Born in Poughkeepsie, he graduated from Dutchess Academy, studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1831, and commenced practice in Brooklyn.

He served forty years in the National Guard of the State of New York, from private to brigadier general.

Crooke's troops served on the Department of the Susquehanna under Maj. Gen. Darius Couch, and helped man the defenses of Harrisburg against a threatened attack by Confederates under Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell.

When the Confederates retired to Virginia following the Battle of Gettysburg, Crooke and his men returned to New York for the duration of the war.

Crooke lived in the historic Jans Martense Schenck house in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn.