Our History
In the summer of 1861, a robust, dark Kentuckian of thirty-one came across the mountains into Virginia to join the Confederate Army. Robert Nelson Crooks, born in Greenup, Kentucky on March 16, 1830, had been a minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church South since 1855 and was commissioned a first lieutenant and became a chaplain the following June. He spent the war in the Shenandoah Valley and in 1865 joined the Virginia Annual Conference. His first duty was the rebuilding of the York County charge, which had ceased to operate during the war. Mr. Crooks served two appointments on the circuit (1865-68 and 1871-75) and carried out his assigned tasks admirably.
During Mr. Crooks’ second appointment, one of his charges was a “very feeble” Sunday School in Yorktown, which had first met before the war. This society was to become Mr. Crooks’ final charge. Crippled by rheumatism and an injury which forced his superannuation, Mr. Crooks returned to Yorktown in the late 1880’s. He joined the Sunday School, and in 1891 was named its supervisor by the Quarterly Conference. His Sunday school met at the Yorktown school house until 1906 when it moved into a room over Thomas M. Chandler’s store, located at the southwest corner of Main and Church Streets.
The pastor of the York Circuit, the Rev. Mr. J.R. Eggleston, came once monthly to celebrate communion. Although Mr. Crooks had retired from the active ministry in 1901, he continued to hold services in Yorktown homes on Sunday nights. Some of the host family homes were the Hudgins, Crooks, Strykes, Chandler, Rogers and Beer. Mr. Crooks died in 1916 and was buried at Providence Methodist Church cemetery.
Most of the members of Mr. Crooks’ Sunday school belonged to Providence Church, whose minister, the Rev. Mr. Eggleston, soon took an interest in upgrading the services at Yorktown. In 1909 he had a building committee formed (Mr. Crooks was a member) to raise a building on a lot donated by the Chandlers. Thomas M. Chandler agreed to give, and did deed, a lot having a frontage of 45 feet on the York-Hampton Road for the erection of a church building. Using $200 raised the previous year by the Ladies Aid Society, they hired Lem Wright, a local carpenter, to build a chapel. Bringing materials in from Portsmouth by small boat, Wright constructed a single room structure of 28 x 36 feet, which was completed in the fall and furnished with cast-off benches from the town’s school house. The $200 was raised by solicitations and the names of the contributors were embroidered in squares of a patch work quilt. In order to complete the chapel, the congregation was forced to get a loan from the Peninsula Bank in Yorktown.
In 1919 the new minister at Providence, the Rev. Mr. D.W. Jackson, decided to raise the Yorktown chapel to the level of a church. The building was repaired and improved with the addition of a pulpit area, metal ceiling, and a belfry with a bell, supplied by the Ladies Aid Society. The pulpit and pulpit chairs were given to the church by the Queen Street Methodists Church, Hampton, through the efforts of Mrs. Lucie Ann Wider, and at a later date the communion table was donated by the same church through the efforts of Mrs. Margaret P. C. Smith.
The church bell was purchased through the efforts of the Ladies Aid Society. Each member was given ten cents and instructed to increase this sum. Some of the members roasted peanuts and sold them, others served lunches. made sandwiches, cookies, aprons, etc., and Miss Adele Brown, a school teacher, shined shoes to secure the sum necessary for the purchase of the bell. (When the church was torn down for relocation, the bell was sold to a junk dealer in Portsmouth.)
A number of the Sunday School members, most from Providence and few from Zion, joined the new church, and by the end of 1921 Yorktown boasted twenty-five members. Among the known charter members of the church were Mr. Crooks, Margaret P. C. Smith, Lillie Cook, Clara Chandler, and Gertrude Chandler. On July 15, 1922 the quarterly conference, meeting in Yorktown, officially recognized their latest addition as Crooks Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, in honor of its late superintendent. The next charge minister, the Rev. Mr. J. D. Hozier, began holding twice-monthly services there in 1923.
Much of the development of Crooks Memorial has been due to the Ladies Aid Society (now called the United Methodist Women). In 1931 they secured folding chairs to replace the benches, and a carpet. In 1947 they raised money to buy an organ. These funds were raised by the Ladies Aid Society by holding a beauty contest in the Yorktown School - - a vote for a contestant cost ten cents. A sum of over one thousand dollars was raised by this means, and the electric organ was purchased on March 5, 1947 for the sum of $825. Two years later they bought twelve new windows for the church. In 1938, (one year before the Methodist Episcopal Church South joined its northern counterparts to form the Methodist Church), the only major addition to the building was made when three Sunday school rooms were built at a cost of $660.
During the post-war period, the congregation enjoyed a close relationship with that of the Yorktown Baptist Church, sharing morning and evening services with them.
Crooks Memorial remained on a three-church circuit until 1951 when Zion and Providence applied to the Virginia Conference for individual ministers. The congregation of Crooks Memorial decided to request a lay minister to preach every Sunday. In 1956 they were again assigned a full-time minister, Harry Copley, who also served Warwick Memorial Church until 1960 when both Warwick and Crooks became station charges. At that time Mr. Copley moved into a parsonage which had been started the previous year.
When Harry Copley came to Crooks Memorial, it had an average attendance of twenty-five. When it became a single charge four years later, attendance had increased four-fold, and membership stood at 150. Before long, the congregation realized that the church building had become too small for its needs. In 1964 the church property was sold, and a larger lot purchased on Cook Road, where the church is presently located. The new church was built during 1966-67 by W. A. Colbert, at a cost of $85,000, and was dedicated on Palm Sunday by the Rev. Mr. J. Q. Galloway.
