California Biographies

Source:
History of Napa and Lake Counties
San Francisco, Slocum, Bowen & Co., Publishers. 1881

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper 2011

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm


HON. ROBERT CROUCH.   Was born in Harrison County, Ohio, in the year 1823. He was educated in the 
town of Hopedale, and, after leaving school, lived on a farm until the waning of his minority. When 
twenty he lodged in Farmington, Fulton County, Illinois, and there, after a course of pharmacy, clinical 
instruction, and surgical experiments, began the practice of medicine. The gold of California had more 
charms for him though than the healing art, and in 1850 he, with others, started out on the long 
journey across the plains to the Pacific. He reached the Napa Valley, and it is small wonder that he has 
not cared to reach any other part of the State. It was not in his present position that he took up his 
residence among the oak-covered knolls of that garden corner of the earth, but, bidding goodbye to 
Esculapius - whom he found would have to be attended with more patience than patients - he 
accepted an offer to work at good wages in a carpenter's apron. In those days, when a handy man 
could make from half an ounce to an ounce and a half gold a day at mechanical labor, lawyers, doctors, 
merchants, and soft-handed people of all kinds were glad to harden them for such good pay. Mr. 
Crouch did not find himself one whit less respected because he pulled his coat off to work; to the 
contrary, in fact, and in 1855 he was made Deputy County Clerk of Napa, and in 1857 elected Clerk by a 
large majority. This latter office he retained until December, 1863, at which time he was elected 
County Judge, holding that position for nearly eight years. Law here seemed to offer advantages as a 
profession, and, studying, he was soon admitted to practice in all the courts of the State, and today is 
one of Napa's prominent lawyers. He is married - those for whom he works being a wife and two 
children. Mr. Crouch was elected on the Republican ticket to the Constitutional Convention which 
convened at Sacramento during the winter of 1878.