Texas Living Columnist Lloyd Bockstruck

03:15 PM CDT on Saturday, August 6, 2005

James B. Cranfill was born in Texas in 1858. He first found employment as a schoolteacher in Crawford. Next he studied medicine and became a doctor in Coryell County. In addition, he was a merchant, editor, newspaper publisher and ordained Baptist minister. He established The Baptist Standard.

Dr. Cranfill served Baylor University as financial secretary and superintendent of missionary work in Texas. The high regard in which he was held is perhaps best indicated by the fact that he was the Prohibition Party's U.S. vice presidential candidate at the age of 34.

In 1916, Dr. Cranfill wrote his memoirs. In journalistic fashion, he captured the world he knew, from the antebellum South to the events of the First World War, which the United States was managing to avoid.

His humor and brusque manner are evident in his autobiography. Dr. Cranfill wrote that he had never been able to talk as much about himself as he would like. When he would sit down with a friend to do so, the friend always butted in and began talking about himself, so Dr. Cranfill resorted to writing his memoirs. In Dr. J.B. Cranfill's Chronicle: A Story of Life in Texas 1858-1915, he accomplished what he set out to do.

At that time, he lived in Dallas.

He had considered a number of career choices, one of which was law. He managed to borrow a copy of the revised statutes of Texas. He studied it for one night and gave up his ambition. He said that he "would rather sift sand in the Desert of the Sahara than to pore over these unfathomable tomes, and allow the moisture in my intellect to be absorbed by such dull authors as Blackstone."

While Dr. Cranfill's chronicle provides the historical setting of 19th-century Texans, he mentioned dozens of individuals with whom he came in contact, and they would be ancestors to numerous descendants today.

A reprint of his book is available with comb binding for $88.50 plus $1.50 handling from Provincial Press, 1067 Rock Pit Road, Ville Platte, LA 70586-9266. The Web site is www.provincialpress.us.

"Reminders of the Past: Visions for the Future" is the theme of this year's Federation of Genealogical Societies annual library conference, to be held Sept. 7-10 in Salt Lake City. The largest genealogical library in the world, the Family History Library, makes this convention extremely attractive. With more than 3 billion records from more than a hundred nations, this library provides excellent prospects for implementing new skills and research techniques and for exploring new record sources available nowhere else. Full details about individual sessions, fees, housing, luncheons and speakers may be found online at www.fgs.org. Copies of the 16-page brochure may be obtained in the Genealogy Library of J. Erik Jonsson Central Library in Dallas. You may also register toll-free at 1-888-347-1500.

Lloyd Bockstruck supervises the genealogy section of the J. Erik Jonsson Central Library in Dallas. Address questions to Family Tree, Texas Living section, The Dallas Morning News, P.O. Box 655237, Dallas, TX 75265.

E-mail texasliving@dallasnews.com