George Crom was born in Wood County, Ohio August 19, 1862.  He was the second 
son of John Crom and Sarah Lee Crom.  George Crom did not remember his father,
as John Crom died while serving in the Union Forces during the Civil War.
John Crom died in the hospital at Tyner Station near Chattanooga, Tennessee 
March 24 (21), 1864.
         
When George's widowed mother married Sam Ackley, David H. Lee, brother (uncle?)
of Sarah Lee, was given the guardianship of Edwin and George.  It is believed 
that the boys lived with the Lees until they were old enough to be "hired out"
to other farmers in the area.  They had very little education, probably third 
or fourth grade.  In those days farmers would hire young boys as soon as the 
boys were old enough to do a day's work.  The boys usually received room and 
board, a few clothes, and almost no pay in money.  George bought his first
pair of new shoes while working for 5O cents a day.  It was while working on 
one such farm, that George went to get out of bed one morning and heard and 
felt his hip snap.  Of course it was never diagnosed, but it became very painful,
and bothered George the rest of his life.  When Edwin and george were old enough
they went to work in the oil fields.  Wages there seemed much better than 
working on farms, but it was hard work and very dirty.  George's early life 
was filled with hardships.  I only wish that more had been recorded about those
early days, but as is often the case, those hard working ancestors of ours 
were makers of history, and not recorders of the history they may have made.
Only the better educated, and more literate of them kept [diaries] or other 
permanent records of the early happenings in their lives.