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WILLIE RAN AWAY
An Orphan Train Rider taken to Wisconsin at the age of seven years, was taken by a rancher who beat him and he ran away.
William Henry Crance was born in 1881, the son of Mary Foley Crance (father’s first name is unknown).
The father died suddenly in 1883 and their mother, Mary returned to work as a domestic.
Young Willie was being cared for by his sisters, mere children themselves, when a social worker stepped in and persuaded Mary to put Willie in an orphanage. The sisters came to visit him, but his mother never came.
In 1888 Willie arrived in Wisconsin on an Orphan Train.
After running away from the cruel rancher, Willie drifted to Arkansas and enlisted in the Army by lying about his age (he was only 16).
He was posted in Alabama and contracted malaria. While recuperating, he saw a personal ad in a magazine, his three sisters were looking for him.
Willie served in the Spanish American War 1898/1899 and his service record states that his "service was honest and faithful, character excellent."
After his discharge, he returned to New York and met his family. For awhile he worked in his brother-in-laws butcher shop in New Jersey. Feeling restless, he left there and drifted down to Roanoke Rapids, NC, where he worked as a spool-setter in a textile mill.
In October, 1906, Willie married Ida Olivia Wilson.
Two children, Mary Frances and Adelaide were born.
Willie became a voracious reader. His special interests were history and
politics. The family can only speculate where he received his schooling. A professor friend in Wake Forest, NC, said Willie Crance was the most educated uneducated man he ever met.
Willie worked as a "poll sitter" during local elections. North Carolina law required one Democrat and one Republican to watch the poll entrances. Willie was the only registered Republican in town. Sometime in the early 1920s, Willie was elected Justice of the Peace.
Ida Olivia Wilson Crance died suddenly in 1935. Willie lived until his death in 1950 with his daughter, Adelaide in Portsmouth, VA.
Willie’s daughter Mary Frances was the paternal grandmother of Deborah Mullins who seeks information on the early life of Willie Crance.
Please write to Deborah at 9709 Foxcroft Ave., Clinton, MD 20735.
CROSSROADS Vol. 18, January, 1992 page 15