Remembering Our Past: Elisha and Sarah Snow Crocker
Two of the founding members of Brewster Baptist Church were husband and wife, Elisha and Sarah (Snow) Crocker.
Elisha Walter Crocker was born on April 9, 1789, in Harwich, to Joseph and Mary Hinckley Crocker.
Sarah Snow was born on November 2, 1794, in Harwich to Zoeth and Jane Thatcher Snow. She was a descendent of Stephen Hopkins, who arrived on the Mayflower and his family was among the first seven families to settle on the Cape.
In 1812, Elisha Crocker married Sarah Snow. They lived at 2039 Main Street in Brewster, in a clapboard house built in the mid-1800s in the Greek Revival style, on a 11,511 foot lot.
They had 12 children; sadly, three died as infants. Elisha started off as a boot and shoemaker.
According to a journal written by Elisha’s son, Luther (1819-1908), “[his] father, Elisha Crocker (1789-1880) frequently takes shoes for sale up and down Cape Cod and once even by ship to Maine. ‘I hope him success in getting clear of his ruff scruffs and various kinds of shoes.’
Nevertheless, Crocker writes that, by 1841: ‘The shoe business on the Cape is getting to be a far less profitable business than it was several years ago. Formerly, when Father went down with a load, he met with ready sale, and some cash. Now, the reverse. The market is gutted by country peddlers and money very small.’
After this, he ran an embalming business next door, at 2043 Main Street – his business extended to coffins, funeral clothes, flowers and paper hanging. The cross-street to Main Street (Route 6A) adjacent to his property is Crocker Lane. He also is noted as running an Inn on the property.
According to the “Short History of the Brewster Baptist Church 125th Anniversary Celebration” (1949), many people from “old” families of the community joined the church – Sears, Crocker, Winslow, Crosby, Hopkins, etc. The Baptist church was constituted December 23, 1824. He was the first Deacon of Brewster Baptist Church, church clerk, and led the singing for worship. His son Elisha Crocker Jr., born in 1814, was a Superintendent of the Baptist Sabbath School at BBC. We have the Bible presented to Elisha Crocker, Jr., for his faithful service to the church.
Elisha Sr. was an abolitionist during the time leading up to, and during, the Civil War. Their son Edmund fought for the Union Army.
In the obituary of Captain Enoch C. Jones, it was shared that his father died when he was young, and he came to Brewster to live with his uncle, Elisha Crocker, who brought him to BBC.
Captain Jones returned to Brewster in his later years to become a devoted member of BBC.
Sarah Snow Crocker died on September 24, 1864. Elisha later married Mary J. Crocker (1810-1877).
Elisha Crocker, Sr., died September 1,1880, at the age of 91.
A number of current BBC members are descended from Elisha Crocker and Sarah Snow Crocker.
Thank you to Diane Jones and the Brewster Historical Society and Linda Viprino for their help in researching the history of Elisha and Sarah Crocker.