"Portrait & Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley Oregon."  Chicago:
Chapman Publishing Company, 1903. p. 1183.
 
WILLIAM A. CRISELL

     Three miles east of Butteville and five miles northwest of Aurora, on the
Willamette river, is the two hundred and seventy-five acre farm of William A.
Crisell, occupied by him since 1868, and one hundred and fifty acres of which
are cleared. Fifty acres of this farm consist of beaver-dam land, thrown up by
those wonderful little members of the animal world who have served as examples
of industry for centuries past. There is an old hop-yard of twenty acres, and a
new hop-yard of forty acres, the latter planted in 1902, making in all sixty
acres of hops to be garnered by harvesters in the fall. Mr. Crisell is not only
an excellent agriculturist, but he has a wide knowledge of mining, to which he
has devoted many years of his life. He was born in St. Genevieve county, Mo., in
February, 1833, was reared on a farm, attending the public schools as
opportunity offered. His father dying when the son was seventeen years of age,
he determined to leave home and carve out his future in the west, two years
later, in 1852, making preparation for the long journey. With three companions
he purchased an outfit of five yoke of oxen, one wagon, and two saddle horses,
all of which they finally succeeded in bringing over the plains. They were four
months making the journey from Missouri to California, and once arrived, Mr.
Crisell turned his attention to mining and prospecting in Eldorado county for
about ten years. Thereafter he spent a number of years mining in Idaho,
Washington and other mining centers, and eventually bought an interest in a
four-yoke ox-team with which he engaged in freighting between The Dalles and the
mining districts for three years.
     In 1868 he came to Oregon and settled on his present farm. The following
year, September 10, 1869, he was united in marriage with Nancy Bird, who was
born in Clackamas county in 1849, a daughter of William and Harriett Bird. The
union of Mr. Crisell and Nancy Bird has been blessed with three sons : Allen A.,
Millard N., and Robert. The sons are all farmers, and the two youngest are
working with their father. Mr. Crisell is a Democrat in politics, and
fraternally is associated with the Grange. He is upright and industrious, and
richly deserves the success which has come to him. In all the undertakings of
his community which are calculated to elevate the moral and intellectual
standard of the people he has exhibited a keen and unselfish interest. Those who
have had the opportunity to gain a knowledge of his character freely accord him
a position among the thoroughly representative farmers of Marion county a man
whose earnest efforts toward the enlightenment of those with whom he comes in
contact in his daily life are highly appreciated. It is with genuine pleasure
that the editors of this publication make a permanent record of the high esteem
in which Mr. Crisell is held by his fellow-citizens; and in the years to come
the three manly sons in his family unquestionably will review with great pride
and satisfaction the history of his career, which has afforded them a source of
inspiration in their efforts toward attaining an equally conspicuous position
among the leading agriculturists of the Willamette valley.

     
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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in April 2012 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.