BIOGRAPHY - H. A. CRANDALL
A well-known farmer of Pella Township, residing on section 9, was born
in Cook County, Ill., in 1849, and is a son of Herman Crandall, who was born
in Vermont, September 5, 1812, and in 1824 removed to Franklin County, N. Y.
When a young man, he emigrated to Illinois and made a claim in Cook County.
He married Lydia Bushnell, and engaged in agricultural pursuits for a number
of years. The land which he purchased at $1.25 per acre he sold at $80 per
acre. He was a prominent citizen of the community and a successful farmer.
In politics, he was first a Whig and afterwards a Republican. His death
occurred in Ford County, March 12, 1890. His wife is still living and makes
her home in California. Further mention is made of these worthy people in
the sketch of C. C. Crandall on another page of this work. Their family
numbered eleven children: Abigail, who is now in California; Ruey, who is
living in Danville, Ill.; Mary, a resident of Nebraska; Martha, who is
living in Cook County; C. C. who served in the Thirty-ninth Illinois
Infantry during the late war and is now a resident of Pella Township;
Imogene, a resident of Blue Island, Cook County; H. A., of this sketch;
George, who is living in Will County; Eva, who makes her home in Wisconsin;
Alfred, of Nebraska; and Benjamin, in Ford County, Ill.
We now take up the personal history of our subject, who spent the days of
his boyhood and youth in the county of his nativity, remaining upon the home
farm until twenty years of age. The educational advantages which he received
were those afforded by the common schools. In 1869, he came to Ford County
and purchased the land on which he now resides. He afterward returned to
Cook County, where he spent the years of 1874 and 1875, but since that time
has made his home continuously in Pella Township, where he owns two hundred
and forty-one acres of valuable land, which he improved from the raw
prairie. It is well equipped with good buildings and all the accessories of
a model farm, and the well-tilled fields yield to him a good income.
In the autumn of 1870, Mr. Crandall was joined in wedlock with Mary Riche,
who was born in Cook County, her father being one of the early settlers of
that region and a contractor on the Wabash Canal. They have a family of
three children: Abigail, who was born in Cook County, in 1875; William, in
1883; and Mary, in 1885. The family is well known throughout the community
and the members of the Crandall household rank high in the social circles in
which they move.
Mr. Crandall is a member of the Masonic fraternity of Piper City, and his
wife is a member of the Presbyterian Church. He has been a member of the
Drainage Commission and has taken an active part in all that pertains to the
welfare and upbuilding of town and county. For nine years he has served as
Township and Drainage Commissioner, a fact which indicates his faithfulness
and fidelity to duty. He cast his first Presidential vote for Abraham
Lincoln and has since been a supporter of the Republican party and has often
served as a delegate to its conventions. Mr. Crandall has a wide
acquaintance throughout the community, and for his sterling worth and
integrity is held in high regard.
Extracted 14 Dec 2017 by Norma Hass from Portrait and Biographical Record of Ford County, Illinois, published in 1892, pages 194-195.