In fifty-odd years of its existence as a church, Crooks Memorial has grown from a small society of believers to a body of 390, with important programs of service in the community. This may be credited to the devotion of leaders, beginning with Mr. Crooks, Eggleston, and Jackson, and the work of dedicated members, especially of the Ladies Aid Society.
During Mr. Crooks’ second appointment, one of his charges was a “very feeble” Sunday School in Yorktown, which had first met before the war. This society was to become Mr. Crooks’ final charge. Crippled by rheumatism and an injury which forced his superannuation, Mr. Crooks returned to Yorktown in the late 1880’s. He joined the Sunday School, and in 1891 was named its supervisor by the Quarterly Conference. His Sunday school met at the Yorktown school house until 1906 when it moved into a room over Thomas M. Chandler’s store, located at the southwest corner of Main and Church Streets.
The pastor of the York Circuit, the Rev. Mr. J.R. Eggleston, came once monthly to celebrate communion. Although Mr. Crooks had retired from the active ministry in 1901, he continued to hold services in Yorktown homes on Sunday nights. Some of the host family homes were the Hudgins, Crooks, Strykes, Chandler, Rogers and Beer. Mr. Crooks died in 1916 and was buried at Providence Methodist Church cemetery.
Most of the members of Mr. Crooks’ Sunday school belonged to Providence Church, whose minister, the Rev. Mr. Eggleston, soon took an interest in upgrading the services at Yorktown. In 1909 he had a building committee formed (Mr. Crooks was a member) to raise a building on a lot donated by the Chandlers. Thomas M. Chandler agreed to give, and did deed, a lot having a frontage of 45 feet on the York-Hampton Road for the erection of a church building. Using $200 raised the previous year by the Ladies Aid Society, they hired Lem Wright, a local carpenter, to build a chapel. Bringing materials in from Portsmouth by small boat, Wright constructed a single room structure of 28 x 36 feet, which was completed in the fall and furnished with cast-off benches from the town’s school house. The $200 was raised by solicitations and the names of the contributors were embroidered in squares of a patch work quilt. In order to complete the chapel, the congregation was forced to get a loan from the Peninsula Bank in Yorktown.
In 1919 the new minister at Providence, the Rev. Mr. D.W. Jackson, decided to raise the Yorktown chapel to the level of a church. The building was repaired and improved with the addition of a pulpit area, metal ceiling, and a belfry with a bell, supplied by the Ladies Aid Society. The pulpit and pulpit chairs were given to the church by the Queen Street Methodists Church, Hampton, through the efforts of Mrs. Lucie Ann Wider, and at a later date the communion table was donated by the same church through the efforts of Mrs. Margaret P. C. Smith.
The church bell was purchased through the efforts of the Ladies Aid Society. Each member was given ten cents and instructed to increase this sum. Some of the members roasted peanuts and sold them, others served lunches. made sandwiches, cookies, aprons, etc., and Miss Adele Brown, a school teacher, shined shoes to secure the sum necessary for the purchase of the bell. (When the church was torn down for relocation, the bell was sold to a junk dealer in Portsmouth.)
A number of the Sunday School members, most from Providence and few from Zion, joined the new church, and by the end of 1921 Yorktown boasted twenty-five members. Among the known charter members of the church were Mr. Crooks, Margaret P. C. Smith, Lillie Cook, Clara Chandler, and Gertrude Chandler. On July 15, 1922 the quarterly conference, meeting in Yorktown, officially recognized their latest addition as Crooks Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church, in honor of its late superintendent. The next charge minister, the Rev. Mr. J. D. Hozier, began holding twice-monthly services there in 1923.
Much of the development of Crooks Memorial has been due to the Ladies Aid Society (now called the United Methodist Women). In 1931 they secured folding chairs to replace the benches, and a carpet. In 1947 they raised money to buy an organ. These funds were raised by the Ladies Aid Society by holding a beauty contest in the Yorktown School - - a vote for a contestant cost ten cents. A sum of over one thousand dollars was raised by this means, and the electric organ was purchased on March 5, 1947 for the sum of $825. Two years later they bought twelve new windows for the church. In 1938, (one year before the Methodist Episcopal Church South joined its northern counterparts to form the Methodist Church), the only major addition to the building was made when three Sunday school rooms were built at a cost of $660.
During the post-war period, the congregation enjoyed a close relationship with that of the Yorktown Baptist Church, sharing morning and evening services with them.
Crooks Memorial remained on a three-church circuit until 1951 when Zion and Providence applied to the Virginia Conference for individual ministers. The congregation of Crooks Memorial decided to request a lay minister to preach every Sunday. In 1956 they were again assigned a full-time minister, Harry Copley, who also served Warwick Memorial Church until 1960 when both Warwick and Crooks became station charges. At that time Mr. Copley moved into a parsonage which had been started the previous year.
When Harry Copley came to Crooks Memorial, it had an average attendance of twenty-five. When it became a single charge four years later, attendance had increased four-fold, and membership stood at 150. Before long, the congregation realized that the church building had become too small for its needs. In 1964 the church property was sold, and a larger lot purchased on Cook Road, where the church is presently located. The new church was built during 1966-67 by W. A. Colbert, at a cost of $85,000, and was dedicated on Palm Sunday by the Rev. Mr. J. Q. Galloway.
In fifty-odd years of its existence as a church, Crooks Memorial has grown from a small society of believers to a body of 390, with important programs of service in the community. This may be credited to the devotion of leaders, beginning with Mr. Crooks, Eggleston, and Jackson, and the work of dedicated members, especially of the Ladies Aid Society.
Ask Evelyn Zalumas for whom the bell tolls, and she will tell you a quaint story about the congregation of Crooks Memorial United Methodist Church in York County."