William W. Crapo Explained

William Wallace Crapo
Image Name:	William Wallace Crapo.png
State:	Massachusetts
District:	1st
Term:	November 2, 1875 – March 3, 1883
Preceded:	James Buffinton
Succeeded:	Robert T. Davis
Birth Date:	May 16, 1830
Birth Place:	Dartmouth, Massachusetts
Death Place:	New Bedford, Massachusetts
Profession:	Attorney
Alma Mater:	Yale University Dane Law School
Party:	Republican

William Wallace Crapo (May 16, 1830 – February 28, 1926) was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts. He was elected to fill the vacancy caused by the death of James Buffinton. He served slightly more than three terms in congress from November 2, 1875 to March 3, 1883^[1]

Born in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, died in New Bedford, Massachusetts. Crapo is interred in the Rural Cemetery. He was a prominent attorney in New Bedford. Among his clients was Hetty Green.

William Wallace Crapo was a brother of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity in his undergraduate years at Yale University. He graduated in 1852 and was a member of Skull and Bones.^[2] On April 15, 1851, Crapo visited Brown University, on which date he is credited with initiating 17 members of the provisional chapter there, re-activating the ten-years-dormant Brunonian Chapter.

In 1903, Crapo (pronounced cray-poe) was a founding member and first president of the Old Dartmouth Historical Society, governing body of the New Bedford Whaling Museum.

Personal life

Crapo was the son of Governor of Michigan Henry H. Crapo (1804–1869), who also served as the mayor of Flint, Michigan and in the Michigan State Senate. His mother, Mary Ann (Slocum) Crapo (1805–1875), was a descendant of William Hutchinson (Rhode Island judge) and his wife Anne Hutchinson, daughter of Francis Marbury. His second cousin, three times removed is Mike Crapo, who served as a United States representative from Idaho 1993-1999 and has served as a United States senator from Idaho since 1999. His nephew was William C. Durant, co-founder of General Motors.

Crapo married Sarah Ann Davis Tappan (October 6, 1831 in Newburyport, MA-December 13, 1893 in New Bedford, MA) on January 20, 1857 in New Bedford. They had four children:

• Henry Howland Crapo II (January 5, 1862 in New Bedford, MA-November 26, 1951 in Leesburg, FL)
• George Tappan Crapo (March 16, 1864 in New Bedford, MA-September 12, 1865 in New Bedford, MA)
• Stanford Tappan Crapo (June 13, 1865 in New Bedford, MA-January 26, 1939 in Tryon, NC); married Emma Caroline Morley (January 6, 1872 in Fort Scott, KS-November 27, 1937 in Detroit, MI) on October 10, 1894 in Painesville, OH
  • William Wallace Crapo II (1895–1991)
  • Catherine Tappan Crapo (1897–1977); married Capt. John Morgan Bullard, US Army (1890–1965)
    • Dr. John Crapo Bullard (1921–2002); married Katherine G. Kilburn (1922–2005)
      • John Kilburn Bullard (1947-; served as Mayor of New Bedford, Massachusetts from 1986 to 1992
    • Sarah Bullard (1924–1942)
  • Mary Morley Crapo (1912–2003)

married 1st Donald Frizell Hyde (1909–1966); married 2nd David Eccles, 1st Viscount Eccles^[3]

• • • Anne Howland Hyde (1941–1941)
• Anna Almy Crapo (November 20, 1866 in New Bedford, MA-April 27, 1867 in New Bedford, MA)

References

1. The Historical Atlas of Political Parties in Congress, p. 128-134.
2. Web site: OBITUARY RECORD OF YALE GRADUATES 1925-1926 . March 26, 2011 . August 1, 1926 . Yale University.
3. News: Mary Hyde Is Wed to Viscount Eccles . The New York Times . 27 September 1984. 3 October 2022.

• • Headley, Phineas Camp: Public men of to-day: being biographies of the President and Vice-President of the United States, each member of the Cabinet, the United States Senators and the members of the House of Representatives of the Forty-Seventh Congress, the Chief Justice and justices of the Supreme Court of the United States., page 345 (1882).