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Sampson Crooker, an old sea-captain, came to Connewango, from Cairo, Greene Co., in 1818, and settled on lot 47. In company with Robert McGlasher he built the first saw-mill in town. He and Culver Crumb also built a saw-mill and a grist-mill on Clear Creek in 1825. It is still in operation. He set out the first orchard in town, and gave the land for the first cemetery, on the rise of ground just east of Rutledge.

His wife was a true pioneer, and once killed a large wild-cat with the fire-tongs, at her hen roost, in the winter of 1819. She also made the trip from her home to Catskill, NY, alone, with a horse and wagon, taking with her a live bear, which she sold to help pay the expenses of the trip.

Soon after this their son, George A. S. Crooker, settled on lot 54. He was a rising lawyer, having for some years studied in Catskill, and afterwards in Moscow. He is not only entitled to a place in the history of the county as one of her most distinguished and talented men, but Connewango, as a town, feels a pride in his citizenship and in the eminent service which he rendered her people. He stood high as a legal counselor, and as an advocate had but few peers. He possessed a liberal heart and the most kindly feelings, and no sacrifice was too great to be made in the behalf of his friends. Abiding with her people for half a century, the esteem in which his abilities were held is told in the record of his civil history.

He represented his town in the Board of Supervisors for nearly a third of a century, and the representatives of the county in that body made him their presiding officer for twentyseven years. He was a member in the State Legislature from Cattaraugus County, where he took a high position as a ready debater. He was also a member from his district in the Constitutional Convention of 1846. In debate he skillfully parried the blows of his opponents, and gave them telling home-thrusts. He was keen in wit and scathing in satire, but no petty enmity or rankling bitterness ever found lodgement in his heart. He died at St. Charles, IL in 1874, in the seventy-fifth year of his age, but at his request his remains were brought back to Connewango, and interred in the cemetery, the ground for which was given by his father nearly sixty years ago.