Biographies and Obituaries
In loving memory
Henry McCracken
Henry McCracken, one of Barr township's oldest, most prominent and widely known men, died at 10 o'clock last night at his home south of Montgomery at the age of almost eight-two years after a shockingly brief illness.
Mr. McCracken who had been enjoying robust health for a man of his advanced years had been in Montgomery during the afternoon and was stricken about 4 o'clock, shortly after returning to his farm home. He was chopping wood when the fatal seizure came on and gradually sank, although physicians were called immediately after he became ill. Heart disease is believed to have caused his death.
Perhaps none of the older residents of Barr township had a wider circle of friends or was better liked than the deceased man and his sudden illness and death have cast a note of genuine sadness everywhere among his acquaintances. Mr. McCracken was born on a farm within three quarters of a mile of the place where he died and his entire life excepting two short ingtervals when he was in Kansas were passed in the same community. He had always been a framer.
Mr. McCracken's wife died some years ago but he is survived by the following children: Minnie, of Evansville: Lillie, at home: Oliver of Washington: John, at home: Will and Arthur of Oklahoma: and Byron of Harrison township. Two sisters also are left, they being Eliza Rudolph and Mary Jane McCracken, both of Montgomery.
In every sense of the word, Henry McCracken was one of the patriarchs of southern Barr township, a man who was strictly honest in all his personal and business dealings and who loved his family and home with an intense devotion that was noticeble to everyone.
Contributed by: Mrs. Jeanne Everett, McCracken Family Historian