William Harrison Cruff, Sr.

William Harrison Cruff, Sr., was born in 1844 at Marblehead, MA. He joined Co. "B" 118th-Reg. of Illinois -Infantry Volunteers November 7, 1862. He was discharged on October 1, 1965. He was married to Virginia Rebecca Spangler of Carthage, Illinois. They homesteaded in Raritan Township, Barnes County, on Northwest ΒΌ of Section  2 on January 25, 1892. When the post office was moved from Binghamton to Lucca, North Dakota, in Barnes County in November 1892, William H. Cruff was postmaster. The Soo Line Railway officials named Lucca after the manufacturing city and Province of Lucca in Tuscany, Italy, and it is also claimed by early residents of the village that it was named for Pauline Lucca, an Italian singer.

Born to this union were: James Renshaw Cruff (1870-1942); Frank; Charles Arthur (1878-1904); William Harrison (1874-1935); Mamie (1888-1893).

James Renshaw Cruff married Genevieve Cecelia Breton from Saginaw. Michigan, in 1915 and lived in Kansas City, Missouri until his death. His widow still lives there as do their two adopted children, Mary Ellen Cruff and Elizabeth Jane Trowbridge.

Frank married Amamda Silk and they had one son, Frank Jr.

Arthur never married.

William married Estella Cross and they had nine children.

Source: Barnes County History 1976 Page 52