James Duncan Millar Crockett. Modern business and industry have developed specialists in various lines, and one of the professions that had arisen to meet the increasing demands of business efficiency is that of public accountancy. One of the best known public accountants of the State of Kansas is J. D. M. Crockett, who had done much to organize and extend the field of public accountancy in this state. He is a member of the firm Crockett, Couchman & Company, certified public accountants, now having offices in New York, St. Louis, Kansas City and Topeka.
Mr. Crockett was born near the Town of Pictou, Pictou County, Nova Scotia, July 2, 1868, next to the oldest in a family of eleven children, whose parents were Duncan Ross and Ellen (Robertson) Crockett. Both parents were born in Nova Scotia. Duncan Ross Crockett was born in 1843, had a thorough classical training, and on coming to the United States first located in Boston and then entered the Center Theological Seminary of the Presbyterian Church at Danville, Kentucky. On his admission to the ministry he was sent out to the Texas frontier during the early ’70s, and from 1878 to 1883 had a church in Canada. For the sake of his health he was advised to locate in Missouri, and he was pastor of several churches there, but died while pastor of the church at Ardmore, Indian Territory. His death occurred November 2, 1892. His widow, who was born in 1850, is now living with a son, also a minister, at Pleasant, Missouri.
The first educational advantages enjoyed by James Duncan Millar Crockett were in Texas. He attended a school in New Brunswick, Canada, and the Brookfield Academy and College at Brookfield, Missouri. In April, 1890, he went to Kansas City, Missouri, and for a year was employed by the Kansas City Stock Yards Company. The death of his father threw upon him unusual responsibilities in connection with the support of his widowed mother and the younger children. In 1892 he began the study of stenography and for two years was stenographer and bookkeeper for a commission house at Kansas City and then began business for himself, continuing nearly three years.
Subsequently he was bookkeeper and later credit man for the Laning-Harris Coal and Grain Company, and after three years resigned to become credit man for the Ash-Grove White Lime Association, and eventually was promoted to manager of its office and plant. After six years with that firm, and having taken a course with the International Accountants’ Society, he opened an office as an expert accountant. In 1914 he formed the present firm, and while he started without even a desk, his practice had grown and developed until now the firm had correspondents and connections in all the larger cities and employs a staff of expert men.
Mr. Crockett is a member of the American Institute of Accountants and member of its council or governing body, consisting of thirty-eight representatives. He is a member of the committee on professional ethics. Admission to this association is obtained through examination. Mr. Crockett was made a certified public accountant in 1910, under the laws of Missouri, and in 1915 was accorded a similar honor in Kansas. He is a member of the Missouri Society of Certified Public Accountants, and had been its treasurer for the past four years and a director for two years. He was one of the committee of five to plan its reorganization in 1912. He also belongs to the Kansas City Chapter of Certified Public Accountants, of which he is vice president, and in 1915-16 was president. He had the distinction of being the only Kansan who is a member of the American Institute of Accountants. The Kansas City Chapter of Certified Public Accountants was instrumental in founding the Kansas City School of Accountancy, Law and Finance, incorporated in 1913. Mr. Crockett is treasurer of the school, one of its directors and a member of the faculty. The students enrolled in the school are drawn from the assistants in many of the largest firms and corporations of the city. Mr. Crockett is special lecturer on accountancy in the Kansas University, and in 1915 was appointed a member of the Kansas Board of Examiners. These various professional honors have all come without his seeking and as a tribute to his special ability. Mr. Crockett is a member of the Kansas City Credit Men’s Association, the Kansas City (Missouri) City Club and the Knife and Fork Club.
On November 2, 1895, he married Miss Mellie Wise of Kansas City, Missouri. They have one daughter, Ida Winifred, who graduated from the high school at Kansas City, Kansas, in May, 1917. Mr. Crockett is a Royal Arch Mason, a member of the Brotherhood of American Yeomen and is president of Kansas City Lodge No. 358 of the Fraternal Aid Union. He is a member of the Mercantile Club and chairman of its auditing committee. He and his wife are active in the Second Presbyterian Church of Kansas City, Kansas, and both he and his wife teach Bible classes and are prominent in the various church activities. Mr. Crockett is a member of the Grand View Gospel Team and Chorus and had worked with that body in extending religious influence in various directions, even to the state penitentiary. In politics Mr. Crockett had always been a prohibitionist, and had made many campaign speeches in behalf of the party and the principle involved. As a resident of Kansas City, Kansas, he takes an active interest in all public movements and especially in the schools.