Fred Mathews Crocker, the well dressed brother of William, was born on July 5, 1896. In the 1930 census, he is listed as living in Kershaw, South Carolina. He is single, and working as a spooler in a cotton mill. Shortly after, he married Sallie Player, and they had their first and only child, Nadine Crocker (now Nesbitt). Fred worked in mills for many years. Wife Sallie did as well, both as a child and an adult. Fred died on June 13, 1977, at the age of 80. Sallie died in 1994 at the age of 87.

I managed to find daughter Nadine, living in South Carolina, and I sent her the photo of her father and his brother. She was excited to get it.

Edited interview with Nadine Nesbitt (NN), daughter of Fred Crocker and niece of William Crocker. Interview conducted by Joe Manning (JM) on July 18, 2008.

JM: Were you surprised by the photograph?

NN: I was blown away.

JM: Had you ever seen a picture of your father at that age?

NN: No. The earliest picture I ever saw of him was taken during WWI.

JM: Had you ever seen a picture of his brother William?

NN: Not from that time.

JM: Did you know that your father worked at the Wylie Mill when he was young?

NN: Yes, he told me about that. He told me that he bought a pair of shoes with his first paycheck, but his father made him take the shoes back and give the money to him, because everything that they made had to go to the family.

JM: It's funny that you mention the shoes, because in the picture, it's his brother who is barefoot.

NN: Maybe my father finally got those shoes.

JM: In the picture, your father looks well dressed, but his brother looks pretty messy.

NN: I think they look like Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

JM: What did your father do when he grew up?

NN: He continued to work in mills. He retired when he was about 62, from the Wateree Mill, once called the Kendall Company. That was in Camden, South Carolina. He worked in the card room. He usually worked the day shift, but sometimes he worked nights.

JM: So when you were growing up, you remember him working there?

NN: Yes.

JM: Did you ever go down to the mill to see him?

NN: Oh, yes. Me and my friends who grew up the village just about lived in that mill. We played in the mill.

JM: Did you work at the mill?

NN: No.

JM: How many brothers and sisters did you have?

NN: None. I was an only child.

JM: What was your mother's name?

NN: Sallie Claire Player Crocker.

JM: Did she work?

NN: Yes, at the same mill.

JM: What was your father like?

NN: My father was a very kind man, very soft spoken. My mother and father were married 46 years, and I never heard them raise their voices.

JM: What things did he like to do when he wasn't working?

NN: He loved to fish and hunt, and he was very interested in politics.

JM: How far did he get in school?

NN: He never went to school. In later years, he learned to read and write his name. I think he could read some, because he looked at the newspaper and seemed to know what it said.

JM: When he was in WWI, did he go overseas?

NN: Yes, he was wounded in France. He was in a hospital in Belgium when the war ended.

JM: Your father lived a long time. He was 80 when he died.

NN: All the children in my father's family lived to be old. His brother Toy was almost 100 when he died.