Daniel Crummy
1839-1880

Sketch:

Daniel was born in 1839 in Armagh County in Ulster, the north eastern portion of Ireland. In 1848, at age 9, he immigrated to America with his parents, Bernard and Mary (O'Callahan) Crummy and four sisters, Catherine, Margaret, Mary and Anna. They arrived in America at the port of New Orleans and made their way up to Scott County, Kentucky, just north of Lexington.

As the story goes, they had some relatives, the Lenahan family, living in that area. Notes detail that the family owned and operated a farm and used slaves for labor. Around 1852, Bernard released his slaves and moved to Brown County, Illinois.  Actually, the family owned no land or slaves as detailed in the 1850 census; Bernard was a laborer.  They lived in the southwestern portion of Scott County just west of Georgetown in a small village called White Sulphur.  They belonged to St. Pius Catholic Church which was in a missionary status at that time period, administered from the town of Frankfort, just to the west.  Bridget, Bernard and Elizabeth were born here.  The stay was short, Scott County was not for the Crummy family.

Scott County was not the place Bernard and Mary wanted to raise their family.  The slavery issue and the weak status of the church were primary influences for this decision.  Better places were within reach, and the bulge of Illinois, the military tract, provided an opportunity they took.  Mount Sterling was a robust farm town with a strong German and Irish population.  Good farmland was reasonably priced.

Daniel was 14 at that time. Bernard bought farmland 10 miles north Mount Sterling. By that time, the Crummy family boasted eight children, soon to be eleven by 1858. Brown County was a farming community centered on Mount Sterling and the railroad. Daniel was Bernard’s eldest son, and probably carried a heavy workload helping his father establish their new property.

The states rights and slavery question came to a head with the commencement of the Civil War in April, 1861, Daniel was 22.   He does not enlist in the first wave of volunteers called up in 1861, but when the second call is made, he enlists as a private for the Union Army.  He travels to Helena, Arkansas and on August 10th, 1862 signs up with Company A of the Second Regiment of the Arkansas Calvary Volunteers.  His company saw action with the regiment in northwestern Arkansas and southwestern Missouri in duty as scouting and fighting guerilla confederate forces. At the war's end, he is mustered out as the regiment was dissolved at Memphis, Tennessee in August 1865.

Highlights of service for the 2nd Regiment, Arkansas Cavalry:

Organized at Helena, Ark., and Pilot Knob, Mo., July 1862. Attached to Helena, Ark., District of the Southwest Missouri, Dept. Missouri, to December, 1862. 2nd Brigade, 3rd Cavalry division, District Eastern Arkansas, to January, 1863. 2nd Brigade, 2nd Cavalry Division, 13th Army Corps, Dept. Tennessee, to April 1863. 2nd Brigade, Cavalry Division, District of Eastern Arkansas, Dept. Tennessee, to May, 1863. District of the Southwest Missouri, Dept. Missouri, to October, 1864. 3rd Brigade, Cavalry Division, Dept. Missouri, to January, 1865. Unattached Cavalry, District West Tennessee, to February, 1865. 1st Brigade, Cavalry Division, District West Tennessee, to August, 1865.

SERVICE.-Duty at Helena, Ark., till April, 1863. At Fayetteville, Ark., till July 1863, and at Cassville, Mo., till September, 1864. (Co. "B" at Benton Barracks, Mo., June, 1863. At Cape Girardeau, Mo., July, 1863. Scout from Cape Girardeau to the Ash Hills and Poplar Bluff, Mo., August 9-18. Skirmish, Ash Hills, August 13. Expedition from Cape Girardeau to Pocahontas, Ark., August 18-26. Skirmishes, Pocahontas, August 22-23.) Elm Springs July 30. Near Fayette August 23 (Detachment). Jenny Lind September 1. Crawford County November 25. Barronsville, Searcy County, December 26. Waldron December 29. King's River January 10, 1864. Operations against Guerrillas in Northwest Arkansas, in Newton, Searcy, Izzard and Carroll Counties, January 16-February 15. Lewisburg January 17. Clear Creek and Tomahawk January 22. Bailey's or Crooked Creek January 23 (Co. "C"). Crooked Creek February 5. Tomahawk Gap February 9. Expedition from Rolling Prairie to Batesville February 19-April 4. Scouts from Yellville to Buffalo River March 13-26. Oil Trough Bottom March 24 (Detachment). Near White River March 25. Constant scouting and skirmishing with Guerillas. Scouts from Bellefonte March 29-April 1. White Branch King's River April 16 (Co. "A"). Limestone Valley April 17. King's River April 19. Near mouth of Richland Creek May 3 and 5. Scout in Northern Arkansas May 17-22 (Co. "M"). Scout from Cassville to Cross Hollows June 9-14 and June 20-24. Near Maysville July 20. Operations in Southwest Missouri and Northwest Arkansas August 15-24. Scout from Ozark, Mo., to Dubuque Crossing and Sugar Loaf Prairie August 23-26 (Detachment). Expedition from Cassville, Mo., to Fayetteville, Ark., August 23-28 (Detachment). Gerald Mountain and Mud Town August 24. Operations against Price August 29-December 2. Moreau Creek, Jefferson City, October 7. Russellville October 9. California October 9. Near Booneville October 11-12. Fort Smith, Ark., October 14 (Detachment). Dover October 20. Little Blue October 21. Independence, Big Blue and State Line October 22. Big Blue and Westport October 23. Little Osage, Mine Creek, Marais des Cygnes , October 25. Engagement on the Marmiton, or Battle of Charlot, October 25. Newtonia October 28. Upshaw's Farm October 29. Expedition from Springfield, Mo., to Fort Smith, Ark., November 5-16. Near Cincinnati, Ark., November 6. Scout from Springfield to Huntsville and Yellville November 11-21. Ordered to Memphis, Tenn., January, 1865. Duty there and in District of West Tennessee till August. Mustered out August 20, 1865.

