George Louis Crocket
George Louis Crocket (1861-1936) was born in San Augustine, Texas, the youngest of five children. He attended the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, an Episcopalian liberal arts college. After graduation Crocket became the deacon in charge of San Augusgine's Christ Church Episcopal, then rector from 1888 until 1921. Crocket also did mission work throughout East Texas, including establishing St. Cyprian's in Lufkin. He was a lifelong member of Redland Masonic Lodge #3 in San Augustine and helped found the town's first American Red Cross Chapter and Boy Scout Troop. Crocket moved to Nacogdoches in 1926 to be the full-time rector of Christ Episcopal Church located across from Washington Square. In Nacogdoches he was president of the East Texas Historical Association, established the Nacogdoches Historical Society, chaired the local George Washington Bi-Centennial celebration, and led local efforts to celebrate the Texas Centennial. In 1932 Crocket became Professor Emeritus in the History Department at Stephen F. Austin State Teachers College. Crocket was a talented artist whose Wooden carvings still adorn area churches and homes. His watercolors and pencil drawings faithfully recorded the region's buildings and countryside. As a writer, Crocket is credited with over one hundred poems and his book, Two Centuries in East Texas, published in 1932, is still regarded as the most thorough history of the local area. A true renaissance man, George L. Crocket touched the lives of many East Texans through his religious, scholarly, and civic endeavors.