| LONGTIME CHICAGO SCOOL TEACHER AND PRINCIPAL |
Roland Orval Witcraft was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Ohio Wesleyan College, where he was a leader and sports star, lettering in both football and track. Born in Union Co., OH, his mother died when he was but 7 while his father was a financially challenged farmer. Despite these initial hardships he persevered, worked his way through college, and earned a Masters Degree in Education from the University of Chicago. A highly accomplished school teacher in his early career, he also possessed substantial administrative talents that resulted in his becoming a highly respected High School Principal in the Chicago Public School system.
Hazel (McGaughy) Witcraft (also spelled McGaughey in earlier generations and other lines) was also an Ohio native born a county away (in Morrow Co.), and also to a family of farmers. In her youth she was a very bright and successful student, no doubt one of the reasons that she caught the eye of one of her High School teachers - Roland - who was then working his way through college as a teacher. Following her graduation, the two of them began a relationship which resulted in their marriage several years later and a lifetime of devotion afterwards.
Both lived a long life (a genetic predisposition that clearly runs in both families), with Roland living to age 97 and his wife a month short of her 96th birthday. They were therefore able to share over 69 years of their lives as a happily married couple.
| Roland and Hazel about 1970 |
Their story in this genealogy is not so much a biography of their lives (best found in the stories contained in Roland's 'Family Tree' manuscript, which we someday hope to append here) as a celebration of the interesting and notable ancestry that each of them, in one way or another, brought to their marriage. Anyone who had a chence to meet and talk with them on a personal basis could not help but notice the pride they took not only in their own children and grandchildren but in the extended families of Witcrafts, Grahams, McNays and McGaugheys that they kept in touch with. There were also family 'clan' reunions in Ohio and elsewhere, and clearly they were active contributors to the set of family records that grew with each reunion or other contact.
The ancestry which they developed was based almost entirely on the information laboriously gathered via contacts with family members and at reunions. Their efforts along with their reunion partners are responsible for developing a strong genealogical base for the family back to the mid- and early 1800's. But few if any of them possessed the tools and information now available via the internet and elsewhere, nor did they actively seek out libraries and other sources. After all, they were creating the history of the various families themselves. But given the easier availability of other resources, this genealogy has been created to supplement their efforts and to extend it in additional directions.
Roland and Hazel with son Ralph and daughter Ruth
Son-in-Law Bradley Parks at Right. About 1975 |
It is a shame that some of the additional information developed in this genealogy could not be shared with either Roland or Hazel, for they surely would have been delighted - although one suspects not overly surprised - with the discoveries. It most certainly would have added to their enjoyment of Thanksgiving, since while only half of the original 102 of the first Mayflower's passengers survived the harsh winter, 10 of their 12 pilgrim ancestors made it through the first year. So while they accounted for a healthy 12% of the original passengers, they constituted one fifth of the pilgrims who sat down for that first Thanksgiving celebration.
