This posting is another in the irregular series, “Get to know an economics Ph.D. alum”. I stumbled upon Professor James Walter Crook’s photo while working on the previous autobiographical posting for John Maurice Clark who was a student of his at Amherst and later a colleague. Crook spent a year in Berlin as a student and overlapped with W.E.B. Du Bois there and to whom we see below he had been introduced.
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James Walter Crook (1859-1933)
Columbia Ph.D., 1895
James Walter Crook was born Dec. 21, 1859 in Ontario, Canada. His family emigrated to the U.S. in 1868. According to the 1880 U. S. Census he was the Census Enumerator for the 1st Ward of the City of Manistee in Manistee county, Michigan where he (21 years of age) lived with his mother and six younger brothers. While a few younger brothers were registered employed in a saw mill, James Walter Crook was listed as attending school. He married Eva Maria Lewis Sept 16, 1881 in Manistee. His occupation was “school teacher” according to the record of marriage.
Crook received his B.A. from Oberlin College in 1891 where he stayed on as a history instructor the following year. This was followed by a year of graduate work at the University of Wisconsin where he was listed as a Fellow in Economics, 1892-93.
He studied at the University of Berlin in 1893-94 where he happened to be introduced to W. E. B. Du Bois, himself an American student in Berlin. In Dubois’ papers there is a letter Crook wrote (January 21, 1905): “I suppose you do not remember me, but I recall with pleasure my meeting you in Berlin, Germany introduced by our mutual friend Knowlton, now of Fargo, N. Dakota.” In particular Crook was looking for advice regarding a sociological survey he wished to conduct among the ca. 200 African-Americans living in Amherst (population about 3,000 total).
After Germany Crook went on to do graduate work at Columbia University in 1894-95. The next year he was hired to teach Political Economy at Amherst where he worked through retirement. Crook was awarded a Ph.D. from Columbia in 1895, publishing his dissertation as German Wage Theories: A History of Their Development. Vol. IX, No. 2 of Studies in History, Economics and Public Law. New York: Columbia University, 1898.
According to the U.S. Census reports he and his wife Eva lived at 21 Main Street in Amherst for at least the four censuses 1900-1930.
James Walter Crook, died in Springfield, MA 1933.
Source: From faculty pages in the Amherst College Yearbook, Olio, 1905, page 24. Also the Dubois papers at the University of Massachusetts and U.S. Census reports.
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PROFESSORS OF POLITICAL ECONOMY
Amherst College (1877-1910)
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1877 |
Anson Daniel Morse, LL.D. | 1878 |
| 1892 | John Bates Clark, Ph.D. |
1895 |
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1892 |
Charles Augustus Tuttle, Ph.D., Associate Political Economy and International Law | 1893 |
| 1895 | James Walter Crook, Ph.D., Assistant |
1899 |
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1899 |
James Walter Crook, Ph.D., Associate | 1907 |
| 1907 | James Walter Crook, Ph.D. |
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1908 |
Glover Dunn Hancock, Ph.D., Assistant | 1910 |
| 1910 | John Maurice Clark, Ph.D., Associate |
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Source: General Catalogue of Amherst College including the Officers of Government and Instruction, the Alumni and Honorary Graduates, 1821-1910. Amherst, Mass., p. 9.
Image Source: From faculty pages in the Amherst College Yearbook, Olio, 1905, page 24.