Philip Schuyler Crooke

Philip Schuyler Crooke (March 2, 1810 – March 17, 1881) was a United States Representative from New York and a long-serving officer in the New York National Guard. He was born in Poughkeepsie, Dutchess County, New York, where he pursued his early education and graduated from Dutchess Academy. After completing his preparatory studies, he read law, was admitted to the bar in 1831, and commenced the practice of law in Brooklyn, New York. His legal career developed alongside the rapid growth of Brooklyn in the early nineteenth century, positioning him within the emerging professional and civic leadership of Kings County.

In 1838 Crooke moved from Brooklyn to Flatbush, then a separate town in Kings County. As his legal practice continued, he became increasingly involved in local government and county affairs. He was elected a member of the Board of Supervisors of Kings County, serving from 1844 to 1852 and again from 1858 to 1870. During this lengthy tenure he played a prominent role in county administration and finance, and he was chosen chairman of the board in 1861, 1862, 1864, and 1865. His influence in local politics extended to the state and national level: in 1852 he served as a presidential elector on the Democratic ticket, casting his electoral vote for Franklin Pierce for President and William R. King for Vice President.

Alongside his legal and political work, Crooke pursued a parallel military career in the militia and later the National Guard of the State of New York. He served for forty years in the state’s military forces, rising through the ranks from private to brigadier general. By the time of the American Civil War he was in command of the Fifth Brigade, National Guard of the State of New York. In June and July 1863, during the so‑called “Emergency of 1863” that followed the Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania, Crooke led his brigade into Pennsylvania in response to the call for troops to defend the state. His command served in the Department of the Susquehanna under Major General Darius N. Couch, helping to man the defenses of Harrisburg against a threatened attack by Confederate forces under Lieutenant General Richard S. Ewell. After the Confederate army withdrew to Virginia following the Battle of Gettysburg, Crooke and his men returned to New York, where his brigade remained for the duration of the war.

Crooke’s civil political career continued during and after the war. In 1864 he served as a Republican Union member of the New York State Assembly, representing Kings County’s 1st District at Albany. His affiliation with the Republican Union reflected the wartime coalition of Republicans and War Democrats who supported the Union cause and the Lincoln administration. In the Assembly he participated in legislation affecting both the conduct of the war and the governance of a rapidly urbanizing Kings County.

In 1872 Crooke was elected as a Republican to the Forty-third Congress, representing New York in the United States House of Representatives. He served a single term from March 4, 1873, to March 3, 1875. During his time in Congress he sat at a moment when Reconstruction policies, postwar economic issues, and questions of urban growth and infrastructure were central concerns. Although he did not return for subsequent terms, his congressional service capped a public career that had ranged from local county administration to state legislation and national office.

In his private life Crooke was closely associated with one of the oldest homesteads in Kings County. He resided in the historic Jans Martense Schenck house in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn, a colonial-era farmhouse that had been inherited by his wife. Under their occupancy it became known locally as the “Martense-Crooke house.” The original two-room portion of this structure, considered an important example of early Dutch architecture in the region, was later preserved and reconstructed in the Brooklyn Museum, underscoring the historical significance of the property with which Crooke’s name became linked.

After leaving Congress, Crooke resumed the practice of law, maintaining his professional and personal ties to Flatbush and the broader Brooklyn community. He continued to be regarded as a figure of local prominence, reflecting his long service in county government, the state militia, and national office. Philip Schuyler Crooke died in Flatbush, Kings County, New York, on March 17, 1881. He was interred in Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, a burial place for many of the city’s notable nineteenth-century figures.