Daniel returns to Mount Sterling he purchased 40 acres from Lawrence Costello for $45 in March 1866, close to his father’s property.   He married Elizabeth Littleton in January of 1869.

Daniel and Elizabeth mover east to Gibson Village in Ford County.  He sells his 40 acres back to his father.  The 1870 census details he and Elizabeth farming.  Their firstborn son, William, is born in January of 1870.  Within a couple of years, around 1873, Bernard and Mary decide to quit farming themselves for a new business venture in Gibson City. They head east to the small town, which is soon to be a bustling small railroad crossing for three major lines. (Gibson City is south southwest of Chicago about 14 miles due west of I-57 and about 30 miles north of Champaign)

Bernard and Mary bring along with them their younger children and open a railroad boarding house in the center of town. Tragedy strikes Daniel and Elizabeth as their firstborn dies.  They have three more children; Thomas Edward, born in 1872  and known later in life as Edward, Margaret A. is born in 1876 and Sarah Ellen in 1878.

As I mentioned before, Gibson City is a small but booming town. Only incorporated a few years earlier, the Crummy’s are there to see the small town expand into a railroad hub for farming. Daniel is detailed in records as a farmer and well digger. He is noted in the community as an upright and industrious man, a good citizen.

Unfortunately for Daniel and his family, in November of 1880, a tragic accident occurs which is detailed in the newspaper article below:

‘A terrible accident occurred near Guthrie on Saturday last, by which Daniel Crummy, one of our most esteemed citizens, lost his life. Mr. Crummy was a well digger by occupation and had dug a well for Mr. Brashfield, near Guthrie, some eighty feet deep, and was engaged in walling it up. About twenty-five feet from the bottom, the well had partly caved in, and here a platform had been erected and ground was being lowered from the top to fill the cavity. Mr. Jas. Baily was at the top lowering the material, and while letting the bucket down, the rope suddenly parted about fifteen feet from the top, and the heavy bucket fell a sheer descent of thirty-five feet, striking Mr. Crummy on the head and killing him instantly. The unfortunate man was on his knees at work, and apparently slightly raised his head to see what was wrong above, when the iron bound bottom of the bucket struck the side of his head just back of the temple, crushing the skull and breaking his neck. His death was instantaneous.
The body was taken out, and after a brief inquest, was brought to his home in Gibson, whence it was conveyed to the cemetery on Monday. He was a member of Post No. 70 Grand Army of the Republic, having been a soldier in the rebellion, and was buried under their auspices.
Mr. Crummy was an upright and industrious man, a good citizen, whose lose will be felt. He leaves a wife and small children, as well as a father, mother and relatives, all of who have the sympathy of the community in their sudden and crushing bereavement.’

Daniel was 41 years old when he died. He left Elizabeth with 3 small children. As for Bernard and Mary, they had lost their son Franklin shortly after arriving in Gibson City, and another daughter, Mary, had died earlier in 1880 of childbirth complications.

But life goes on, and the strong family unity that Bernard and Mary have based in the Catholic faith carries the family through this tragedy. Elizabeth eventually moves back with other family members in Mount Sterling and remarries.

I thought I would include a short Irish Blessing Bernie Kestel gave me from his notes. And please remember Daniel Crummy as a dedicated and loving father and hard worker when you are drinking some green beer on Saint Patrick’s Day. Daniel’s birthplace, County Armagh, is known as the place where a man called Patrick chose as his base from which to spread Christianity.