William Franklin Craddock

WILLIAM FRANKLIN CRADDOCK. One of the prominent representatives of mercantile interests in Morton County, and a citizen who has been prominent in both public and business affairs at Rolla, William Franklin Craddock dates his advent to the county from October 4, 1892. He is a contribution from Hart County, Kentucky, where his birth occurred September 16, 1861, and where his ancestors were among the early pioneers of the Blue Grass State. He was preceded to Kansas by his brother, G. Porter Craddock, one of the well known men among the real pioneers of Morton County, a sketch of whose career and that of the family appears elsewhere in this work, and is a son of George W. Craddock and a grandson of Samuel H. Craddock.

The school advantages of William Franklin Craddock consisted in attending the common schools three months in each year until he was sixteen years of age, and then two sessions at the Hart County College, which prepared him for the work of teaching in the country schools. Subsequently he attended the Glasgow Normal School for four years, following which he came to Kansas, in February, 1884, stopping in Cowley County. There he resumed teaching and continued engaged therein for two terms, at the end of which time he returned to Kentucky and entered business lines, accepting a position with J. M. Robinson, Norton & Company, dry goods, groceries, etc., for whom he traveled out of Louisville until 1892. On October 4th of that year he again sought Kansas, this time establishing himself at Richfield, Morton County, and here engaged in farming and the stock business. These vocations he followed with a measure of success until 1907, when he took up merchandising at Richfield, and subsequently removed to Rolla, where he is now situated.

Mr. Craddock became a teacher in Morton County and for thirteen winters presided over the destinies of country schools. He began in district No. 6, the Martin district, and was there five years, next taught district No. 13 for three years, then went to district No. 4 for the same period, taught district No. 2 two years, and district No. 16 one term, and finished at district No. 5, where he taught a single term. In 1898 he was elected county superintendent of schools of Morton County, on the republican ticket, and held the office continuously for five terms, closing his connection with the county schools when he left the office. When he was first elected county superintendent there were but seven schools in the county, in districts 4, 5, 6, 12, 13, 16 and 18, and the number increased during his service to twenty-three schools. He held a county normal every summer, and for his entire service to the county drew $1,150.

On September 5, 1916, Mr. Craddock was married to Mrs. Anna Wooley, a daughter of Alexander Andrew and Sallie (Thomas) Yowell. Mrs. Craddock is one of four children to grow up, and has a sister living, Mrs. G. R. Thompson, of Vilas, Colorado. Mr. Yowell was a native of Virginia, a farmer by vocation and a Confederate soldier in the Army of Northern Virginia during the Civil war. Mrs. Craddock was born at Richmond, Virginia, and was taken to Colorado by her parents in 1889, growing up in Baca County, that state.

Mr. Craddock belongs to Elkhart Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he has filled chairs, and to Syracuse Lodge of the Knights of Pythias, in which he has passed through all the chairs. He is one of the public-spirited men of his community, where he has given his support to various movements for the benefit of the people and their interests, and is recognized universally as a man of sound business ability and absolute integrity.