Mary
Ann (Minerd)
Crayton-Cross
(1861-1943)
Mary
Ann (Minerd) Crayton Cross was born on March 15, 1861 in Hopwood, Fayette
County, PA, the daughter of
William and Sarah Elizabeth (Whoolery) Minerd. More
is known about her 2nd husband -- a Civil War veteran -- than about her.
As a young woman, Mary Ann lived with her parents in the coal mining patch town of Mt. Braddock near Uniontown, Fayette County. On Jan. 19, 1882, at age 21, Mary Ann married her first husband and Mt. Braddock neighbor, Henry L. Crayton. Their wedding was held in Dunbar, Fayette County, and was reported in the Uniontown Republican Standard. They 'went to housekeeping' in the nearby patch town of Brownfield.
Their children were William H. Crayton, Alice M. Crawford, Annie G. Crayton and Alvie Crayton.
The marriage did not last long. After just 2 1/2 years, on Nov. 29, 1884, Henry deserted his wife and family. He was last heard from in 1888, when he was residing in Baltimore, MD. In April 1896, Mary Ann sued for divorce, with her father serving as a "next friend" -- a legal term meaning he was charged with looking out for her best interests. At that time, she was living in Hutchinson, Fayette County, and asked that the marriage bond be dissolved "as if she had never been married, or as if he the said Henry L. Crayton were naturally dead."
Later, at age 47, Mary Ann married again, becoming the third wife of Haley Patrick Cross (1838-1924), the son of John and Mary Cross, and a native of Mount Savage, MD. (It's believed that Mary Ann's sister Frances 'Fannie' later married Haley's brother John.) Mary Ann and Haley had no children.
On their marriage certificate, Mary Ann stated that her first husband had died in December 1891. In an affidavit signed in 1914, Haley wrote that Henry L. Crayton "went away and is believed to be dead though the date and place of his death is unknown."
Haley was a 69-year-old Civil War veteran at the time of marriage. He had served in the 1st Battallion, 19th US Infantry and 2nd MD Infantry (Co.'s C and A). Born as "Patrick Heley Cross" at Mt. Savage, MD, on March 30, 1839, he grew to stand 5 feet 6 1/2 inches, with blue eyes and auburn hair. He was a laborer before the war.
Haley enlisted in the 19th U.S. Infantry at Somerset, PA, and served about 18 months. Having received not "a penny" of pay and overhearing that the government could not hold soldiers after three months without pay, he deserted after the Battle of Antietam. The horrific fight in September 1862 the horrific fight Antietam Creek claimed 22,000 Union and Confederate killed and wounded.
Furious Civil War battle action at the stone bridge at Antietam
Seen
at right is a bird's eye view of the famed "Bloody Lane" at the
Antietam battlefield at Sharpsburg, MD, in the quiet postwar years.
After his desertion, Haley went immediately to Somerset County, PA, where his father, attending a Dunkard Baptist Church camp meeting, gave him money. Haley then went to his father's hometown of Winchester, near Alliance, Stark County, OH, and dug coal for a week. Earning enough funds to go to Cumberland, MD, on Feb. 23, 1863, he joined the 2nd MD Infantry in which his brother, William R. Cross, was serving.
Haley enlisted under the name "Heley Patrick Cross" to avoid detection. In May 1864, at Greenland Gap, WV, he shot his own right hand index finger while practicing a skirmish drill. He was sent to the hospital at Clarysville, MD, where the finger was amputated. He was discharged at Camp Braddock, Baltimore, MD, on May 29, 1865.
For many years after the war, Haley drew two pensions, one under each version of his name, finally spurring a government investigation. A special government examiner, Theodore Tallmadge, examined his case, and later made this report:
I found this claimant ready and willing to make a truthful statement in respect to the bounty he actually received and am entirely convinced from his manner, that as far as the receipt of the $300.00 State bounty is concerned, that I made an error in employing words that conveyed the idea that the payment was made upon his enlistment. It is too long ago since that statement was written, over twelve years, for me to undertake to state whether the error was mine or his... [I have] met him at least once since then in connection with a complaint he made which proved well grounded as to a remarriage of a widow pensioner, and he explained that his pension was being continued.
Haley must have had an entrepreneurial spirit. The March 22, 1883 issue of the Uniontown Genius of Liberty reported that "H.P. Cross, formerly of Mt. Braddock, has started a grocery and provision store in the room on Main street, recently occupied as a restaurant by Mr. Richie."
Miners in the famed "Connellsville Seam" of Fayette County
Haley and his first wife, Matilda (McClain) Cross, lived at Alice Mines, Westmoreland County, PA. Sadly, in February 1886, Matilda died, of causes unknown.
Later, he lived at Mt. Braddock and Rodgerstown, PA, working in the coal industry. Co-workers once gave testimony that "most of the time he worked in the mine as a track-layer and was often compelled to work in the water and wet places."
On
Oct. 2, 1888, Haley
married again, to Catherine Maust. They had three children -- Elvira
Black, Blanche Grove and Sherman Cross.
Divorcing his second wife in June 1908, after two decades of marriage, he married our Mary Ann (Minerd) Crayton on Aug. 1, 1908.
As an old man, Haley lived at the Soldiers National Home in Knoxville, TN. While at home on furlough in Smithfield in March 1911, he wrote a letter to an attorney who was helping him receive pension payments from the federal government. Circa 1914, he was living at Smithfield, and was receiving $24 per month in federal pension.
Haley died "from the infirmities of age," said the Connellsville Daily Courier, on Nov. 5, 1924 at home near Smithfield. He was buried in the Minerd family plot at Hopwood Cemetery.
Mary
Ann outlived Haley for nearly two decades, and tried to obtain her late husband's
pension. She resided in Uniontown circa 1930 when her sister Jennie Worrick
died, and then circa 1931-1933, she was living at 748 East Market Street in
Warren, OH, near her brother James
William Minerd. In a letter from her son's home in Smithfield in 1937, she wrote:
I am 76 years old and I have a hard time to get along. I am staying with my son but he has his family and it is pretty hard. I applied for the old age pension but I have been living in Ohio and they said I could not get it. I lived in Pa. 69 years before going to Ohio. But my son has moved back to Pa.
As she aged, and her health began to fail, Mary Ann moved in with her son Alvie in Woodbridgetown, near Smithfield. When her sister Sarah Crawford died in March 1943, Mary Ann was mentioned in the newspaper obituary.
Less than two months after her sister's death, Mary Ann herself passed away in Alvie's home at age 82 on May 11, 1943, and was buried beside her husband at Hopwood Cemetery.
Son William was a coal miner in the Uniontown area. He was last known to be living in Monongahela City, PA in 1943.
Daughter
Alice Mae (1885-1965) married Elmer A. Crawford (882-1960), the son of Joseph and Tilitha Crawford, in June 1903.
He was a coal miner. They resided in Warren, OH circa 1943. Elmer passed away in
1960, and was buried at Hopwood Cemetery. Alice joined him in eternity five
years later, in 1965, and was laid to rest beside him.
In 1924, when Haley died, his children were living in the following locales: Sherman Cross in Uniontown, PA; Blanche Grove in Williamsport, PA; and Vira Black, place unknown.
Copyright © 2000, 2002, 2006-2007 Mark A. Miner