This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Surnames: Croft, Gillum Classification: Biography Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/mAB.2ACE/2623 Message Board Post: Moscow M. Croft Our subject was born in Christian county, Kentucky, July 20th, 1846, and has one brother, and one sister. His father was a farmer, and his early days were spent in the duties incidental to ordinary farm life. At the age of fourteen years he began driving a team, hauling tobacco to Frostburg, on the Green River, Clarksville and Eddyville on the Cumberland. As no railroad facilities then existed, hauling was a good business, and for the interest of our readers, we subjoin the rates of that day. He would take a hogshead of tobacco to Frostburg for $25, or, if the owner could secure him a "backload," would take it for $15. Backloads would pay from $10 to $20. He would deliver tobacco in Clarksville or Eddyville in the winter season for $30 per hogshead. The freight rate from Henderson was $1.00 per hundred pounds, and many time has he hauled coal from the vicinity of Empire to points twenty miles beyond Hopkinsville, and get sixty cents per bushel. The advent of the railroad soon put a quietus to hauling, and he forsook that calling and learned blacksmithing. In July, 1867, he married Miss Sarah E. GILLUM. To them four children have been born, three girls and one boy. Of these the son and one daughter are now living. Shortly after marriage, he settled in Crabtree, where he lived for three years, then he moved to St. Charles in 1874. Here he worked in the mines for two years, and then resumed his trade, working for the St. Bernard Coal Company until 1879. He came to Earlington and worked in the No. 9 shop about a year, when he was transferred to the No. 11 shop, where he still remains. His skill and competency in his trade goes without saying. In many respects, Mr. CROFT is a remarkable man. He was never drunk in his life, though he has always been accustomed to take a dram, never was arrested, never paid a fine, never had a lawsuit, never sat as a juror, never saw inside of a grand jury room, never had a personal difficulty, never made a bet, never played a card, nor never lived a week outside the state. Mr. CROFT is not a member of any church but rather inclines to the Christian denomination. He was for several years an Odd fellow, but has severed his connection with that fraternity. He is a member of the Golden Cross and holds membership in another society. When viewed politically, Mr. CROFT looms up as a Republican of the first magnitude, and believes with all his soul, mind and strength in a single standard, and claims that Uncle Sam should assume paternity to every dollar in the United States. He laughs to scorn the free silver theory, and while he is not an educated man, he reads a vast deal, and draws his own conclusions, and acts according to his own preconceived ideas of right and wrong. (Source: Earlington Bee, Thur., Aug. 6, 1896)