He was born on October 5, 1891 less than a month before his sister Opal passed away, and he was not yet six years old when Ethel, the surviving twin, died. He remembered himself to be a sickly youth but managed to complete his studies and graduate Lebanon High School on the 19th of May, 1910. His diploma was signed by Samuel M. Ralston, then President of the School Board who later became Governor of Indiana appointing S. N. Cragun to the State Board of Tax Commissioners and subsequently became a Senator from Indiana to the United States Congress.
Dwight entered Indiana University as a freshman in 1910 to major in English. Lebanon High School had done a good job in preparing him for college. For example, he received advanced standing in German studies being able to write the language in script, a skill not possessed by most of his contemporaries.
He provides in his own words a statement of his education and experience through 1937. The following brief was probably prepared for a job application when he was forty six years of age, then with a wife and three children. He reports that he was:
Reared in a family actively engaged in the publication of a newspaper and the operation of a printing plant, industrial plant, and in banking. Began work at the age of ten, as water carrier for a construction gang. During the following years when attending common and high schools in Lebanon, was employed during spare hours, on Saturdays, and during vacations, in father's newspaper office and printing plant, or in his factory, which manufactured centrifugal cream separators and other types of machinery. (The Dairy Cream Separator Company on West Main St., Lebabon.)
Attended Indiana University, 1910-1913, graduating with Bachelor of Arts Degree. Major subject was English but greatest amount of credits were made in geology, particularly economic geology. Was a member of survey crew, mapping Monroe, Greene, and Lawrence counties for State department of Geology. This work included mapping forestation and water supply. Was Editor-in-chief of Senior Year Book-the Arbutus. Attended Wharton School of Finance & Commerce, University of Pennsylvania,1913-14, and graduated with Master of Arts Degree in economics. All graduate work was done under Dr. S. S. Huebner and Dr. Simon Patton. Principle subjects: advanced economic theory, all phases of Insurance and Markets. Was offered assistantship under Dr. Huebner with privilege of completing work for Ph.D but was unable to accept because of financial difficulties. Was employed by First National Bank, Lebanon, Indiana, as teller, and continued with that bank for two years, rotating through all departments. (June 1914 to June 1916) In 1916, was employed by National City Bank, New York as collection teller in Foreign Department. Later in the year became industrial editor of Financial Weekly, known as "MARKETS". Continued this work until the War. Enlisted and was assigned to finance division, Quartermaster Corps of the Army. Spent two years in the Army, all work was of financial nature at various stations. Last assignment was as First Lieutenant attached to General Staff of the Army and placed in charge of Liberty Loan allotments.
Immediately following discharge in 1919, became economist and statistician for brokerage house of M. S. Wolfe & Company, New York. In 1922 became economist and statistician for the investment banking house S. W. Strauss & Company, with headquarters in New York. In 1923 became free lance economist and statistician, serving a number of leading New York brokerage houses and investment banking firms. In 1926 was recalled to Indiana by death of father and while there accepted position as controller of Indestructible Wheel Company and continued in this position until depression forced closing down of plant in late 1930. During the next two years was not employed regularly, but devoted time to research work and compilation of sales promotion literature for various firms, specialized advertising, writing financial articles for various publications, including "Baron's" and "Commonweal". In 1933, following bank moratorium, was employed by Federal Deposit Insurance Corportion as a bank examiner in Indiana and Ohio. In January 1934 was employed in similar capacity by Reconstruction Finance Corporation. In June 1934, was appointed special representative by Department of Financial Institutions of State of Indiana in charge of liquidation of Fowler Bank City Trust Company, Lafayette, Indiana, one of the largest insolvent banks in Indiana. Continued as liquidator for Department of Financial Institutions in various insolvencies until March, 1936. At that time was appointed special research statistician for Department of Financial Institutions and given direction of a special study of the causes of bank failures. Am so employed at present.
