Clay County AlArchives Photo Place.....Old Cragford Hotel June 25, 2006 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Bobby Meadows brmeadows@hotmail.com June 25, 2006, 11:24 pm Source: Cragford,Alabama Photo can be seen at: http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/clay/photos/oldcragf3568gph.jpg Image file size: 83.2 Kb This home was once the Cragford Hotel,located off of Clay County road 30 - Cragford,Alabama. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/clay/photos/oldcragf3568gph.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 0.8 Kb The following information was added by Dene Williams Bence Sep 16, 2006 " My father, Malburn Lee Williams, and his sister, Ruby Ester Williams Walker (John D. A. Walker) always pointed out this house as being the hotel run by their mother, Zilla Elizabeth Perry Williams Clegg, sometime after 1899. Aunt Ruby and Uncle Arkful Walker lived just below the 'hanging tree' on the right. I believe their grandson, Ray Walker, now owns their homeplace. I don't know the exact years she ran the hotel - or how long. I would really love to see any records anyone has on when the hotel was first started, etc. So, please, if you have found out more I would love to have you share it with me! I grew up in the Sikesville community near the Randolph/Clay County line. My mother was the daughter of David Allen Beauregard Caldwell (Cora Ellis Caldwell Williams) and the granddaughter of John Nicholson Owen Caldwell and Ana Liza Benager Broughton Kilgore Caldwell. My Grandmother Williams was left with three children when her husband died in 1899, and I believe it was sometime after 1902 when her father-in-law, Thomas H. Williams, died that she ran the hotel. The Census in 1900 shows her and her children to be living in his house. She and her second husband, George Clegg, also ran the Wadley Hotel for some time. It was over where Cleveland Bros.' offices are now. I don't have any other information on that but would love to find out more! .......Dene Williams Bence"