Personal Notes 70 (Notes Pages)

Individuals marked with a red dot

are direct ancestors of Robert Lynn Craycroft
For privacy reasons, Date of Birth and Date of Marriage for persons believed to still be living are not shown.

Hagan, Mary Josephine (b. 6 SEP 1896, d. 12 JUN 1943)

Source: (Name field)
Title: E-mail from John C. Hagan

Reference: 691

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Blanford, Walter (b. 1770, d. 12 MAR 1835)

Occupation: Place: Carpenter

Reference: 692

Note: I do have articles that describe Walter Blandford's occupation of carpenter. He built the old Church of St. Michael in Fairfield, Nelson County and the new Church of St. John in Bullitt County in 1812. (Don Blincoe, Jacksonville, FL, 12/17/1999)

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Richardson, Adelia Cecilia (b. 1856, d. 28 FEB 1937)

Census: Date: 1880
Place: Meade Cy, Ky

Reference: 693

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Craycroft, Philip Paul (b. 11 OCT 1914, d. 19 OCT 1994)

Cause: Congestive heart failure, pneumonia

Event: Type: Soc. Sec. Num.
Place: 344-05-6112

Occupation: Place: Ford dealer, Vandalia, Illinois

Reference: 694

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Craycroft, Harry Benjamin (b. 29 APR 1885, d. 30 MAY 1962)

Reference: 695

Note: Sometime in 1916 Harry started the Craycroft Motorcar Company. During that first year he sold 54 Maxwells. They sold for $580 - $595 each. H.B. later opened a Ford dealership in Vandalia which is still in business today (December, 1999, Geoffery Craycroft)

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Smith, Ella Frances (b. 23 NOV 1886, d. MAR 1974)

Reference: 696

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Craycroft, Benjamin (b. 12 NOV 1840, d. 19 MAR 1917)

Source: (Name field)
Title: Craycroft Family Record of Ray J. Craycroft
Media: Book

Source: (Birth field)
Title: History of the Craycroft Family from June 10, 1297 A.D.
Author: John Henry Craycroft
Publication: January 1, 1942, Richmond, California
Media: Manuscript

Note: Secondary
Page: Page 79

Occupation: Place: Brick manufacturer

Census: Date: 1860
Place: Centralia, Marion County, Illinois

Reference: 697

Note: The 1860 Census of Marion County, Illinois, lists a Benjamin Craycroft at a Centralia post office address.

Appears in 1880 Illinois census.

CRAYCROFT BENJAMIN; Type of sale - RR; Legal description - SENW; Section - 24; Township - 01N; Range - 01E; Meridian - 3; Acres purchased - 40.00; Price per acre - 10.00; Total price - 400.00; Social status - MALE; Date purchased - 02/28/1871; Volume - 793; Page - 30; County - MARION

According to a photocopy of a letter from Benjamin to Rosetta Nida Craycroft, dated Jan. 16, 1916, Benjamin and his son Harry B. owned the Eagle Brick Machine Works in Vandalia, Illinois.

Prior to the Civil War Benjamin and John Wesley started a brick making business in Centralia. When the war broke out John Wesley sold his interest in the brick making business to Benjamin and went to California. (History of the Craycroft Family)

The following passage is a transcript taken from the History of the Craycroft Family, pp. 84-85, written by John Wesley Craycroft:

In the summer of 1875 my older brother Benjamin arrived at my home, and after a short time he also entered the sheep raising business. He had three children still living, out of his former seven. Four having died. He had arranged with our brother Thomas who had recently married our step-sister, she was a daughter of John Fouts our step father. When they married they went to Salem Illinois and he entered the brickmaking and contracting business. Brother Benjamin arranged with him to take care of his (Benjamins) youngest son John, and he also arranged with our mother to care for the girl, (Lulia) and he brought the oldest boy Benjamin Richard, (Dick) with him to California.

As already stated he immediately entered the sheep raising business and rented a section or two of land in a large valley then known as Panoche Valley about 80 miles south-west of my home. He also filed a claim on a (160) acre homestead of government land located near Gilroy California. He and his young son (Richard) (Dick) able to herd and look after his sheep.

This family record was left with our mother Mrs. Elizabeth Pate Craycroft Fouts, in Walnut Hill Illinois. She, it will be remembered married John Fouts some years after our Fathers death, near Macon Illinois.

In 1879 Brother Benjamin decided to return to Illinois on a visit intending to return to California, after a short visit. But he never returned. For when he reached brother Thomas's home in Salem Illinois he found that Thomas had invented and patented a brick-making-machine on May 27, 1879 that had almost revolutionized brick-making business, for while men could only make less than 3000 to 4000 brick per day at hard work this machine could make 30,000 to 35,000 and even make 45,000 to 50,000 if put under steam-power instead of horse-power and brother Thomas was (v)ery busily engaged in manufacturing and selling these famous machines, and placing them on the Market, with very good success.

There was good enough for a good salesman who had experience in the brick-making business, and as Benjamin had both, brother Thomas engaged brother Benjamin's service at once to both sell and erect these machines and guarantee the successful operation of every one of these machines. In a very short time Benjamin had met a young woman named Miss Elizabeth M. Honecker in Centralia, Illinois and after a few months of courtship they were married at the home of brother Thomas in Salem Illinois March 2nd. 1880. After that time brother Thomas Benton Craycroft sold all of his patent rights to a firm named W.R. Gerhard located at the old capital of Vandalia, Illinois. This was a new establishment, and everything connected with the Manufacture of the brick-making-machine was moved to Vandalia Illinois, including the continuted employment of brother Benjamin Craycroft. I mention this fact in this record in order to show just why Benjamin Craycroft never returned to California in 1879 or 1880 as he intended. This man W.R. Gearhard in a short time met with severe financial reverses, and the Bank and other Creditors closed him out, and took over the machine-shop and foundary including all rights of and patents of the Eagle Brick Machine. In a short time all was sold to brother Benjamin.

He took immediate charge of all the property, and was very successful from the start. Therefore he was now well established in business, and decided he had far better prospects of success than any he had in California.

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Craycroft, Rebecca (b. --Not Shown--)

Reference: 698

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Honecker, Elizabeth Mary (b. 29 JUL 1859, d. 5 MAY 1921)

Reference: 699

Note: 1880 Illinois Census reports birth place as Illinois.

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Hanger, Marcus (b. , d. ?)

Reference: 700

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