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.

Crayne Cemetery

The Crayne Cemetery sits a top a gradual slopping hill.  You don't realize that you are this high up until you reach the cemetery and stand and look around at the country side.  It's a beautiful view from the top, no matter what season it is.

No document has been found that actually tells when the Crayne Cemetery was started or who gave the land for this purpose.  It has been said that the Spurlin Woodall family gave the land, but there is no deed at the Court House to document the fact.  It must have been done by the year 1900, for the first burial that is noted is Dec. 7, 1900 for Leona Tabor, an infant belonging to G. J. and Elressie Jennings Tabor.  Soon after this date, other burials started being here.

These are the steps leading up to the cemetery from the front entrance.  Several years ago the bank was lined with beautiful old Cedar Trees.  I hated to see them go since they had always been a part of the cemetery.  But it seems they had become rather tattered from the weather over the years and some thought they needed to cut down as limbs were always breaking off of them.  But the cemetery has never looked the same since they were cut down.

The cemetery holds many of the loved one from the Crayne community and surrounding area.  Many of the  old family names, that were so familiar years ago to the Crayne community, are all gone now.  The original family members all passed away and their children moved away to different places. 

The cemetery is home to Civil War Vet, David Brookshire, also the 1st Crittenden County young man to be killed in action in World War I, Ellis B. Ordway, son of William and Julia Long Ordway.  Killed July 26, 1918 in France.   There are other Veterans buried here also, put mostly just ordinary working folks who loved Crayne and never wanted to leave and if they did have to leave, wanted to come back for their last resting place in their hometown cemetery.

The Crayne Cemetery is lucky to have a local Cemetery Board who oversees the maintenance and care. of it.  On the 1st Saturday in June, for the past several years, they have a fish fry to raise funds to go into the account to help keep the Cemetery maintained.  

Remembering James Robert Dorroh

James Robert Dorroh passed away today, Jan. 15th.  He will be missed by all his friends and loved ones.  His presence will be missed in many areas of the community.  His spot in the Crayne Presbyterian Church will be empty and cannot be filled.  His shy smile and dry sense of humor will be missed by all that knew him.

James Robert loved his hometown of  Crayne, and thanks to him there is a  lot of history recorded about the early days of this little community.  He knew so much history about the people and the stores that used to be in the community.  We are lucky that he wrote several articles about his memories,  we are fortunate to have these. 

He would have been 84 on Feb. 11th of 2010.  The picture at the right is at the Crayne School Reunion this past August 2009.  He was sharing some of his school memories with the people that were there.  His memory was very sharp and clear.

All summer long I had meant to stop and visit with him, as I had some questions I wanted to talk to him about.  As happens so many times, I waited too long and now it's too late.  He is gone and the questions will remain unanswered.  I'll miss you James Robert and the community of Crayne will sadly miss you.  You were the heart behind Crayne Day.

Jan. 3rd, 2000 Tornado Anniversary

Ten years ago today January 3th, 2000, at about 3:08 P.M. the tornado struck our little community and almost wiped it off the map.  Thankfully no one was seriously hurt, but mentally it was devastating.

The day had been unusually warm and humid for the winter month of January.  I was at work at the Board of Education Office.  Dr. Lacy, our Superintendent, had been watching the skies and weather forecast . As the skies darkened and turned a greenish color he told all the employees to get in the hallway of the office.  The buses had already started out on their afternoon routes to deliver the students home.  The short wave radio's were going full blast as everyone was trying to report their status.  The buses on Highway 641 and all routes leading into Crayne were halted.  No one could get into the town.  All ways of entry were cut off by fallen trees.  This was every way, North, South, East and West, all roads were impassable.

I still didn't know for sure what had happened.  I called my Mom, Evah Lee Travis, and thankfully the phones were still working.  She was in tears and scared to death, she told me "we've had a tornado."  She was unharmed, just scared and frightened.  I tried to get into the town through the Chapel Hill Road, but it was blocked by large fallen trees, I got close enough to where I could walk in, or I ran in , as I was really frightened by now, for I was unprepared for what I was going to see.  Never had I seen such destruction to our little town.  I came in on the North side, close to James Robert Dorroh's house, it had been badly damaged by the roof being partially blowed off and his large trees uprooted and on the house.

(This is a picture of his house after a few days later.  The tree had been cut and you can see the base of it on the bottom left.)

As I went on through the center of town,  there was parts of buildings, trailers, blown everywhere, insulation from the trailers had put a pink stuffing on everything.  Electricity was out, wires were down everywhere,you had to watch where you walked as not to step or trip on them. Fallen trees and limbs lined the highway.

I finally got to our house.  Thankfully my Mom and our home were alright.  There were some roofing shingles blown off, the air conditioner unit had been moved off it's base, and some damage to the vinyl siding.  But no windows were broken out and the roof was all intack.  We were very fortunate, alot more so that other folks.

The residents of Crayne were out and going around trying to check on their neighbors and friends, everyone was worried about everyone, the yards were full of standing water and debris caused by the storm.

The clean-up went on for weeks and months and all through the year, and into the next year and beyond. Most all the ancient sugar maple trees that had so beautifully lined the highway of Crayne were gone.  The storm had damaged the old  Crayne school house and the little block school room and they had to taken down.  The Crayne US Presbyterian Church was damaged and was said to be  unsafe to use.  Many tears and much heartache was caused by this.  Finally it was torn down and a new one built in it's place.

The tree root in the picture at the right was in front of Pam and Roger Tinsley house across from the Crayne Post Office. 

Things in Crayne were never the same after that Jan. 3rd, 2000.  Although the people and friends all worked and got things cleaned up, it was just such an emotional trial for everyone.  My Mom never fully recovered from the emotional effect it had on her, and probably others had been effected the same.  That June there was no annual Crayne Day, something else that was hurting to the community.  Although there have been other Crayne Day's since then, the heart of the community has never been into it like it was before the storm.

Many of the old time residents are gone today and a few new families have moved in.  But we still have our  familiar Crayne Presbyterian Church and our same post office and our friendly postmistress.  So that it good.

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.