The First of Record

Family tradition as expressed in Heiner, ( Patrick Cragun Descendants in America, 1744-1969 ) holds that Caleb Cragun was born in England in 1700 and lived at Huntingdon, Huntingtonshire until he relocated to Ireland perhaps as a part of the Plantation Movement to settle lands forfeited to the British Crown by deposed Irish nobility. This settlement effort was being made using English and Scottish workers at the same time that other settlements were being established in Colonial America. However, another tradition in the family of Jean (Cragun) Tombaugh, tells that our ancestor was originally of Scotland and the name was McCRAGUN.

Caleb had a son named Patrick who was born c1745 in Ireland, perhaps in County Armagh, Ulster. However, Heiner reports that a book entitled, History of Cass County, Indiana found at the Indianapolis Library states on page 214 that: “the family of CRAGUN was founded in America by Patrick Cragun who came from Dublin, Ireland prior to the Revolutionary War and who took part in the struggles of the American Colonists that resulted in the winning of Independence.” She also reports that a genealogical history of South West Virginia states that one Patrick Cragun had been arrested for the fourth time by the King's officers for his revolutionary tendencies. The identity of his wife, Rose Alley (or Abby) or Hanna Elsy (perhaps a second marriage) is unclear as is the date (1780's) and place of marriage. They are however, tied to Russell County, Virginia located in the extreme southwestern part of the state 20 miles north of Bristol, through the record of their eldest son Isaac as recorded in the Cass County history. Otherwise the family is more closely identified with Sullivan County, Tennessee which borders Virginia and shares the city of Bristol.

The first record of Patrick known to exist is his listing in 1779 as a taxable in Washington County, N.C. which became Sullivan County, TN after 1780. In this record he is entered as Patrick Craguner where he is shown to have been assessed on: 170 acres of land, value £100; four horses, value £510; three cattle, value £30; and ready money, four shillings; for a total taxable estate of £640 and four shillings. While Negros were taxable property at that time, none were taxed to Patrick.

A 1784 listing of 5,486 North Carolina land grants in the new state of Tennessee shows at page 47, grant #1274 to be a general purchase grant to Patrick Cragon for 170 acres on Indian Creek, Sullivan County, Tennessee, a tributary of the Holston River. This farmstead was located only a few miles from Booher Creek, a tributary of Indian creek and the likely location of members of the Booher family. The Cragun and Booher families were later near neighbors in Boone County, Indiana.

Patrick's great-grandson, S. N. Cragun married Adelaide Booher at Worth Township, Boone County, in 1883; nearly one hundred years following their family’s neighboring settlements in Tennessee.

The last known listing for Patrick was in 1812 showing that Patrick Creggon sold 164 acres on Indian Creek to Charles Barnett on Feb. 19, 1812. However, a bit earlier he is found as Patrick Cragun of record in Russell Co., VA in 1806, about 30 miles North of the Indian Creek farm, when he was exempt from County levies on account of age and bodily infirmity.

The various spellings of his surname were characteristic of the times when clerks and recorders often wrote what they thought they heard without knowing whether the name was being spelled correctly or not. Doubtless these records all refer to the same individual.

Patrick and Rose (Alley) Cragun had eleven children

as follows:

Isaac, b. 1785. Immigrated to Indiana and settled in Cass County. His line spells the name CRAGAN.

Elisha, b. 1786. Immigrated to Fayette County, IN in 1814. His line spells the name CRAGUN. For further information, click on his name.

John, b. 1787. Settled in Smith County, TN. His line uses the spelling CRAGON.

Tyresha, b. 1789. No information.

Lydia, b. 1791. Came to Franklin County, IN in 1819.

Tabitha, b. 1793. No information.

Hanna, b. 1795. No information.

Joshua, b. 1796. Was in Franklin County, IN by 1822.

Calib, b. 1796. Twin of Joshua. Was in Franklin County by 1819, then Howard County, IN by 1860.

Elizabeth, b. 1799. Was at Nauvoo, IL in 1846.

Syren, b. 1801. Was at Nauvoo, IL in 1846.

Lucius, b 1803. No information.

References:

Information on the history of the descendants of Patrick Cragun is found in the following four publications.

Heiner, Eva L. Patrick Cragun Descendants in America, 1744-1969. (J. Grant Stevenson, 230 West 1230 North, Provo, UT 84601, 1969) 346pp

Tombaugh, Jean C. CRAGUN FAMILY ( Tombaugh House, 700 Pontiac Street, Rochester, IN 46975, 1990) 320pp.

Cragun, Ben M., Col. (USA Ret.). The Cragun and Related Families in Boone County, Indiana 1835-1988 (112 Madison Court, Lebanon, IN 46052, 1988) 80pp.

Cragon, Henry D.,Col. (AUS Ret) Tennessee Cragons and Their Kinfolk (217 Rockaway Road, Birmingham, AL 35209 1973) 102pp.

Do you have a comment?

If you would like to make a comment or provide information about the CRAGUN family, please send it to: ben42@bellsouth.net