LL.B., late Minister of Education for the
Province of Ontario, was the son of Honourable James Crooks, a gentleman
who took a prominent and creditable part in public affairs. Adam Crooks
was born at "The Homestead", in the township of West Flamboro',
Wentworth, on the 11th of December, 1827. The family is of Scottish
descent, and settled in Canada in 1794. Young Crooks attended the public
schools in his own neighbourhood, and in his twelfth year he entered Upper
Canada College. In his eighteenth year he matriculated at King's College -
now the University of Toronto - and stood first in classics. In his second
quarter he took the Wellington scholarship, and, when graduating, carried
off the gold medal for classics and the first silver medal for
metaphysics. He now began the study of law, and was called to the bar of
Upper Canada in 1851. He opened an office in Toronto, where he soon
established a lucrative practice. His business habits are very correct,
and in his profession he was painstaking and thorough. The degree of M.A.
was conferred upon him in 1852, and in 1856 he maried Emily, youngest
daughter of the late General Thomas Evans, C.B., of Montreal, a
distinguished officer who fought at Lundy's Lane in 1812. His wife died at
Toronto in 1868. In 1863 Mr. Crooks received the degree of LL.B., and the
following year was elected vice-chancellor of the University of Toronto,
which position he held till 1872, when he resigned. In 1863 he was created
a Queen's counsel. In politics mr. Crooks was a Liberal. In 1867 the
Reform party was badly in need of new blood, and leading members pressed
Mr. Crooks to offer himself for parliament. He, therefore, offered himself
for the West Riding of Toronto, for the provincial legislature, but was
unsuccessful. Four years later, however, he carried the same constituency.
In the Blake administration Mr. Crooks was attorney-general. When Mr Mowat
re-constructed his Cabinet in October, 1872, Mr. Crooks became provincial
treasurer, and to this department was added, in 1876, that of minister of
education. In 1875 he was defeated for East Toronto, but was soon
afterwards elected for South Oxford. He resigned the provincial
treasurership in 1877, Hon. S. C. Wood taking that office. Mr. Crooks, a
cultured scholar himself, always took the deepest interest in education. A
labour of love as well as of duty was his administration in the Education
department, but he did not escape censure. His opponents railed against
him bitterly for what they called his bigotry and his partisanship. It has
always seemed to the writer that, to a large extent, Mr. Crooks was made
the scapegoat of his party. He had to bear upon his own shoulders alone
sins which often were not his own, but those of his colleagues and the
department. Education was made to pay tribute to party expediency, as
every other department in the public service is, and Mr. Crooks was held
responsible. But when his health and mind gave way, there was not, so far
as this writer has seen, any one among his colleagues, among those
colleagues who had manipulated education to their own end to stand up and
say a word for him. Indeed by their silence they affected to be a little
scandalized themselves at the state into which educational affairs had
fallen. Mr. Crooks had a number of faults as an administrator. He wavered
at the time when firmness was required, and every now and again threw the
department into the throes of general change. Out of this grew
dissatisfaction over the country; out of it grew the disgusting rivalry
between publishers, and the demoralizing scenes of canvassing and bribery
among school boards and school trustees which afterwards prevailed
throughout the province. But for this, even, Mr. Crooks was only in a
measure responsible. He should get credit for all that he did in the cause
of education. He was always courteous, and won the good will even of those
who differed from his judgment and his methods. |