Croom, H. B. (Hardy Bryan), 1798-1837.

Croom, native of North Carolina, botanist, planter in Gadsden County, Fla., died with his immediate family in a shipwreck.

From the description of H. B. Croom papers, 1822-1838 [manuscript]. WorldCat record id: 25028281

Hardy Bryan Croom was born in Lenoir County, N.C., 8 October 1797, the son of William Croom and his wife Mary Bryan Croom, who lived at Newington. He was graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1817 and studied law under William Gaston, but did not practice. Croom represented Lenoir County in the North Carolina Senate in 1828. He married Frances Smith, the daughter of Nathan Smith, merchant of New Bern, and settled in New Bern.

Croom and his brothers acquired land in Florida by inheritance and purchase, and Croom moved his slaves there to operate plantations. His brother Bryan, his half-brother William, and other relatives lived in Florida, and he visited them and his plantations frequently. In 1837, Croom purchased a house in Charleston, S.C., intending to move his family from New Bern to Charleston and Florida. His older children had been in school in New York, and, in October 1837, Croom, his wife, and their three children left New York on the steamship Home, bound for Charleston, with the intention of traveling by land from there to Florida. The Home was wrecked south of Cape Hatteras on 9 October 1837, and the Croom family was drowned.

From the guide to the H. B. Croom Papers, 1822-1838, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)