Historical Home

Many of our old historical homes are gone now, whether it be from sitting empty too long and deteriorated being repair, too expensive to renovate for modern living, or many not interested in preserving the past history of the old homes.  Whatever the reason, they are few and far between.

This is the history of  the W.R. Cruce home that sits atop what we always called Crayne Hill, it's located 5 miles south of Marion of Hwy 641 on the hill before you enter the tiny community of Crayne.

The home place of William Richard "Uncle Dick" and "Aunt Minnie" Cruce.  The beautiful old two-story home has been a landmark for many years.  It sits at the top of what is known as Crayne Hill.

Uncle Dick and Aunt Minnie always kept their Civil War era home is top repair, and it was a show place of the area.  The picture above is the way their home used to look in the 1920's and up until the past 10 years or so.  Time has altered the appearance of the house. Today the porches are still there but the screened in sections have been removed and the second story balcony and railings have been removed.  It's hard to tell that it is this same home that is in the picture.

Today, Edna Nell Cruce Dunagan, the fifth generation of Cruce's, lives in the house.  There is some new work going on at the home with bricks being laid on the porch floors and bottom of the columns, even further changing it's original appearance. 

Aunt Minnie Cruce was known for her love of flowers and her beautiful flower gardens.  Her flowers were a showcase of color in the summer.  One I remember so well was her pink and white Peonies.  Aunt Minnie was known as having a "green thumb" in that all she planted grew to be large and beautiful.  She shared her flowers for many special occasions with the residents in the Crayne area. 

The story was told that when she died, July 30, 1965, that she had made arrangements for her favorite garden hoe to be buried with her.  Several years later when I was talking with the local undertaker, he told me that this was true that she did have the hoe placed in the casket with her.  I'd say there are some beautiful flowers in Heaven today.