Family-history trip takes group through southeastern Colorado

Deep-rooted family history and a local tie brought the Crackel Odyssey, a family of five men, to the city of Las Animas last week in search of information about their relatives and their travels across southern Colorado some 90 years past.

Headed by 74-year-old Theodore “Ted” Crackel of Ruckersville, Va., the group is made up of Ted’s sons, Todd, 45, of Mansfield, Texas, John, 38, of Parsippany, N.J., Robert, 35, of Lake Elsinore, Calif., and grandson Eric Wright, 21, of Arlington, Texas. The travelers originally set out from Dallas, Texas, early Sunday morning along the route their ancestors once settled.

“The trip has been in the works for about a year,” said Ted. “It’s a great thing because all extended families of the Crackel family are taking part in the trip.”

Venturing north from Dallas, the group was traveling a path outlined by Ted’s uncle in hopes of finding remnants of the family’s history dating back to the years 1912-1932.

As told by the Crackels, Ted’s great-grandfather James Lemuel Crackel relocated from his home in Clay County, Ill., in 1909 to Boise City, Okla. It was in 1912 that Ted’s grandfather, Joseph, and his father, Orville followed suit and registered a homestead in the Boise City area, where they farmed the land.

Following a five year stay in Boise City, the family, minus James, who went on to become a bricklayer, moved back to Illinois, only to return in 1919 to Cofax County, N.M., where they lived on a farm with Joseph’s cousin. The family made a living in New Mexico picking pinto beans and later moved to Elkhart, Kan.

In 1922, the family relocated once again, to Las Animas, where they lived and worked for 10 years. Joseph made a living in the Las Animas area working as a handyman for a local implement dealer and later ran a thrashing crew working primarily in Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado. Ted’s father Orville, then 19 years old, helped to construct the Montgomery Ward building in La Junta in 1929 and later became an employee of the company. In 1931, he went on to work for Hub Clothing Store in La Junta selling men’s clothing, and in 1932 went to work for J.C. Penny in Las Animas.

That same year, the Crackel family moved back to their original home in Illinois as Joseph’s wife had inherited farming land from her deceased father. They lived and farmed in Illinois until Ted’s birth in 1937.

Though not entirely in the sequence to which the Crackel ancestors ventured, the Crackels first stopped in Boise City where they visited a museum, and thanks to the help of a local museum currator, were able to locate the homestead the family lived on. “They lived in a dugout, or a hole in the ground,” said Ted. “We walked along the land where they lived, but weren’t able to find much. The land has been harvested several times since they had been there, but it was nice to see the place where they lived.”

Traveling then to Elkhart, Kan., the family again visited a local museum, where they were able to identify the school Ted’s father, Orville, and his uncle had attended as young children, and even drove along the three mile road the boys would have walked to get to school each day and stood in the place where the school would have rested.

Moving on to the southern edge of Cofax County in New Mexico, the family visited the town of Mills, where their ancestors would have gone to purchase groceries, among other items.

“Mills is more or less a modern day ‘ghost town’” said the Crackels. “There are still a lot of old, interesting things to see.”

Making their way to La Junta next, the family stopped by the Tribune-

Democrat, where they searched through archives and old newspaper ads. As a result, the family was able to identify the addresses of the old Montgomery Ward and Hub Clothing Store where Orville worked.

“We enjoyed our brief visit to La Junta, particularly lunch at the Copper Kitchen where Larry Tucker introduced us to Chuck Jones, Roy Showalter, and Larry Holbrook, who gave us a great tutorial on the history of the area,” commented Ted following their visit in La Junta.

Leaving La Junta en route to Las Animas, Ted said they intended to visit Las Animas High School, where they hope to find records of Crackels past.  “We’ll let our findings guide us from there,” commented Ted.

The group returned back to Texas last weekend, where they went their separate ways back to their homes.