C. S. Crary

    C. S. Crary, born in Franklin County, Indiana, March 21, 1845, is the youngest of seven sons and twelve children, and was reared in Indiana and Ohio. Of his father, the Martinsville Republican of August 16, 1883, publishes the following: "On the 14th isnt. Gen. Willis Crary suddenly died at his home, near Olney, Illinois. Gen. Crary was eighty-one years old past. He was a native of Vermont, and moved to Cincinnati in 1813, where he resided for thirty years, when he removed to Franklin County, Indiana. He was in his earlier days a prominent politician of Cincinnati. He was well acquainted with Gen. William Henry Harrison, and was a schoolmate and chum of his son, Scott Harrison, the father of Senator Ben Harrison. Shortly after he attained his majority, he was married in Cincinnati to Miss Almira Spencer, a native of New York State, who died in 1863. During the internal improvement furor in this State, he was a heavy contractor in the building of the White Water Canal, in which he lost over $20,000,  which was a liberal fortune in those days. Of late years, he had resided in Illinois."

    In 1859, the subject of this sketch went with his parents to McLean County, Illinois. He received a good English education, and in August, 1861, enlisted in the Fourteenth Indiana Cavalry, under Co. T. Lyle Dickey, serving for four years. He took part in the following engagements: Fort Henry, Fort Donelson and Shiloh (at which he was Orderly to Gen. Hurlbut). From exposure, he was taken with the typhoid fever, and after lying in the hospital for some time he was discharged for disability. In the fall of 1862, he assisted in raising a company and returned to the front. On the 19th of March, 1863, he was commissioned Second Lieutenant, One Hundred and Thirtieth Illinois, then being but seventeen years of age. In the battle of Port Gibson, his Captain was wounded, and the First Lieutenant in the hospital, so he assumed the command of his company through the battles of Raymond, the entire siege of Vicksburg, Jackson, Mississippi, and some few others, after which he was promoted to First Lieutenant. His regiment spent the winter of 1863-64 on the coast of Texas, after which they returned to New Orleans, and on the organization of the Red River Campaign, he was appointed on the staff of Gen. W. H. Baldwin, of the Second Brigade, Fourth Division of the Thirteenth Army Corps, and served in that capacity during the entire campaign. In 1866 he began farming in Morgan County, and five years later moved to Martinsville, renting his farm of 200 acres in Jefferson Township. He then went into the insurance business, and continued in it until 1881, when he went into the employ of the Gould Southwest Railroad System, with headquarters at Galveston, Texas, as traveling, freight and passenger agent, remaining nearly two years. In December, 1882, he resigned his position and returned to Martinsville, where he at present resides. He is a member of the G. A. R. and a Republican.

Source: Counties of Morgan, Monroe and Brown, Indiana. Historical and Biographical. Charles Blanchard, Editor. F. A. Battey & Co., Publishers, 1884.