Relatively Speaking

Richard Arnold Bassett, or Arnold, as he was called, married his first cousin Rachel Crabtree. I think both last names were Crabb when they married, but the name was changed to Crabtree by the time of the 1850 census when they were living in Kane County, Illinois.

The story my grandma told me of her Grandma Rachel is that Rachel went to England to work when she was 16. She did not want to work on Sunday, so her employer paid for her to sail home.

This is a pastel that my mother has in her collection. It was said that a relative did the drawing. I have Arnold’s will and a copy of his Intent to become a Naturalized Citizen. Arnold died in 1873 of consumption, also called TB.

Arnold and Rachel had 11 children. Their son John, my great grandpa, is the only one who lived longer than 33 years old. Two of John’s children, Amanda Myrtie, (my grandma), and LeRoy Howard, (Cal Biven’s Grandfather), had Arnold and Rachel’s only grandchildren (8) that lived past 2 years old and into adulthood.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 12th, 2006 at 4:52 pm and is filed under Crabtree/Higginson. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.