During his college years at I.U., he took considerable pride in two achievements. Having joined the Sigma Nu Fraternity, he was instrumental in acquiring for the fraternity a new home on Kirkwood Avenue which was occupied by the brotherhood until moving into Hickory Hall in 1952 for two years while construction on their current home on fraternity row was completed. The second event was his election to be editor of the Arbutus, the college annual. His victory was an upset of the incumbent powers and was hailed by the student body.
Two notables were classmates; Paul V. McNutt, who later became Governor of Indiana and Wendell Wilkie, who was Republican candidate for President of the United States in 1940, a candidacy Dwight was active in supporting within his circle of friends.
The decision to undertake graduate studies at the University of Pennyslvania must have been a traumatic one for his family. S. N. had been building the printing and publishing business with the expectation that Dwight would take over the operation when he completed his studies at I.U.. Dwight told the story that when he asked his father for financial help to continue his studies, S. N. went to the bank, brought back a wad of bills ($500) and threw it at Dwight, hitting him in the face.
Thereafter S. N. sold the Patriot to the Jones brothers in 1913 and Dwight left for Philadelphia and graduate school.
Not reflected in his work statement was his trip to Hawaii and tour through the Western U.S. with his parents and Aunt Emma from November 1920 through April 1921. Additionally, he responded to his father's request to return home during S. N.'s heal illness and remained to help his mother during her last years.
During this period he married Mabel Lucile Martin on August 12,1928. They began their life together in the family home at 404 West Main Street in Lebanon where they stayed for the remainder of their lives, first raising their family, then, in retirement.
Raising a family in those days was not easy. The market crash in 1929 followed by the Great Depression made life both difficult and tenuous. The Wheel Works shut down in 1930. From that time until November 1933, when he took work with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Dwight had no regular employment. His energies were given to seeking work, managing the business rental properties and farm which comprised a part of his legacy from his father's estate which he shared with his mother, and free lance writing done in part with Terry O'Donnel, a friend from New York then living in Chicago. They jointly prepared articles published in the Commonweal. Several unpublished manuscripts are among his papers. During these hard times two sons were born, Ben on August 27,1929 and Lloyd on October 23, 1930. He recorded something of the times in his diaries.
His wish for employment was answered on November 18,1933, when he received a sixty day appointment as an Assistant Examiner for the FDIC at a salary of $1800 per year with a $5.00 per diem when working away from headquarters. His first assignment was to examine the Bank at Speedway. He writes, (Nov.22,1933) "When I got there they would not let me in. Thought I was a bandit because there were already two State Examiners there." This work took him to banks throughout Indiana and Ohio and he was frequently away from home overnight.
From June 1934 until January 1937 he was employed by the Indiana Department of Financial Institutions as bank liquidator and research statistician. During this period he spent the working week in Lafayette and was able to come home only on weekends. This was difficult for Mabel who had routinely to manage the home and children while looking after the rental properties downtown and the farm. It was July 25, 1935, that their first daughter, Colleen Adelaide, was born.
One of the monuments he left was a report on Indiana Bank Failures - "a statistical and analytical study to determine and weigh the principal factors of weakness contributing to failure of Indiana state and private banks and trust companies and to develop practical suggestions for preventing growth of these same factors of weakness in the future." The study was completed in July 15, 1936. He then completed a second study entitled The Banking Moratorium and Rehabilitation of Indiana State-Supervised Banks on December 15, 1936. These studies were prepared for the Commission for Financial Institutions of Indiana and exhausted him in the process.
In 1937, Dwight was appointed Assistant Professor of Finance and Analyst of the Investment Research Bureau, School of Business Administration at Indiana University. This job required that he be on campus at Bloomington through the week. Again, he was separated from his family except for weekends when he commuted to Lebanon. Occasionally he would make two round trips on a weekend in the 1937 Pontiac to bring his sons to a football game. For a week during two summers he brought them to Bloomington to stay with him in his room at the Union Building.
