Winter Snows

As a child growing up in Crayne, me and my friends always wished and prayed for a big snow during the wintertime.  When you are kid snow is wonderful, it's just something new and wonderful to play in.  I know now what a hardship it was for our parents.

The picture at the right is the winter of 1958.  I have written in my picture album, "The Biggest Snow is Seven Years."  I was thrilled.  So was our best friend and dog, "Bullet."  He loved the snow as much as us kids did.  He would run through it throwing it up in the air and catching it in his mouth.

You can see the old Crayne school house in the back ground.  We were still going to school there when this picture was made.

This picture was made in the winter of 1959-60.  That is my Dad, Billie M. Travis, standing on the porch of our home at Crayne.   Two big snows this close together was really something.

This was a big wet snow.  It had to be rather bad to travel on because it kept my Dad from going to work at Mexico.  I hardly ever remember him not being able to get to work.

These are wonderful memories for me, playing in the snow, making snow angels, snow forts, snow men, tracking wild animals in the fields, and mom's wonderful snow cream she always made for us. What a way to end a glorious day playing in the snow.

W. R. and Minnie Cruce's Homeplace

The home place of William Richard "Uncle Dick" and "Aunt Minnie" Cruce. The beautiful old two-story home has been a landmark for many years. It sits at the top of what we always called Crayne Hill.

Uncle Dick and Aunt Minnie always kept their Civil War era home is top repair, and it was a show place of the area.

The picture at the right is the way the home used to look in the 1920's and up until the past 10 years or so. Today the porches are still there but the screened in section has been removed and the second story balcony and railing have been removed. It's hard to tell that it is this same home in the picture.

Today, Edna Nell Cruce Dunagan, the fifth generation of Cruces' lives in the house. There is some new work going on at the place with bricks being layed on the porch floors and bottom of the columns.

Aunt Minnie Cruce was known for her love of flowers and her beautiful flower gardens.  They were a showcase of color in the summer.  One I remember so well was her pink and white Peonies.  She was known as having a 'green thumb' in that all she planted grew to be large and beautiful.  The story was told that when she died July 30, 1965, that she had made arrangements that her garden hoe was to buried with her.  The local undertaken told me some years later that this was true, that she did have her hoe place in the casket with her.  I'd say there are some beautiful flowers in Heaven today.

Cortis Hill Farm

In 1958 The Crittenden Press ran a series of pictures of local farms. The readers were suppose to see if they could identify the farms. This picture appeared in August 1958.

Mystery Farm 14 was identified as the Mrs. Eugene Dorroh and Mr. and Mrs. Cortis Hill farm, which is operated by the Hill's. It was located on the Crayne View Road several miles from Crayne.

The history of the farms was Mr. Dorroh purchased the farm from Mr. Jeff I. Clement in 1947 and began to use soil conservation practices on t he farm. There was 840 acres in the farm as Mr. Dorroh had two farms which joined the Clement farm.

Cortis said that he began farming with Mr. Dorroh, his father-in-law in 1951 and continued to operate the farm. Corn, wheat, barley and soy beans were the main crops. Livestock consisted of beef cattle, mostly Angus and hogs.

Cortis married his wife, Dorothy Dorroh, in 1946. They had two children, at the time, Gary, 10 and Richard 5. The family belongs to Crayne Cumberland Presbyterian Church and are active in its affairs.

This history was from the 1958 Press article. The farm now is owned by Bonnie Turner and farmed by Van Hunt. I don't believe the nice home is still there today.