JOHN H. CROZIER,
On last Tuesday evening the relatives
and friends of John H. Crozier in this
community were shocked upon receiving
the intelligence by telephone that he had
been cruelly murdered in Grainger county, on the north side of Clinch mountain,
and about six miles north of Tate Spring.
He was in discharge of his duty to a
client, a duty prosecuted with unswerv-
ing fidelity that brought upon him the
vengeance of the murderer, who had opposed, bitterly, the rightful taking, by the
law, of his property to recompense a
widow whom he owed, and whom he
sought to defraud. R. B. Bundren whom
he, Crozier, had sued, lived in an adjoin-
ing district to the one which Crozier resided in. Bundren was a self-constituted-
ruler of his district, a bold, domineering,
and much feared man. Crozier was called to the case, by the appeal of the
widow, because of his known fearlessness, and well known good faith in his
management of law suits, and it was this,
together with previous causes of irritation, perchance, that awakened the brutal passion of his slayer. He will be
missed in that community, for he was
ever the friend of the poor and defenseless, and a defiant obstructionist in the
road of a bully, and in the path of any
schemer with nefarious designs. As a
lawyer he fought to a finish, and to a
case he would lend his full effort, even
to the border of his life's peril. He lost self in the fight.
John H. Crozier, Jr., as he then was,
came to the bar of Knoxville in 1869. He
was thrust into practice at once. Into
cases of unusual magnitude for a young
[lawyer]. He bore himself well. In the
(missing) court, he was soon the first of
the young men that had come to the bar.
He thus be an a career, perhaps as brilliant
as that of any young man who ever
came to the Knoxville bar. It was full of
promise, and full, seemingly, to the limit
of any young man's ambition. He has
practice (sic.) law ever since.
He was a much misunderstood man.
Faults he had, open, unconcealed, but he
was a stickler for truth, an iconoclast in
practice, with a face of flint against all
forms of oppression. He was not what
might be termed a gracious man, less of
the fortiter in re and more of the survi-
ter in mode might have made him a universal favorite; for he had integrity,
marked ability and a keen understanding
of men, but he disdained, always, the
supple bending of the knee, the vain
tawdry of society, the emptiness of
things, and perhaps to an excessive and
hyper-extreme. Even with these odds
against his political and professional success, he might have landed some of life's
most cherished prizes if he had been only
stirred by ambition. He didn't have it.
He was a theorist. In spite of the
world's opinion to the contrary his theory that ambition was a cheat, a whited
sepulchrre (sic.) was eminently right. He
deemed it cowardly to carry a pistol.
But for his theory he might be alive, for
though he was wary of the entrance to a
quarrel, being in he bore himself so that
his opponent and others thereafter remembered him. He was stoical. Life's
relentless jars, disappointments, grievances, were complacently retired as each
rolled over him. He didn't recount them,
nurse them. His views of life were
just, but an imperious will power oft erratic, enthroned his every action, often
to the detriment of his best temporal interests. He could not, when he believed
himself right, however, and he lived himself without deceit, without parade, without a yearning for the things precious to
most men, and when the crucial measure
shall come, if it comes, and we hope, believe, John Crozier will measure up high
with his fellow man, because the Great
Measurer will adjust the scale with exactness that is immaculately exact, and
with a justice that is eternally just.
John H. Crozier was born in this city
August 14, 1846. Though young, he entered the confederate army in 1861, and
gave honorable and gallant service to the
cause of the south. Upon the cessation of
war, he returned home to this city, end
entered upon the study of law with his
father, Colonel John H. Crozier, then
one of the most distinguished lawyers in
the state, and a man of ability and renown, and with a commanding law practice.
He didn't seek
a practice there, but his reputation followed him, and it sought him. He drifted
into it, liked the surroundings, and could
never be induced by persuasin (sic.) or offers
to return to Knoxville or go elsewhere.
In the later years of life he devoted
himself and beguiled his time with the
study of mechanics, and especially as ap-
plied to the forceful navigation of the
air. He had a high order of mathematical
talent. He was accurate in his findings in
this science as he had been in his judg-
ments of the law. The invention he patented for the forceful navigation of the
air was his last in this line, and remains
yet for final test.
He was ever busy, active, energetic and
strong. He was always ready to defend
the poor or persecuted, and did many
charities this wise, and of actual gift to
those who needed it.
But John Crozier is gone. Cruelly shot
down by a murderer "lying in wait." The
charity of the world that knew will now
be extended to him, too often withheld in
life. He erred. Who has not? When his
credits are accounted and his whole life
reviewed, the adverse comments of those
who in his life indulged them, will take
flight in the face of the many better
deeds of the man, lawyer and friend, now
dead.
Marc Antony revealed human nature
for political and demagogic effect, when
he said the "good is oft interred with
our bones." Not so. Humanity quakes he-
fore a yawning grave and tremblingly renders to "Caesar the things that are Cae-
sar's" there, hence, "the good that men
do lives after them." And the good that
John H. Crozier did will percolate like
water through sand, as time goes, and
the memory of them will soften criticism
and render justice to his life and name.
If erratic himself, he was generous to
the faults of others; if he combatted you,
he did it without dishonor; if called to
face a question requiring great moral
courage he did it without fear of personal consequences. His manhood was
strong. His friendship unwavering, and in
the tranquil peace of death he is judged
now with a judgment free from the prejudices and bias that followed his life-
path, and with a charity that sees the
man more rationally in the places and
scenes that will never know him again.
A FRIEND.
