would contribute to the material, social or general
welfare of the people, he has taken a worthy part. He assisted to
effect the first town organization of Paris, and was a member of the
first town council, Mr. Crutcher's life has been one of unceasing
activity, directed by a generous ambition to make himself useful to
those around him, and to do as much good and as little harm in the
world as possible, according to the talents given him. And looking
back over his long and useful life, it must be admitted that his has
been a career to which as little blame attaches, and in which there is
as much to challenge the esteem and good opinions of his fellow-men,
as seldom falls to the lot of one to make. A man of the most gener-
ous and unselfish impulses, in whose nature warm and noble humanity
prevails over, perhaps, any other characteristic, as upright in thought
and deed as the purest and best, his whole life has been an unbroken
chain of duty faithfully and well performed, and of kind and generous
acts untiringly done. All over the county he is known and esteemed
as one of the best of men, and wherever his name is spoken it is
uttered with that consideration and respect which evinces the high
regard in which he is held. Elected time and again to public office,
no one can hope to be a successful candidate for any position which
he will consent to fill, so long as he is able to discharge its duties and
will accept the place. Through this whole section of country his name
stands as a synonym for honesty and integrity, for noble and gener-
ous humanity, and for all the purer and better qualities of head and
heart. In very looks he is a man to be trusted and reverenced, for
his heart seems to be open to all who approach him, and to know
Uncle Thomas Crutcher, as he is called far and wide, is to know, as
all believe, the noblest work of God, a good and true and noble and
downright honest man.