Our thanks go to Alice Lane for sending in this information!

Tom was born in the beautiful mountains in the western end of North Carolina in 1821 in Rowan County. He was the oldest of all his brothers and sisters. His next sibling was Issac, also born in North Carolina in 1823. Next in line was a sister (probably Patti). She was born in Kentucky in 1826. So between 1823 and 1826, Tom's family left North Carolina and settled in Calloway County, Kentucky. The first written record of this family in Kentucky is on the Calloway County Tax Rolls in 1828.

Tom's entire growing up years were done there in Calloway County. The land there is beautiful farm land in a huge river system with heavy wooded sections between the farms and he most assuredly must have spent many happy childhood years in a very "Tom Sawyer" like atmosphere.

Adult life finds Tom listed on the tax rolls in 1849 and on the 1850 census as a teacher and husband of S.J. (Susan J. Canter). It was during this year the final decision to leave Kentucky for Texas was made. How the trip was made is not known, but the theory of this author is based on location of departure and arrival sites as well as common modes and routes of transportation at that time. The family was situated near the Tennessee River, a major highway, connecting by boat to the Mississippi River to the junction of the Red River then up to Jefferson, Texas. It was here in Harrison County that Tom appears as a citizen and tax payer in 1851. He stayed in this place until 1854, at which time he moved to the neighboring Upshur County. It appears, by tax records, that Tom and his young family, Francis Anne having been born this same year, found their home in the city confines of Gilmer, the county seat and only community of any size in that county. The 1860 census finds Tom as a "druggist" in Gilmer and a father of three.

Before the War Between the States began, Tom must have felt what lay ahead. He decided to join the local militia in February of 1861, two months before Fort Sumter was fired upon. Several of his cousins and kin joined the Regular Confederate Army, but Tom served his country and home as a militiaman and Postmaster of Calloway community throughout most of the Civil War. It was also during this time of strife that his daughter Celissa Alice was born in June of 1863. It is not known what or how the family was affected by the outcome of the great war; however Tom was no longer postmaster and was listed on the 1870 census as a "potter".

Tom and Susan's last child, June Helen, died on the 9th of November, 1874, and Susan is no longer mentioned in any records. (It is this authors theory that she died either in childbirth or shortly thereafter, and is buried in the Crow Family Cemetery alongside June Helen.) There is a marriage record in Upshur County for a Thomas Cranfill to a Mrs. Lucinda Coslet in 1877. I believe this to be our Tom. The census of 1880 indicates Tom to be single, so either that is a different marriage or Lucinda died before the census.

Tom was listed as a "potter and farmer" on that same census. He was a county commissioner in 1882 and a known general store owner in 1883. It was in 1883 that his daughter Alice married Mr. Holeman. He also was reappointed postmaster of Calloway in 1873, and remained in that position until his death in 1889 (he was on tax rolls in 1889 but not 1890, and his son-in-law Walter was appointed postmaster on 25th of September, 1889).

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