The tale of Billings O. Plimpton Cronk will not be lengthy - no G.A.R. membership, no pension, a short period of service, and an early death.
Born in 1840, Billings (sometimes called Plimpton) was in Washington Township, Defiance County, living with his parents, Samuel and Mary, when the 1860 census enumerator came around. Plimpton was the oldest son there at 18, with siblings, Elizabeth, Franklin and Albert, both 14, perhaps twins.
On April 27, 1861, he enlisted in Company K of the Ohio 21st Infantry and served until August 12, 1861, a three month service. One source noted that he was wounded.
He married Eliza Louisa Stone on April 23, 1863, according to the marriage records. Their only child, Emma, was born in 1864. On November 11, 1866, Billings died while still in his twenties. No obituary or notice of death could be found.
Louisa and the child, Emma, moved in with her parents, Alpha and Louisa Stone, in Farmer Township. That's where the census found them in 1870. Louisa Cronk was just 23 and Emma was 6. Alpha was the local blacksmith. Other siblings were at home, too: Orney (?), who was also blacksmithing, Randall, Orton and Ettie.
Louisa did go on to marry twice more, first to John T. Anderson, with whom she had four children. And after his death in 1897, she married Albert Bercaw and they had several more children.
The stone of Billings O. Plimpton Cronk is probably one of the older stones in the Farmer Cemetery.
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