WILLIAM B. CREWS, son of Randolph and Elizabeth (Parker) Crews, was born in Henry County, Mo., March 12, 1840. Randolph Crews was born in Madison County, Ky., in 1815. He was a blacksmith by occupation and worked at his trade in Henry County, Mo., for twenty-two years. He was killed at his home near Calhoun, Mo., in 1862, by a band of guerrillas. Elizabeth Crews, subject's mother, is a daughter of Wiley Parker, a resident of Webster County, Ky., and is still living in Missouri. Mr. and Mrs. Crews were the parents of eleven children: W. B., R. Z., Elizabeth, Maud, Alfred, Thomas, Ann E., Mary, John R., Ellen and Susan A. William B. Crews received a fair education, and commenced farming for himself at the age of twenty-one in his native county. At the breaking out of the war he espoused the cause of the Confederacy and enlisted in Maj. Owen's battalion of mounted infantry, with which he served four years, participating in many hard fought battles in the Western campaign. He received a severe wound in the left hip at Helena, Ark, in 1863, and was also captured the same year and held a prisoner twenty months. He was paroled at Richmond, Va., in 1865, and immediately thereafter went back to Missouri, where he engaged in farming. The following year he moved to Kentucky, locating in Caldwell County, on the place where he now resides, two miles south of Princeton. He was married June 6, 1866, to Mrs. P. F. Pettit, daughter of Thomas and Sarah Kevil of Caldwell County. Mr. and Mrs. Crews have a family of four children: Sarah Frances, James Randolph, Susan Ann and Lucy Evaline. By a previous marriage Mrs. Crews has one child living, Thomas M. Pettit. Mr. Crews operates a farm of 330 acres and is one of the successful business men of the community. He and wife are members of the Rock Spring Church, Methodist Episcopal.
Source: J. H. Battle, W. H. Perrin, & G. C. Kniffin. Kentucky. A History of the State. Louisville, KY, Chicago, IL: Battey, 1885. Pages 694-695.