Hezekiah Jones Crumpton (b. 1828) and Washington Bryan Crumpton (1842-1926) were brothers who were raised in Lowndes County, Alabama. Hezekiah, the elder, first aspired to become a doctor, left medical school in Memphis to travel to California, where he established himself as a successful gold prospector in 1849. He later finished his medical training and practiced in California.

Washington Crumpton attended Georgetown College in Kentucky for two years, then followed his brother to California. He later returned to the South to fight for the Confederacy. He joined Company H of the 37th Mississippi Infantry and was wounded at Vicksburg, Atlanta, and Nashville. He was ordained a Baptist minister in 1870 and married Ellen Cochran in 1872. After Ellen died in 1899, Washington married Florence Harris in 1910. In addition to co-authoring an autobiography with his brother, Washington also penned a later autobiography, A Book of Memories, 1842-1920, which was published in 1921.

The Adventures of Two Alabama Boys (1912) documents Hezekiah and Washington's childhoods and travels. In the first section, Hezekiah remembers his family and their travels throughout the South. He then describes his journey to California and his gold mining experiences. His section closes with his decision to return to Alabama to finish his medical training, and his subsequent travels across Panama. Washington authored the next two sections, describing his own trip to California and his dangerous return journey to fight for the Confederacy. Washington concludes with his postwar reunion with Hezekiah, who was then living in Sausalito.

Work Consulted: Who Was Who in America, vol. 1, 1897-1942, Chicago: Marquis Co., 1943.

Harris Henderson