John Cridling

BOYD, CRAWFORD, CRIDLING, DARNALL, EVANS

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 8/27/2004 at 15:29:42

John Cridling is a retired farmer of Winterset, where he is well and favorably known. His birth occurred in Ripley county, Indiana, on the 6th of September, 1855, and his parents were Samuel and Frances Jane (Jackson) Cridling, natives of Delaware and of Ripley county, Indiana, respectively. Upon their arrival in Madison county, Iowa, they settled upon a farm in Scott township and there the mother passed away in 1877. The father died in 1884 in Dakota at the home of our subject, who was then a resident of that territory. Both parents were members in good standing of the Baptist church. The record of their nine children is as follows: William died in infancy; Mary is also deceased; Amos married Caroline Boyd and passed away in Missouri about a year ago; George is residing in Kansas; Margaret passed away in Scott township two weeks after the death of her mother; Samuel is living in California; Diana, who became the wife of F. M. Crawford, was killed by falling from a street car in Kansas City; John, of this review, is the next in order of birth; and Mary E. died in infancy.

John Cridling was a child of nine years when the family removed from Indiana to Clinton county, Iowa, where they remained four years and then removed to Clay county, Illinois, but in 1870 came to Madison county, Iowa. The children became scattered after the mother's death in 1877, and our subject and his brothers farmed in Pottawattamie county, this state, for a few years. Subsequent to his marriage Mr. Cridling removed to De Kalb county, Missouri, and thence to Worth county, that state, where he bought land. Still later he went to Holt county, Nebraska, and entered a quarter section of land, which he proved up and subsequently traded for land in Dakota, upon which he lived for some time. In 1891 he came back to Madison county and purchased the J. W. Beem farm in Scott township. He later bought a farm in Douglas township and until his retirement utilized his energies in the cultivation of the fields and the care of stock. For the last twelve years he has lived retired in a comfortable home in Winterset. He still owns eighty acres of land in Crawford township, from which he derives a gratifying addition to his income.

Mr. Cridling was married in Madison county to Miss Laura Ann Evans, who was born in Kansas on the 6th of December, 1858, and is a daughter of Henry Evans, an account of whom appears elsewhere in this work. Mr. and Mrs. Cridling have three children: Sarah Frances, the wife of Sale Darnall, of Winterset, by whom she has a son, Harold; Ethel, the wife of Fred Clopton, a farmer of Monroe township, by whom she has three children, Agnes, Alice Lovina and Laura Ruth; and Mary E., who gave her hand in marriage to Fred Wilkinson, a sketch of whom appears elsewhere in this work.

Mr. Cridling's political adherence is given to the democratic party and he takes a commendable interest in matters of public concern. His life has been one of useful activity and has conformed to high standards of morality, and his last years are being spent in honorable and well deserved retirement.

Taken from the book, “The History of Madison County, Iowa, 1915”