A continuing series on the probable children and grandchildren of Jeremiah Crews and Elizabeth Harland. This week we start a series on the grandchildren of David Cruse and Jane Jewell through their son Zachariah Cruse and Rachel Ellen Lane. A great portion of this information comes to me courtesy of Marian Kay Cruse Abbott.
John Cruse was born just before the outbreak of the Civil War in May 1859 to Zachariah and Rachel (Lane) Cruse in Vigo County, Indiana (1, 6, 10). Since his parents were living in Honey Creek Township the following year when the census was taken, it seems likely John was born there. Zachariah's mother, Jane Jewell Cruse. John was the oldest child of Zachariah and Rachel.
I have been unable to locate the family in 1870 census. According to family records it is believed that John's parents, Zachariah and Rachel, died between 1876 and 1880 and within two weeks of each other. John was between 17 and 21 years of age. He had six younger brothers and sisters behind him, with the youngest, William Thomas Cruse, having been born in 1876. In 1880, soon after his parents died, 21-year-old John is found living in the household of Edwin H. McPheters and working as a servant and farm laborer (2).
Not long after the 1880 census, John must have left Vigo County and moved to Illinois, for on 29 December 1884 he married sixteen-year-old Anna Miranda Misner in Crawford County, Illinois (3, 6, 7). Amanda, the daughter of Leander Misner and Martha Jane Davidson, was born in 1868 in Indiana (4, 5). It is possible that John and Miranda were part of the same family groups that left Indiana and moved to Illinois, for Leander and Martha Jane Misner's daughter, Stella Misner, was reported on the 1880 census to have been 8 months old and to have been born in Illinois. All their other children had been born in Indiana (4).
John and Miranda had three daughters. Lena Rachel Cruse, born 27 November 1887 in Annapolis, Crawford County, Illinois. Amy Jane Curse, born 7 May 1889 in Vigo County, Indiana. Josie Cruse born in 1892 (8).
Miranda passed away a day before Christmas on 24 December 1898 in Crawford County, Illinois (8). She was buried in the Prairie Grove Cemetery in Crawford County, Illinois (8, 9).
John was only 39 years old when Miranda died, but for some reason it appears as if he placed his daughters with others and moved in with his brother in Prairieton in Vigo County, Indiana, for he is found living there with brother Thomas Cruse when the census was taken in 1900 (10). The census records him working as a farm laborer, so it does not appear at least on the surface of things as if he was sick and unable to take care of himself, so the reason for moving and sending his girls elsewhere to live is not clear.
That same year, 13-year-old Lena Cruse was a boarder in the household of Elva Williams and living in Crawford in Licking County, Illinois. Eleven-year-old Amy Cruse was living in Clark, in Melrose County, Illinois, in the household of Benjamin Wheeler. Eight-year-old Jose Cruse was living with her aunt and uncle Joe and Emma (Misner) Cruse in Crawford in Oblong County, Illinois (11).
John died four years later on 4 February 1904. He appears to have somehow "frozen" to death, as that is listed as the chief and only cause of death on the death certificate (6). Family members have stated that when John died, the winter weather prevented them from taking his body back to Crawford County, Illinois, for burial beside his wife. Consequently, he was buried in Hull Cemetery in Vigo County, Indiana, but there is no marker (8).
(1) 1860 U. S. Federal Census, Vigo County, Indiana, Honey Creek Township, household of Zachariah Cruse.
(2) 1880 U. S. Federal Census, Vigo County, Indiana, Honey Creek Township, household of Edwin H. McPheters.
(3) Illinois County Marriages 1810-1934, courtesy of Marian Kay Abbott.
(4) 1880 U. S. Federal Census, Crawford County, Illinois, household of Leaner Misner (as Mizener.) (5) Birthdate and father's name for Anna Miranda Misner from 1880 census (4). Mother's name courtesy of Marian Kay Abbott.
(6) Ancestry.com. Indiana, Death Certificates, 1899-2011 [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015. John Cruse's death certificate. It should be noted that the date was "unknown," but the month and year given as May of 1861. This year is obviously an error since John is found in the 1860 census with his parents. Parents names are stated on death certificate. Father's birthplace was Indiana, but mother's birthplace was unknown.
(7) John's death certificate (6 above) gives Amanda's maiden name.
(8) Information on courtesy of Marian Kay Abbott.
(9) Find a Grave (website): https://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=69314720&ref=acom.
(10) 1900 U. S. Federal Census, Vigo Couty, Indiana, Prairieton Township, household of Thomas Cruse. This census gives the birth month of May which coincides with the death certificate (6 above).
(11) Census record research of Marian Kay Abbott.
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