His job at I.U. involved the continuous analysis of investment holdings of Indiana's state-chartered banks for use by the state supervisor of state banks. Additionally, he taught a course in Personal Finance.
At this time, Herman Wells, a Boone County native and high school classmate of Mabel, was Dean of the School of Business. Wells later became University President and Arthur Weimer became Dean. Dwight left the University in September,1939, to accept a position as Economist and Financial Supervisor at Hicks Body Company in Lebanon, a manufacturer of school bus bodies. This position brought him home where he was needed to help raise his children particularly since his fourth and youngest child, Claudette Emilie had been born on January 9, 1938.
His work at Hicks Body Company lasted until November, 1940, after which he devoted full time to the management of his personal investments including business properties in Lebanon. The properties came to him from his father and mother and included:
He developed very profitable leases for these buildings but they eventually required more management than he felt physically able to provide. After determining that his children had no interest in their management, he arranged to give these properties to I.U. under a lifetime annuity agreement made in 1957.
He also had farm property inherited from his parents. There were two parcels in South Western Worth Township, one of 80 acres and another of 10 acres. These he sold in 1941; the 10 acres to Harry E. Gilbert for $125.00 per acre, and the 80 acres to Ralph and Rose Harvey for about $64.00 per acre. Despite the price, he was glad to be rid of them because of the management problems they presented. Interstate I-65 was later built across the South West corner of the 80 acre farm.
He continued in the management of his own financial affairs including, by this time sizeable stock portfolio until he was invited to join National Homes Corporation in Lafayette by a former student, Jim Price, who had founded the company before the start of W.W.II. During the war, they built prefabricated housing for use at the Manhattan Project and elsewhere. At wars end there were contracts to renegotiate and Dwight was employed as an Administrative Executive to assist primarily in contract re-negotiation. After the plant burned and before it was rebuilt, Dwight left National Homes and retired from employment continuing his life in Lebanon managing his personal affairs.
He was a loyal and active member of the Elks spending a great deal of his leisure hours at the club and with a wide circle of friends in the American Legion and the 40 & 8 Club. He took great pride in his two sons' initiation into the Elks in 1952. His later years were quiet as his health began to fail yet he dearly enjoyed homecomings with his family. He finally sensed a measure of achievement in his life having successfully raised four children, getting them launched into respectable lives as useful citizens with families of their own.
Dwight passed away at Witham Hospital on December 8, 1971, at age eighty in the knowledge that he had achieved an objective of building an estate valued in excess of one million dollars, and had earned the esteem and affection of his community as reflected in the following editorial published in the December 10, 1971, edition of the Lebanon Reporter.
Mable Lucille Martin Cragun, his wife of forty three years, was born on March 29, 1900, on her father's farm near Fifthian, Illinois. She arrived twenty minutes before her twin sister, Myrtle, and was welcomed by an older brother, Vern, eight years their senior. A sister, Lois, arrived eight years later about a year in advance of the families move to Boone County in 1909.Mabel could trace her lineage back to her maternal great grandparents. Zeppheniah Yeatsof Ohio and his wife, Matilda Kerr, of Kentucky. They farmed in Fountain County, Indiana, where Mabel's grandfather, James Knox Polk Yeats was born in 1845.
The family moved to Champaign County, Illinois, in 1850 where they also farmed. At age 19, in 1864, J. K. P. Yeats enlisted in the Union Army and served at the seige of Richmond, Virginia, until his discharge a year later in 1865. On August 26,1867, he married Elizabeth F. Johnson, originally of Kentucky who came to Illinois with her family settling in Champaign County.
They started their married life on a rented farm four miles north of St. Joseph. They later bought 160 acres in Stanton Township. Ten children were born to their union including Minnie Lenora, their second child who arrived in 1872.
On July 3, 1891, she married Charles Milton Martin at St. Joseph, Illinois.
