The Union general whose name marks the township Ankeny grew up in — and Ankeny's Crocker Elementary.
Marcellus Monroe Crocker (1830–1865) was a Des Moines lawyer who became one of Iowa's most admired Union generals in the Civil War, commanding the famed “Crocker's Iowa Brigade.” Illness cut his life short in 1865.
In 1871, when Polk County organized a new township north of Des Moines, the county supervisors named it Crocker Township in his honor — the township in which the town of Ankeny would grow up a few years later.
Crocker's name marks central Iowa — a Des Moines street, park, and school, an equestrian statue on the State Soldiers' & Sailors' Monument, and the Polk County township that became home to Ankeny.
Ankeny's Crocker Elementary carries the general's name to a new generation of families — a good example of the who's-who question this section answers: the name is everywhere, but who was he?
The Union general whose name marks the township Ankeny grew up in — and Ankeny's Crocker Elementary.
General Crocker was from Polk County, Iowa.
1830–1865.
Curious about your own family's story? We trace it through the public record and write it up as a documented history.
See how it works →This profile presents only publicly reported facts, drawn from the sources above. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by the family or its companies.