Bio of Cratte, Oliver (b.1801) Wabasha Co., MN
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Made available to The USGenWeb Archives by: Barbara Timm and Carol Judge
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This bio comes from "HISTORY OF WABASHA COUNTY" 1884.
Check out Barbara's site for more great information on this book:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~mnwabbio/wab1.htm
There are also some pictures and information from descendents for some 
of the bios on her pages.

Cratte, Oliver, was one of the original proprietors of the town of
Wabasha. He was the first white man to build on the present site of
Wabasha. He came here from Fort Snelling in 1838. Mr. Cratte was sent to
this place by the government and located as blacksmith for the Wapashaw
band. He was born in Liverpool, England in 1801. He was early left an
orphan, and he and his sister came to Canada when he was a mere boy. He
learned the blacksmith's trade at Montreal, and after completing it he
came west as far as Mackinaw, where he remained about a year. He then went
to Prairie du Chien in company with some traders, and was there employed
by the United States government. In 1828 he was sent to Fort Snelling,
where he remained until he came to Wabasha in 1838. Mr. Cratte has been
married three times. His first wife was a daughter of Alexander Graham, by
whom he had five children, and his present wife is a daughter of Scott
Campbell, who acted as interpreter for the chiefs and braves who visited
Washington in 1837 for the purpose of ceding their lands east of the
Mississippi to the United States. Mr. Cratte is still living and is the
oldest living white man of his time. He is entirely blind, yet his memory
is good, and it is like reading history to hear him recount the scenes of
this long and varied experience. The old man is poor, which renders his
blindness still more pitiable. He has, in his day, been far beyond want;
but loaning gold and, in his own honesty of purpose and heart, trusting
the word of those who came to him in need, taking no proper security, he
has thus, in his old age, become reduced to poverty and sorrow. Coming
here in the fall of 1838, he built a shop of logs on the levee, chinking
it with mud and sand, and occupying it that winter for shop and dwelling.
In the spring following he added a "lean- to" and sent for his family,
they having remained at Fort Snelling during the winter. This dwelling was
the first ever built by white man at this place.