Homes of Crayne Citizens

This old empty house was once the home of William "Bill" and Julia (Long) Ordway.  The house is located just a mile or more south of Crayne, almost directly across the road from the Allie and Vera Kirk home that is listed in the last article.

The history of when the house was built is not known for sure, but it is probably at least a hundred years old. Bill and Julia Ordway lived here until they died and then their daughter Ida Ordway lived here until she died Jan. 22, 1967.  The house has sat empty every since.  It has withstood wind, rain, snow, sleet, hail and still stands today .  This picture was made in the summer of 2008.

William Ordway was born Nov. 15, 1855 and died April 10, 1925.  His wife Julia was born July 8, 1859 and died Dec. 23, 1935.  They are all buried at the Crayne Cemetery.

Homes of Crayne citizens

Allie and Vera Kirk Home.  Located about a mile south of Crayne on Hwy. 641.  Their son, Maurie Huston Kirk, told me this house was built in 1941.  The basement was built with a team of mules and a scraper.  They mixed the concrete there at the house site and poured it.  

Vera died in 1995 and Allie continued to live in their family home until he passed away in 2001 at the age of 99.

The house sat empty until the summer of 2009 when Houston and Virginia's grandson, Matthew Systo moved into the house.  The home once again has family members occupying it's once empty rooms.  It's always good to see family members taking care of their old homeplace.

Our beloved Crayne Knobs

Crayne is nestled at the foot of the Crayne Knobs.  They have also been called the Twin Knobs, as they were so close together and as you can see from the picture, almost the same size and shape.  The shape has become somewhat distorted in the past years and they have been logged for timber and then the 2009 ice storm left the remaining timber in a sad shape.

These friendly knobs were wonderful to all the kids growing up in Crayne.  Several generations of families have had children that love to "go to the knobs" for a day of fun and adventure.  I've spend hours and hours here playing on the rocks, climbing looking for new hideouts, finding all kinds of wild ferns growing on the moss covered rocks, and standing on the top thinking we had conquered the world.   All seasons had fun times on the knobs or at the foot of them, for there were small ponds in the fields, and creeks that ran through the woods. When it would snow, me and brother Billie, would head for the knobs for tracking of animals.  What fun it was just to follow the rabbit tracks that were everywhere and around the streams would be other kinds of tracks that just ran on endlessly.

Childhood friends that I grew up with and played on the knobs with were Sheryl and Sandra Ferguson, Clinton Bigham, and Harold Cannon.  My faithful wonderful little dog, Bullet, always went with me too.  He and I made many trips just by ourselves, visiting this favorite childhood place to play and dream.

It has been a few years since I've made that long remembered walk to the Knobs.  They called for me  to come for a visit on a sunny Saturday afternoon in March of 1996.  I climbed to the top and looked out over my home of Crayne and it was as it always had been.  Below you could see the little village with the Crayne USA Presbyterian church in the center and the homes nestled all around.  A wonderful  peaceful site, and I must make that trip again - come springtime.