From "History of Wheeling City and Ohio County, West Virginia and  
Representative Citizens," by Hon. Gibson Lamb Cranmer, 1902. 
 
Typed by E. J. Heinemann 
 
p.628 
 
DR. WILLIAM ALLEN CRACRAFT, Sr., the subject of this sketch, was born  
in Claysville, Pennsylvania, February 23, 1844.  In 1848 his father's  
family moved to Triadelphia, Ohio county, West Virginia, where he was  
reared, receiving his academic education at the West Alexander Academy,  
Pennsylvania.  At the outbreak of the Civil War, he entered the  
Confederate army, though but seventeen years of age , as a private in  
the "Shriver Grays," Company C, 27th Regiment, Virginia Infantry.  
"Stonewall" Jackson's Brigade, and participated in all the  
engagements with his regiment in 1861 and until the battle of  
Kernstown, March 23, 1862, when he was taken prisoner and confined in  
Fort Delaware until August 5, 1862, then being exchanged at Aiken's  
Landing, Virginia.  He at once rejoined his command and, although his  
year's enlistment had expired the preceding May, took part in all the  
battles of his regiment until after the battle of Sharpsburg, Maryland,  
September 19, 1862, when he accepted an honorable discharge, and  
re-enlisted in the cavalry serivce, as lieutenant of Company 1, 20th  
Regiment, Virginia Cavalry, William L. Jackson's Brigade, Leman's  
Division, Fitzhugh Lee's Corps.  He commanded his company in every  
battle in which the regiment participated, from the date of its  
organization to the termination of the war, receiving his parole of  
honor under the terms of Lee's surrender. 
     After the close of the war, our subject returned to his home and  
entered upon the study of medicine.  During 1866 and 1867 he attended  
the University of Virginia, where he received his medical education,  
and then commenced the practice of his profession in Triadelphia, Ohio  
county, West Virginia, in June, 1867, remaining there until April,  
1871, when he located at Elm Grove, Ohio county, West Virginia, where  
he has remained ever since.  From 1872 to 1893 he was attending  
physician to the Ohio County Infirmary, and in 1894 he was appointed  
visiting physician to "Altenheim;" also visiting physician to the  
Orphans' Home for Boys and Girls at Elm Grove. 
     Dr. Cracraft was married, January 28, 1874, to Mary Key, of Elm Grove,  
daughter of Abner and Elizabeth Key, four children being born to them,  
namely: Georgia Key, deceased: William Allen, Jr., a graduate of  
medicine from the University of Virginia, June,1901, and located at Elm  
Grove: Mary Elizabeth: and Leech Key, at present a student of medicine  
at the University of Virginia.   Abner Key, deceased, was born in  
Maryland, and Elizabeth Key, deceased, in Lancaster, Ohio. 
     Dr. George A. Cracraft, the father of Dr. William Allen Cracraft, Sr.,  
was a graduate of the Philadelphia College of Medicine and practiced in  
Triadelphia from 1848 to 1888---the year of his death --- with the  
exception of three years, during which time he held the position of  
surgeon, with the rank of major, in the 19th Regiment, Virginia  
Cavalry, C. S. A.  His wife was Jane Knox, of Washington county,  
Pennsylvania, and of Scotch-Irish descent.  Dr. George A. Cracraft was  
the son of William Atkinson Cracraft, of Washington county,  
Pennsylvania, whose father was Maj. Charles Cracraft, a full surgeon in  
the Revolutionary War, later prominent in Indian warfare as a major,  
being wounded and captured near Fort Henry (Wheeling), in 1781, by a  
force of Indians under the renegade Simon Girty.  Maj. Charles Cracraft  
was a son of Joseph Cracraft, who migrated from Lincolnshire, England,  
to the vicinity of Frederick, Maryland, in 1720.