Edwin Alonzo Crandall was born August 18, 1836, in Berlin, Rensselaer County, New York. He was the son of Joshua Greene and Fanny Burdick Crandall. Edwin’s father was a hatter, a tanner of hides and a shoemaker. At the age of three Edwin came to Illinois in 1839 settling in Barry, Pike County, Illinois.
Edwin’s early education was in the early pioneer schools of Barry. At age 14 he began to work as a mercantile clerk until he was seventeen at which time he entered Shurtleff College in Alton, Illinois. Shurtleff was a Baptist college founded in 1827 under the name Rock Spring Seminary. By 1832 it was known as the Alton Seminary and later changed to Shurtleff in 1836. In the late 1950s it became part of Southern Illinois University.
After graduation Edwin returned to Barry where he entered into a partnership with Lewis Angle. Angle & Crandall, as the business was known, specialized in mercantile and pork packing. After three years Edwin sold his interest and headed east to Washington, D.C. to attend Columbia College. While attending college Edwin also read law with Sidney Smith Baxter, former Attorney General of Virginia. Baxter was a Democrat and served from 1834-1852.
When he completed his studies Edwin returned to Barry where he once again formed a partnership with Lewis Angle in the mercantile and pork packing business. In 1860 he married Eliza F. Hurt in Pike County, Illinois. Their marriage would only last a few years ending with the death of Eliza in 1867. Eliza would give birth to a son Charles Edwin born in 1863 and dying in 1864. A daughter Fannie Lee was born in 1864 and lived until 1941.
In 1862 as the American Civil War raged, Edwin sold his interest and set to work raising a Company of men from the Barry area. Edwin’s Company would become Company D of the Ninety-Ninth Illinois Regiment. As the regiment formed, elections were held for regimental officers. Edwin was elected and commissioned major of the regiment. He was 27 years of age when he enlisted and was officially sworn in on August 23, 1862, at Florence, Pike County, Illinois.
On May 22, 1863, Major Crandall assaulted the Confederate works with his regiment. At one point of the assault Sergeant William Sitton who was part of the regimental color guard and carrying the regimental flag was shot in the side and went down. Unable to go on, Sitton passed the flag to Major Crandall to move it forward. Shortly after taking the flag Major Crandall was wounded in the foot and had to leave the flag behind on the battlefield. Major Crandall resigned from the army on October 9, 1863.
After his time in the army, he returned home where he entered a business partnership in a woolen mill. Along with the mill he spread his interests into the grocery business and selling woolen products for eight years. On August 15, 1870, he married his second spouse Jennie Gordon in Pike County. One son Louis Edwin was born on November 15, 1873.
In 1882 Edwin’s interest turned to banking. In 1884 he opened the Barry Milling Co. followed by the building of the Barry Flouring Mills. In addition to his business interests Edwin found time for public service. He served on the Barry Township Board of Supervisors, City Board of Barry for twelve years, Board of Education and Mayor of Barry. He was one of the original founding members of the Park Lawn Cemetery Association. He started his early life as a Democrat voting for Stephen A. Douglas but later turned his politics to Republican. Edwin Alonzo Crandall passed away on August 21, 1901 and was laid to rest here in the cemetery he helped create.