GEORGE CRANDALL

DROVE STAGE 38 YEARS

Veteran of Chenango County.  Has total Record of 400,000 Miles.  Also Conducts a Small Farm

   George Crandall holds the record among veteran stage drivers in this vicinity.  He is something over 60 years of age, though just how much he need not tell, for he would pass for 60.  He first drove a stage at the age of 16, and has since given up thirty-eight years to that occupation.  During that time it is estimated that he has driven a total of about 400,000 miles, equivalent to about sixteen times around the globe.

   While on one route between Norwich and South Otselic he doubled the road daily, making a distance of forty miles six days in each week.  For nearly seven years he didn't miss a trip and piled up a total of 77,000 miles without a skip.

   One week during a blizzard he walked daily from South Otselic to Beaver Meadow and back, a distance of fourteen miles, carrying the mail on his back, and drove the remaining distance to Norwich and return every day.  For several days he brought the only mail into Norwich that reached the county seat.  He was on that route for twenty-two years.  He drove the stage from Norwich to Pitcher and return, a distance of thirty miles, for eight years.

   At present he is the owner of three stage routes, two of them mail routes, one running between Oxford and McDonough and the other between McDonough and Cincinnatus.  He drives a private route from Norwich to McDonough.  He also conducts a small farm.