Lurose I was really excited to see your posting to the Peoria, IL mailing list about the Benjamin Crane family. We're not relatives, at least I don't think so, but we have the Benjamin Crane family in common. In the 1860 census for Trivoli, IL my great-grandfather Christopher Hartman was shown at age 18 as a farm hand, living with Benjamin & Charlotte Crane, originally from New York, and their 4 children. There was also a domestic servant by the name of Hestes Pecton (I think that was the spelling anyway) living in the household. I would give just about anything to know how Christopher came to be living/working there. We have yet to find out who his parents were and where they were in 1860. We don't know if they settled elsewhere in Peoria County or if indeed they even came to Illinois with him. We think that his father died in the area of Rochester, NY so Christopher might have struck out on his own or in company with some other relatives to end up in Trivoli. The only thi! ng we know for sure about any of his family was that an apparent relative by the name of Henry Hartman showed up 2 years later in August 1862 to sign up with Christopher on the same day to serve in the army in the Civil War. They were in Company D of the 86th Illinois Infantry Regiment formed in Trivoli by Colonel Fahnestock from that area. Henry Hartman did not show up in the 1860 census for Peoria County, he just showed up from somewhere to enlist with Christopher Hartman. We know the Hartman family was from Germany, and they may have been the family of Heinrich and Rosina Hartman that I found arriving in New York in 1847 from Wuerttemberg, Germany with a son Christoph age 5, but I haven't found any further trace of them. Christopher himself says that he arrived in NYC at age 3 from Berlin, Germany. He may have been off on how old he was when he arrived - over the years he gave his birthyear as anywhere from 1839 to 1844 on a dozen or more military pension forms. Christopher stayed in the Trivoli area and after he came home from the Civil War as a wounded veteran and married Abigail Hunt in 1866, the daughter of an early settler Joseph C Hunt, who arrived in Peoria County sometime in the mid-late1830s. I doubt if you know anything about a person who would have worked for the Cranes as a hired hand, but it was worth a try. I found it very exciting just to find someone who's family was connected to my great-grandfather. Looking forward to hearing from you. Mel Slane Peoria, IL