Craverpage

Welcome to The Craver Family Page, which furnishes historical detail beyond the site index, exploring four generations of Cravers in the line of Johannes Craver of Rensselaer County, New York.

6. Mary Madgalene Craver (Mënck) --According to family records, Magdalene Craver (1832-after 1880), wife of Johann Mënck, was the daughter of Zachariah Craver and Anne Weatherwax. Magdalene came from a large family of more than a dozen children, eight of whose names have come down to us including Anna, Julia, Jefferson, Lawrence and Catherine Craver. According to records found in the Mormon (LDS) database, Zachariah Craver (b.1800) married Anne Weatherwax (b. March 1, 1801, NY) on Aug.22, 1818 in the First Lutheran Church in Albany, New York. Their first daughter, Christina Catherine Craver, was christened in 1820 in the Dutch Protestant Reformed Church in Niskayuna, Schenectady Co., NY. (Catherine married Johann Mënck, but died not long afterwards and Johann remarried her younger sister Magdalene in Washington DC in 1849.) Magdalene's other siblings are listed as: Julia Marie (b.1823, NY), Jefferson Lawrence Craver (b.1825, NY), Zachariah (Jr.--b.1827) in Blooming Grove, Rens. Co. NY), David G. Craver (Jr.--b.1833, NY), Angelina (b.1835, NY), the rest being born in Elizabeth City, Virginia during the period when, according to Anna Blann, the father, Zachariah, was appointed to a post in Fortress Monroe, a Union military fort. The Virginia children were: Moses Monroe (b.1837-other records indicate NY), John Tyler Craver (b.1837), Virginia (b.1839), James Madison (b.1843), Thomas Jefferson (b.1841). (Magdalene was born in Virginia in 1832.) Anna M. Blann adds that although the Cravers lived in Northern territory, they were Southern sympathizers during the Civil War, every son enlisting in the Confederate Army. Anna and Magdalene settled on the Eastern shore of Maryland; Dave and Jefferson also settled in Maryland; Monroe & Jefferson in Baltimore. (Monroe Craver was riding with Stonewall Jackson when Jackson was mortally wounded.) The rest of the family apparently remained in Virginia. Zachariah Craver appears in the Virginia census records in 1850 & 1860, but not before or after. Moses Monroe Craver appears in the 1870 VA census and is listed in the roster of Confederate soldiers as belonging to the !st Artillery, Company A (Also listed is "M. M. Craver" of the Light Artillery; W. P. Carter’s Co.)
Anna Blann used to tell a story recounted by her mother, Annie Mënck, how, as a little girl, during the War between the States, she (Annie Mënck) and her mother (Magdalene Craver Mënck) used to travel from Virginia to Trappe, Maryland to visit relatives and smuggle back contraband (under the dress, etc.) to the Confederates in VA. Though Maryland was neutral, there were Southern sympathizers in Trappe who would teach young Annie to root for the General Beauregard and Jefferson Davis. Once when they returned to Virginia, and a union officer (who was a friend of the family) went through the formality of making them swear union allegiance upon return, little Annie piped up and exclaimed: "I root for Boneygard (sic) and Jeff Davis!" Fortunately, the officer overlooked the indiscretion and sent them on through, content with the wry observation that children tend to repeat what the grown-ups around them have been saying. According to Linda (Blann) Insley, her mother had a bone-like button which had been passed down from her grandmother Magdalene Craver, which had been carved with an inscription or initials (one for each of his sisters) by Jefferson Craver while he was in a union prison during the Civil War. He also gave his sister Magdalene a book of Polish History in which she wrote two original poems during the year before her marriage. The book, which still survives, is inscribed "the property of Mary Magdalene Craver, given to her by her brother, J’son Lawrence Craver, July the 2nd 1848". The poems are as follows:

REFLECTION

See how beneath the moon beam’s smile /Yon little billow heaves its breast
And foams and sparkles for a while/ And morning then subsides to rest
Thus man the sport of bliss and care/ Rises on time’s eventful sea
And having swelled a moment there/ Then melts into eternity.

SABBATH

Sweetly blow the gentle breezes/ On the Sabbath morn
Religious pleasure calmly seizes/ On the sinner, poor, forlorn.
Tis now while barefoot mid the flowers/ Humming hymns of praise
Earth refreshed by gentle showers/ Tis the happiest of all days.
Raise your thought to God above/ Frankly to Him pray.
Full of faith and full of love/ How blest the Sabbath day.

M.Craver

7. Zacharia Craver --The father of Magdalene Craver, Zachariah (or Zacharias) was born in upstate New York, on Feb. 21, 1800. (His birth is listed in the records of Trinity Lutheran Church in West Sand Lake, Renseselaer Co., NY., with Zachariah Feller & Catharine [Weatherwax Feller]-probably his aunt & uncle--listed as sponsors.) His name is engraved on the front of the Craver family Bible, with the spelling "Zacharia Craver." He had at least one brother (according to LDS data), named Johannes Craver Jr. (b.1797, Rensselaer Co., NY) and a sister named Francis Ann (b.1796, NY.; married Sebastian Weatherwax in 1814)). He married Anne Weatherwax (Craver) in 1818 in the First Lutheran Church in Albany, NY. Records from Albany Co. show that the couple joined the Dutch Reformed Church in Niskayuna, (Schenectady Co.) NY. on Jan. 10, 1819 and were dismissed to the Reformed Dutch Church of Wynantskill, NY. on Aug.23, 1823 (with Zacharia’s father presenting the request for dismissal). Zacharia and his family moved to Fort Monroe, VA in the late 1830’s and he died Sept. 9, 1868 (according to LDS). Zacharia’s parents were David Craver and Grace Feller of NY.

8. David Craver --The father of Zacharia, David Craver (Sr.) was born in Albany on Oct.9, 1771 and died in March of 1842. He married Grace Feller (b. ca. 1775 in Renssaelaer, NY.), the mother of Zacharia, in 1794, according to LDS records. An Ancestry.com listing shows David as having a second marriage (ca.1800-1804) after Grace, to Christina Feller (daughter of John Feller and Maria Ostrum), who was the mother of two further children: Catherine (b. Feb. 1804) and Moses Craver (1811-1882). David had at least one older brother, John (1759-1849) and probably other siblings. Their parents were Johannes Craver and Marytje (Maria) Kilmer. Maria was a distant cousin of Anna Milius Weatherwax, whose daughter, Anne, married David’s son, Zacharia.

9. Johannes Craver --The father of David Craver, Johannes Craver (Kreber) was born in NY. in 1735 according to the DAR Patriot Index (Vol.2), or perhaps he was born in Germany and migrated to NY. He first appears in Rensselaerwyck as an enlisted man in the Albany County Militia 6th Regiment (Land Bounty Rights) during the Revolutionary War. On Oct. 9, 1771, he married Marytje Kilmer in Albany, NY. (Another source says Johannes was born in Germantown, NY in 1728 & there married Maria Kilmer in 1753). The parents of Johannes Craver are not known. The name Craver is also spelled "Kreber", "Graver" and "Croever" in some of the NY records. Johannes wrote his will on Nov. 1, 1799, at which time he was a resident of Greenbush, Rensselaer Co. It was probated on Aug. 30, 1819. At that time, he was survived by his wife, Maritie and the following children: Jacob, Nicolas, John, Jr., Hendrich, Andries, Petrus, David, William , Jeremiah Craver and his daughter, Elisabeth, wife of John Shaver.