Albert W. Crandall, 1849-1939 [RG1634.AM]

HISTORY NEBRASKA MANUSCRIPT FINDING AID

RG1634.AM:  Albert W. Crandall, 1849-1939

Diaries:  1898-1939

Winnetoon and Niobrara, Knox County, Nebraska:  County Sheriff and farmer

Size:  27 volumes on 4 reels of microfilm

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

A.W. (Albert) Crandall was born in Bremen, Illinois, on December 14, 1849. He married Mary Ann Stokes on December 23, 1873. The Crandalls had nine children, two of whom died in infancy. The Crandall family arrived in Nebraska in October of 1884 and settled on a farm four miles southwest of Winnetoon. They moved to Niobrara in 1898, where A.W. Crandall served as county sheriff for four years. The family returned to the farm in 1902. From 1914 until his death on October 8, 1939, Crandall lived in the town of Winnetoon. At the time of his death, A.W. Crandall was Knox County’s oldest resident.

SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE

This collection consists of twenty-seven diaries dating from 1898-1939. Twenty-four of the diaries were kept by A.W. Crandall. The other three diaries were written by his wife, Mary.

The diaries relate to the lives led by the Crandall family in Knox County over a forty-year span. Beginning with intermittent entries from the early years, the A.W. Crandall diaries contain daily entries beginning in 1914. Typical entries comment on the weather, local and family news, farm tasks, money received and expended for produce and animals, personal expenses, elections, World War I news, recipes, and trips taken. Most of the diaries also include separate accounting records for the year.

The first volume was kept by Mary Crandall while her husband served as county sheriff. It includes a listing of prisoners committed to the county jail during 1898-1901. Mary would provide meals to the prisoners and collect payment from the County, based on the records she made in this volume. The other two Mary Crandall diaries, 1918 (Vol. 5) and 1929 and 1932 (Vol. 17), complement her husband’s volumes by providing a picture of her domestic chores.

Note: The original diaries are not in the History Nebraska collections. Only microfilm copies are available.

INVENTORY

Reel 1

Volume

1. 1. Mary Crandall: 1898-1901, records of inmates fed; 1903-1930, accounts; 1925-1931, personal expenses

1. 1. 1914; 1915-1920, Account records

1. 1. 1917

1. 1. 1918

1. 1. Mary Crandall: 1918 [note: filming begins with the first entry at page 40]

1. 1. 1919

1. 1. 1920

Reel 2

Volume

8. 8. 1921

8. 8. 1922

8. 8. 1923

8. 8. 1924

8. 8. 1925

8. 8. 1926

Reel 3

Volume

14. 14. 1927

14. 14. 1928

14. 14. 1929

14. 14. Mary Crandall: 1929, 1932 [note: pp. 370-373 and 376-387 are blank.]

14. 14. 1930

14. 14. 1931

14. 14. 1932 [note: Oct. 14-15, 1932 were missed during the initial filming. Retakes of these entries are at the end of Reel 3.]

Reel 4

Volume

21. 21. 1933

21. 21. 1934

21. 21. 1935

21. 21. 1936

21. 21. 1937

21. 21. 1938

21. 21. 1939

Subject headings:

Country life — Nebraska

Crandall, Albert W., 1849-1939

Crandall, Mary Ann Stokes

Knox County (Nebraska) — History

Niobrara (Nebraska) — History

Sheriffs — Nebraska

Winnetoon (Nebraska) — History

AIP/ksa/kfk              03-1995

Revised kfk             03-12-2004

Revised TMM        05-17-2007

Acc. 1995.0073; 1995.0074; 1995.0075; 1995.0076