This month's grave spotlight focuses in on a very controversial and somewhat outlandish figure in Morgan, Brown and Monroe counties history - Reverend William N. Crabb, founder of the Crabbite religion.
William N. Crabb was born in 1856 in Barren County, Kentucky to Abraham J. Crabb (1834-1915) and Mahala P. Tanner Crabb (1837-1887). He had a few siblings that I have found names of: Jemima "Mima" E. Crabb Osborne (1855-1939), Eliza Frances Crabbe Followell (1859-1898) and Martha Ann Crabb Petro (1862-1934). There is a discrepancy in the names of his children, however. I did find mention of a Martha Crabb Skaggs in various articles as well.
His father, Abraham, was one of the earliest settlers of Nashville, Brown County, Indiana, though I have not found much information as to what his occupation was. He did, however, serve in the Civil War in Company G of the 79th Indiana Infantry.
On October 19, 1879, he married Miss Mary Ann Petro (though her headstone says Nancy Ann Petro Harrington) (1858-1957). They had thirteen children, though little is known of them other than their names: Mary Ann Crabb Satter (1891-1959), Minnie Catherine Crabb Pentecost (1895-1958), Jemima Crabb (?-?), Martha Crabb (?-?), Anna Crabb (?-?), Liza Crabb (?-?), Lillie Crabb (?-?) Tuchulia Crabb (?-?), Idela Crabb (?-?) and his only son, Frank Crabb (?-?).
Not much is known about William's life before he organized his religion. What we do know is that he had little formal education, but was a forceful speaker with a convincing voice, which was a draw for the locals. He was noted as having been a farm laborer and also a mail carrier for the post offices father out from Nashville.
The early formation of the Church of the First Born was from two visiting men from Indianapolis. They arrived on Gose Creek in Morgan County, Indiana. This was a hard one to figure out, because when searching for the location, I was repeatedly taken to a Goose Creek in Morgan County. But after a little more looking, I did indeed find a Gose Creek, which has a nearby cemetery. There are no Crabbs buried there.
This new faith, which as noted before stated that all other doctrine was false, preached that the earth was square, using the first verse of the Book of Revelations as their proof:
"And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor the sea, nor any tree."
Their teachings also denied that Jesus was born in a manger, but instead under an apple tree. Where that idea came from, is not noted anywhere, mostly because, even though they preached the Bible to prove their beliefs that the earth is square, they do not quote the Bible. Instead, these men claimed divine inspiration and forcing all that followed them to believe without questions. They also believed that all sickness was banished by laying on hands and devils were cast out by them and them alone.
But, not all those in the area were as fanatical about the new religion and the small, log cabin meetinghouse was destroyed by dynamite, scattering the believers to instead become devout followers of the Reverend William Crabb, residing in Brown County. He preached in an open air church, using a tree stump to deliver his wild teachings. He claimed that he could handle poisonous snakes without danger to himself, which he should free to his audience.
But this wasn't all he did while preaching. He introduced something called the "Holy Kiss", which, from what I can tell, was him talking in tongues during his sermons. He also added foot-washing to his litany of practices, with what intentions, I am unsure.
According to an article in the Indianapolis News, dated May 23, 1908:
"On May 14, the converts of this Moses of the Brown county wilderness were repulsed by nonbelievers in a sensational fight when the attempted to restore the dead of life."
This was shown to be one of their beliefs when one the members of the group passed away from consumption. The family set out for her burial at Goose Creek Cemetery (actually Gose Creek Cemetery as I found a listing for her burial). They stopped the family from proceeding with the burial and instead attempted to resurrect her by praying and laying on hands.
Many people truly believed that he was nothing more than a con man and that the supposed venomous snakes that he used in his circus sideshow preachings were nothing more than harmless black snakes that the illiterate followers would not recognize. These followers were stated as being "ginseng diggers, blackberry pickers, bushmen and men and women who can not read or write". Those with a modicum of education believe that this teachings were nothing more than "tom-foolery". Even with that, they also believed that he was doing good by teaching these isolated people, regardless of his beliefs. That seems some what backward.
William Crabb travelled all over Brown County, into the hollers and valleys to preach this bizarre religion. These travelling priests were called Circuit Riders. He did have a settled home on a farm between Morgantown and Cornelius, which was an unincorporated town in Jackson Township, Brown County, Indiana.
Their religion, however, seems to have not been just a local bit of oddness, but had farther reaching fingers. An article in The Newton Enterprise from Newton, North Carolina, dated July 1, 1909, noted that the Crabbites believed voting to be one of the deadly sins.
Regardless of what the beliefs were, William Crabb and his followers have woven their religion into the fabric of Brown and Morgan Counties. Now, if you will remember, at the beginning, I listed Monroe County as well. And that is because, for some reason, even though there is no written proof anywhere that I can find, many have said that these people performed strange rituals and orgies in the woods of the Morgan Monroe State Forest, particularly at Stepp Cemetery. This cemetery is riddled with all kinds of ghosts stories and hauntings, which, in my opinion, as much as I love a good ghost story, is all hokum. I have been to Stepp Cemetery and it is a lovely, calm little burial spot nestled amongst the trees. Somewhere amongst the stories it is said that Reuben Stepp purchased the land in 1856 and he bequeathed and area for a church for the Crabbites to preach at. This makes little sense since this is on the wrong side of the Morgan County area, closer, as noted to Monroe County, while William lived up on the Morgan/Brown border area nearer to Morgantown. And since William was a circuit rider, he stuck in a small area and preached open air. It seems to me that since people like to attached a variety of hauntings to Stepp Cemetery, they grabbed a hold of the Crabbites as well. There doesn't appear to be any true association.
To sum up, William Crabb (middle name unknown, though the initials N., V. and W. all seem to be attached to him) was a fanatical preacher of an odd sect of Christianity with an odd following of believers and nonbelievers alike.
He is buried in Mount Zion Separate Baptist Cemetery in Morgantown, Indiana having passed away on December 3, 1927.
As a note, the Separate Baptist beliefs do not align with the Crabbite belief in any way.
~~~~
RESOURCES
Brown County Journal - February 15, 2012
Countryfolk - Followers of the Reverend William Crabb
Genealogy Trails - Circuit Riders, Ministers & Pastors Biographies
Wikipedia - Cornelius, Indiana
