Howard County MD Archives Obituaries.....Rev. William Thomas CRAPSTER, February 5, 1879
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1899 Secretary's Report: Obituaries for Havard Class of 1856
*REV. WILLIAM THOMAS CRAPSTER died Feb. 5, 1879, in Lisbon, Howard County, Md., 
of pulmonary disease.

He was a son of Basil and Harriet [Watkins] Crapster, and was born near Lisbon, 
Howard County, Md., Feb. 29, 1824. His paternal ancestors came from The 
Netherlands and England, and his maternal ancestors from England. His mother 
was a daughter of Colonel Gassaway Watkins, and his father's second wife. His 
father, originally a merchant, became a gentleman farmer in Howard County, Md. 
His mother died of lung disease in 1830. His father died in 1862.

From his twelfth to his eighteenth year he pursued his studies in the 
preparatory department of Pennsylvania College, at Gettysburg, Pa., at 
Brookeville Academy, Montgomery County, Md., and at the boarding school of Mr. 
Benjamin Hallowell at Alexandria, Va. He then became private tutor in Mr. 
Hallowell's family for a while, subsequently taught various schools of 
different grades at Baltimore and other places, until in 1848 he took charge of 
Warfield Academy, in Howard County, Md. He was very fond of teaching, but had 
from early years cherished the desire to enter the Christian ministry, with the 
idea of some time becoming a missionary.

In October, 1851, he entered the Presbyterian Theological Seminary at 
Princeton, N. J., where he completed the three years' course of study. But, 
while here, he became converted to Unitarian views, and in May, 1854, he came 
to Boston, where, June 12, he was licensed to preach.

In October, 1854, he joined the Senior class of the Cambridge Divinity School, 
and graduated from that school in 1855. He then joined the Senior class in 
Harvard College, and graduated in the class of 1856, which class chose him as 
their class chaplain.

June 16, 1857, he was ordained as an evangelist in the chapel of Divinity Hall, 
Cambridge, Doctors Walker, Francis, Noyes, Gannett, Newell, and Huntington 
taking part in the exercises.

He, at this time, cherished the hope of being able to devote himself to 
preaching in his native State with a possibility of going as a missionary to 
India. But ill health constantly interrupted his plans. He supplied pulpits 
from time to time at the South and East, and alternated these duties with 
teaching. In 1862 he became a professor in the Baltimore Female College.

May 5, 1864, he married Ellen A., daughter of Mr. William R. Warfield, of 
Howard County, Md.

For four or five years he managed a farm, which had once belonged to his 
father's estate, Ellerslie, in the hope that his health might improve. This 
farm he relinquished in 1868, when he moved to the village of Lisbon, Md., 
where he remained until his death. Here he carried on the Lisbon Academy for 
some years, taught private pupils, and occasionally preached, always regretting 
that he had not the health to devote himself more completely to the ministry.

Impressed with the belief that his life must soon close he, in June, 1878, made 
an extraordinary effort, and under great physical suffering came to Cambridge 
to attend a reunion of his class, and to view for the last time the college 
scenes. He received a warm welcome from his classmates and other friends. The 
inspiration of this visit was such that he almost persuaded himself that it 
could prolong his life some years, and the news of his death the following 
winter came all the more sadly to those who had witnessed the almost new lease 
of life this visit had given him.

When he left Cambridge to go out into the world as a minister, he wrote, " May 
the story of my life be written in holy deeds."

He left surviving him a widow and three children: Channing William Crapster, 
born Feb. 20,1865 ; Florence Warfield Crapster, born October, 1866; and Emma 
Watkins Crapster, born April 1, 1869.  A fourth child, James Havard Crapster, 
was born on March 13, 1868, but died in July 1868 before his 4th month of life.



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