McDonough ILGenWeb

CRABB, D. M., a well-known veterinary surgeon and farmer, living on Rural Mail Delivery Route No. 2, McDonough County, Ill., was born in the Shenandoah Valley (Montgomery County, Va.), November 14, 1823, a son of John M. and Ann (Fleming) Crabb, natives of Virginia, where the father was born in Westmoreland County. The paternal grandparents, Daniel and Agnes (Middleton) Crabb, were born in London, England, the maternal grandfather, William Fleming, being a native of Belfast, Ireland. John M. Crabb came to Illinois and settled near Macomb in 1836. He rented the west half of Section 16, Macomb Township, for five years, and then bought eighty acres in the vicinity, on which the family located. He later purchased other lands until he became the owner of 620 acres.

D. M. Crabb, who is the fifth of a family of ten children, accompanied his father to McDonough County in 1836. In boyhood he attended the district schools, and afterwards pursued a course of study in the Cincinnati Veterinary College. He lived with his parents until he was twenty-seven years old, and then purchased 160 acres of land, on which he has since lived, engaged in farming and in the practice of veterinary surgery. He has seen this region develop to its present condition trom a wilderness abounding in deer, wolves and other wild animals.

Mr. Crabb was first married in 1850 to Rebecca Hampton, a native of Ohio. Of this marriage three children were born, namely: Anna (Mrs. B. MIlling), deceased, Laura E. (Mrs. W. H. King); and James M., deceased. The mother of this family died in 1860. The second wife was Mary E. Bards, of Lycoming County, Pa., whom Mr. Crabb married in 1863. She died in 1901, leaving one child, Robert E. In September, 1903, Mr. Crabb married as his second [third] wife Kittie Kline, who was born in Macomb.

Religiously, Mr. Crabb is an adherent of the evangelical faith, politically, is a Democrat, and fraternally is identified with the A. F. & A. M. He is one of the oldest surviving members of that venerable group of pioneers whose labors laid the foundation of the prosperity of McDonough County, and is greatly respected throughout the community.

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Source: The Historical Encyclopedia of Illinois and History of McDonough County, compiled by Dr. Newton Bateman, and Paul Shelby, 1907.