They began their married life on a 70 acre farm near Fifthian, Illinois, just seven miles west of St.Joseph where they lived for eighteen years before relocating to Boone County Indiana.Charles Martin's parents farmed in Champaign County, Illinois until 1900 when they bought 293 acres of good land situated west of the Middle Jamestown Road in Center Township, Boone County, Indiana three miles southwest of Lebanon. His father was Robert Martin (1838-1906), son of George Martin, who married Mary Rigdon in 1837.
His mother was Martha Ann Martin (1841-1908).
She was the daughter of Presley Martin (d.1843) and Mary Ann Prather (1815-1864) who were married in 1838. George and Presley Martin were brothers, believed to have been sons of James (or Hutson) Martin about whom nothing further is known.The Prather family has been traced back to James Prather, Charles' great, great grandfather, born in (western) Virginia in 1765. His wife, Elinor, was born in Pennsylvania in 1766. Their four older children were born in Virginia. By 1793 the family moved to Bourbon County, Kentucky, where their eight younger children were born. James died there in 1819. Elinor is believed to have lived her last years in the home of her daughter, Mary Ann Prather Hewitt, wife of Eli, at their farm home west of Georgetown, Vermilion County, Illinois. She died c1850 and was buried at the Mt. Pisgah cemetery about 1/4 mile from the old Hewitt home.
Their second child, Jonathan, was born 22 March 1786 in Virginia, before the family moved to Kentucky, and was married in Bath County, Kentucky, to Sarah Wilson in 1813. Sarah had been born in Virginia in 1784. They had seven children, all born in Bath County.
In 1832, the family relocated to a farm southwest of Danville, along the Vermilion River in Illinois; then in 1834, purchased land along the Illinois-Indiana border, a part of which now forms the northeastern section of Rileysburg, Vermilion County, Indiana. Most of that land is still in the family. In 1990 it is being farmed by Clarence and Barbara Turner. Barbara is a great grandniece of Robert and Martha Martin. Jonathan died there in 1869 following his wifes death sometime after 1850.
Their first child, Mary Ann, was born in Bath County, Kentucky on 24 January 1815 and was married on 21 March 1838 in Vermilion County, Illinois to Presley Martin. They settled on a farm about 3.5 miles northwest of Rileysburg, a little north of the Covington road close to Jonathan's family which by 1900 numbered perhaps ten households.
Presley died on 10 October 1849, the victim of an Asiatic Cholera epidemic brought into the area by a stranger from the south traveling up the Wabash River. The epidemic was particularly devastating because the physicians of the area didn't know how to treat it. Mary Ann had a difficult time raising their four small children, and kept house for her brother, Uriah, in Rossville, Illinois, after the death of his wife in 1855. She lived until 4 December 1864, and is believed to have been buried with Presley on the farm on a plot now farmed over. Her stone has since been relocated to Atherton Cemetery near Danville.
The second of their four children was Martha Ann, born in 1841. Her brothers William and John lived on in Illinois. Her younger sister, Sarah Ellen, married Isaac Emley and lived in Kansas. It is said that one of their sons served eight years in Levenworth Prison during the 1880's for horse thievery. Martha Ann, however, having married Robert Martin, eventually moved to Boone County, Indiana. As their fathers were brothers, they were first cousins, a fact noted in a Prather family history prepared in 1929.
Robert and Martha brought nine children into the world, all of whom came to Indiana:
Robert died in 1906 at age 68, just six years after their move to Indiana. Martha died two years later in 1908. They are buried at Oak Hill Cemetery, Lebanon. Several of their children remained on the family place for a number of years and continued to farm. Charles, however did not immediately come back East with his family. By mid-1890 he and Minnie had met. She kept a day book for 1891-92 in which she made coded entries concerning her romance with Charles. But marriage brings inevitable changes. She wrote in 1893 that she wished she was as happy then as she had been when keeping the day book. They ultimately came to Indiana following Charles' mothers death.
