Death Of Veteran Newspaper Writer

DEATH OF VETERAN NEWSPAPER WRITER

S.B. McCRACKEN, A RESIDENT HERE FOR NEARLY 20 YEARS

Passed Away in Detroit Last Sunday--Old Age the Cause of His Death

S. B. McCracken, a former well known Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti newspaper man, died in Detroit on Sunday afternoon last. He had been at Harper hospital since June 5 last. Old age was the direct cause of his death.

Stephen Bromay McCracken came of historic and revolutionary stock. His grandfather, Robert McCracken, was from the north of Ireland, settling in Pennsylvania. He was a soldier in the revolutionary war, and died from camp fever contracted in the service. His wife was Mary Hutchinson, a descendant of Sir John Hutchinson, who was a member of the parliament of the Commonwealth that condemned King Charles to the block. Her family, including the father of S. B., also named Robert, moved to Niagara Co., N. Y., In 1804. Robert was there married to Eunice Bromley, a native of Connecticut, and a descendant of Sir Thomas Bromley, who was president of the commission that condemned Mary Queen of Scots to the block.

S. B. McCracken was the third of six brothers, and was born September 30, 1824. His parents coming to Michigan a few months later, he ever since was a resident of the state. His early education was received in his father's log cabin near Pontiac, supplemented by about six months at a country school. The printing office, in which he became an apprentice at the age of 13, was his Alma mater. Going to Ann Arbor in 1842, he was at different times during the succeeding twenty years publisher and editor of local papers at Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti.