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Note: Frederick Craddock was born on Feburary 17th 1869, in Middletown (Placerville), CA. His father was John Craddock, born in England, and his mother was Caroline Eve Weiss, born in Germany.
Frederick's father, John, was born in 1821. He immigrated to America on August 12, 1850, arriving in New York. Shortly thereafter, he traveled to Placerville, California, where he married to an unknown woman who bore him 2 children, Richard and Elizabeth Ann Craddock.
Apparently, they divorced sometime before 1858, because John's marriage with Caroline Weiss is listed as having taken place on April 13th, 1858. They had 4 boys, all born in Middletown (since absorbed into Placerville). Their names were William, Theophilus, Robert and Frederick. John Craddock died in 1876, his gravesite is Placerville. His widow, Caroline, then married a man named Charles Sibeck, who apparently raised the children because an 1880 census of Placerville lists him as head of the household.
In 1895, Frederick Craddock and his wife, Julia Belle Wilson, lived in Lockford California, a small town on the edge of Stockton, in the San Joaquin Valley.
In those days, the San Joaquin Valley was used mostly for farms and growing feed for animals. Frederick was employed on the "Montgomery" farm. During harvest time, he had charge of a horse harvester, which he operated from dawn to dark.
The Craddocks left Stockton around 1902 and went to Lancha Plana, where Frederick got a job with a copper company. The family was living there when the earthquake of 1906 hit the country.
In 1907, they left Lancha Plana for Campo Seco, where they lived for a year before moving to Copperopolis, California.
Frederick worked in the copper mines of Calveras County until he contracted copper poisoning and was urged to leave that area. A friend told him Humboldt County, far to the north, was the best place to raise a family and enjoy good health.
Frederick and his wife, with a family of two boys and four girls, decided to make the move in July 1909 to Humboldt County in a covered wagon over the old mountain roads. They camped along the way over the roads which had few facilities, landing in Rio Dell in October of that year.
Frederick went to work as night watchman at the Ogle Shingle Mill which was in Belleview, just off the Robinson Ferry riffle. After a month in Rio Dell, the family moved to Fortuna and purchased a home on Christian Ridge and stayed there for five years. Then, they went up in the hills near Mattole and Petrolia, to Ettersburg, where Frederick filed for a homestead. He built a house there and fenced the property and they lived there for 8 or 9 years.
There is a tale that Frederick moved here up in the hills because he was an inventor. He had developed something used in smelting or mining, but didn't have the money to patent it, so he turned to a friend to finance him, but the friend ended up stealing the idea for himself.
Frederick was said to have also have been a great wood carver, and had carved carousels and such.
Frederick and Julia had 7 children- Chester "Chet" Clyde (1895-1982), Ethel Doris "Doris" (1908-1955), George "Dewey", Edith "Caroline", Aletha M, Melba J, and Marie C.
In 1923, They moved to Cuddeback, near Carlotta, because some of the children were ready to enter high school.
Frederick died in Humboldt County, but the date is unknown.
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