In 1909, the Charles Martin family left Illinois and settled on a 120 acre farm three miles South of Lebanon in south Central Center Township near the old #9 school. Their farm home in 1988 is occupied by Charles' grandson, Wayne Richardson and the Lebanon Airport is situated on most of its acres. They made the trip by wagon pulled by Old Bud, the horse, and explained that the move was prompted by the terrible condition of the Illinois farm to market roads which were muddy and nearly impassable much of the year. Of course, for Charles it was a return home to Boone County near the place of his birth. Their family was complete at the ffme of the move and included four children as follows:
Mabel Lucile Martin Cragun graduated from Lebanon High School with the class of 1920 and worked briefly that summer in the office of the Boone County Recorder. She left to take employment as a stenographer-bookkeeper in the office of Attorney Ray Adney where she worked until 1921, following which she started a seven year period of employment at the Dairy Cream Separator Manufacturing Company, a firm which S.N. Cragun once served as President.
She had wanted to go to college but her father did not feel that he could afford to send her. However, she was able to find an outlet for her leadership abilities during her working years by serving two terms as president of the Lebanon Business and Professional Women, first in 1922, then again in 1924. While President, she led delegations from Lebanon to the sixth annual convention of the five hundred clubs affiliated with the National Federation of Business and Professional Women's clubs held at West Baden, Indiana on July 21-26, 1924.
Again, in 1927, she, with Helen Heflin (later Dodge), traveled to the Federation's National Convention at Oakland, Califomia where she was invited to represent Indiana in a meeting called by the National President. They went by train sightseeing through the west while enroute during the period July 9 to August 3. She closed her record of the trip by reporting that when they resumed to Lebanon (it) looked very queer at first, after seeing mountains, canyons, tall trees and tall buildings. I enjoyed the trip immensely and saw a lot of wonderful and beautiful sights but Lebanon looked good to me when I arrived home."
A year later she and Dwight were married. Dwight recalled that when he came home from New York to be with his father before his death in 1926, he had noticed an attractive red headed girl who walked by the house each day to and from work. He decided that she was the girl for him.
Mabel loved her home and family. She devoted her life to their care. The Lebanon Reporter stated on December 10, 1987 that "The family home--was often the scene of parties.--She (also) greatly enjoyed her friends, encompassing a wide circle and had a (delightful) zest for life. One of her special interests was playing bridge. But her activities and interest centered around her family, taking great pride in their accomplishments.--She had a great influence on her children encouraging them in their academic pursuits and professions."
After her children were raised and had departed the home to families of their own and following Dwight's death in 1971, she took an interest in travel. In 1974, she made a trip around the world with a companion, Mrs. J.C. (Maude) Jordan, from Lebanon. The following year she traveled on the Mississippi Queen with her sister Lois and dear friends, Mrs. Lester (Elsie) Jones, and Mrs. "Doc" (Lena) Berry Love. On th.;*trip, she was awarded the VOX Calliopus by Captain Chengeny on October 20, 1975 as azuly certified calliopist. She made other trips with friends, Elsie and Lena, to Door County, Michigan and to Hawaii. Her eightieth birthday was celebrated at the Ulen Country Club in Lebanon at a dinner and reception hosted by her children and attended by as many relatives and friends as could gather for the occasion. She reciprocated by hosting her children to a cruise with passage aboard the S.S. Tropicale departing San Diego on February 10 to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and return on February 17, 1985.
Although she tried to visit each of her children every year, she became less able to travel and her last air journey was to Virginia to attend the wedding of her grandson, Dwight Douglas Cragun, May 10, 1986.
Mabel had a second carotid artery surgery on Friday September 11,1987. she never fully recovered from that. Her health failed following a bout of congestive heart failure in October.
She passed away on December 9,1987 at the home of her son, Ben on Elizaville Road where she had been staying for five weeks during her final illness.
Her funeral was held at the First Presbyterian Church in Lebanon where she had been a member since 1973 and she is buried beside her husband at Oak Hill Cemetery.