Misc. Notes
The Crackel family came from the small parish of Owston, in Lincolnshire County, England.
In about 1819, two very wealthy gentlemen from England took a trip to America in search of the beautiful prairies of the midwestern United States. The gentlemen toured southern Illinois and selected a site for the development of an English colony. They returned to London, England and gathered family and friends for the first voyage to America. The site they selected is now known as Edwards and Wabash counties, Illinois, situated next to the Wabash River which flows into the Ohio River. Mr. Birbeck and Mr. Flower set up a rough camp-style community with sturdy cabins for the first settlers. These settlers generally spent their first season or two in the cabins, before purchasing land from Mr. Flower and Mr. Birbeck and starting their own homestead.
The colonists continued to send word back to England encouraging family and friends to join them. Word got to the Crackels, probably through Crackels located in London at the time. The Crackels living in Lincolnshire were farmers. The land they cultivated in Lincolnshire was quite similar to the prairies of southern Illinois. When they heard of the English colony’s success, some of the Crackels decided to cast their lot with America. They did not all come at one time, but migrated over a period of two-three decades.
Kelsey Crackel married Ann Thornton on July 2, 1828 in Owston Parish, Lincolnshire, England. Their first son, Richard, was born in England before the Crackels sailed for America.
298The three brothers are mentioned in a book written by George Flower:
“But from time to time little parties came in year after year, chiefly small-tradesmen and farm-laborers. The latter, a most valuable class, came from all parts of England. The farmers brought with them their various experiences and tools, necessary to work the different soils. In this way a greater variety of workmen and tools are to be found in the English Settlement than perhaps in any one neighborhood in England.
“Three brothers, Joseph, Thomas, and Kelsey Crackles, able-bodied farm-laborers, from Lincolnshire, came with a full experience in the cultivation of flat, wet land; and brought with them the light fly-tool for digging ditches and drains, by which a practised hand can do double the work that can be done by a heavy steel spade. The lived with me three years before going on farms of their own. Their experience has shown us that the flat, wet prairies, generally shunned, are the most valuable wheat lands we possess.”
299Mr. Flower mentioned that the Crackel brothers purchased land that others thought was of no value, and with advanced farming techniques and implements cultivated the soil, producing some of the richest land in the area. The land Mr. Flower spoke of was swampland which the county of Wabash decided to drain, survey and sell off in public auctions.
“Losses, however, were compensated by continued immigration. After the slavery question was settled, Flower says that the tide began to flow again. Individuals and families were frequently arriving, and occasionally a party of thirty and forty. A fresh cause induced this tide of emigration. It arose from the private correspondence of the first poor men who came. Having done well themselves, and by a few yars of hard labor acquired more wealth than they ever expected to obtain, they wrote home to friend or relative an account of their success. These letters handed round in the remote villages of England in which many of them lived reached individuals in a class to whom information in a book form was wholly in accessible. Each letter had its scores of readers, and, passing from hand to hand, traversed its scores of miles. The writer, known at home as a poor man, earning perhaps a scanty subsistence by his daily labor, telling of the wages he received, his bountiful living, of his own farm and the number of his livestock, produced a greater impression in the limited circle of his readers than a printed publication had the power of doing. His fellow laborer who heard these accounts, and feeling that he was no better off than when his fellow laborer left him for America, now exerted every nerve to come and do likewise. Among the many that came, induced by this sort of information, were three brothers, Thomas, Kelsey, and Joseph Crackles [sic], three Lincolnshire men—a fine specimen of English farm labor, and particularly in the draining of land. athey lived with me for three years after their arrival. They soon got good farms of their own; or, I should rather say, made good farms for themselves. I heard an American neighbor remark on the first farm they bought that nobody could ever raise a crop or get a living from it. It had not been in their possession two years before it became noted for its excellent cultivation and abundant crops. In this way we have given to Illinois a valuable population, men that are a great acquisition to the country. It was observed that these emigrants who came in the second emigration from five to ten years after the first settlement complained more of the hardships of the country than those who came first. These would complain of a leaky roof, or a broken fence, and all such inconveniences. The first comers had no cabins or fences to complain of; with them it was conquer or die. And thus emigrants came dropping in from year to year.
300The first census record in which Kelsy Crackel appears was the 1840. by 1850, Kelsey Crackel had nine children and a prosperous farm. His children were educated in the common schools. Kelsey had many friends and his children married into neighboring families. Alice Lambert, the future wife of Thomas Crackel, lived close by with her parents, John and Elizabeth Lambert.
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