Development collaboration - a job post by Jim Crabtree

About the job

I posted a brief outline of this non-fiction, 300-year story in a Stage 32 Lounge. T\I'm writing because the response was enthusiastic, encouraging me to contact more stage32 folks.

Looking for someone to develop this project. I don't have the ability nor connections to do this. I would like to give it to someone who can develop, and stick handle this important project. It’s not a money venture for me, it’s love of country. 

I have the documentation for this story, but I'm 79 years old and a news editor. This is out of my wheelhouse.

With the 250th American celebrations coming up in three years, it seems a good time to bring this story to light.

Charles II Knight
My direct father-son lineage can be traced to the 15th century with a great deal of events leading up to 1682 where the story begins.

My eighth removed grandfather was a knight with Charles II, the “Merry Monarch”, who returned from France to seize the Crown and restore the British royal family. The colors and symbols on our family Coat-of- Arms indicate that the person with the shield is being sent, in peace, by the king, demanding this person not be harmed.

My grandfather sailed to Baltimore to accept a 400-acres land grant in what is now downtown Baltimore.

Tennessee Long Hunters
Within the twenty years after arriving in Baltimore, my direct descendent, William Crabtree became a “Long hunter” (See **NOTE below) in “The Great Wilderness”, as Tennessee was later named.

I have a great deal of documentation to support these events from 1690 - 1790. 

During this time my grandfather, William Crabtree was the hunting partner with James Boone, Daniel Boone’s son. James and William were ambushed one night by Indians. James was killed, while William, the lone survivor, escaped.

Revolutionary War
At the outset of the Revolutionary War, William became a well-known scout for General George Washington, fighting in several crucial battles that turned the tide to the Colonists.

Between the Revolution and the Civil War, we fought for the right of Tennessee, first to become a separate country, and finally, a state.

Civil War
We were conscripted into the Confederate Army where we, after having fought crucial campaigns, and then spent the remainder of the war in a POW camp.

During this period my grandfather was a Sheriff in Greeneville, Tennessee. He was murdered by vigilantes for operating a successful underground railroad bringing slaves to the North. Our family never held slaves, considering it immoral.

The family, down through these years, was all made up of between nine and 15 children. My particular line all had sons in every generation since the 1500s. My father’s family had nine children, of which I was the only son.

Indianapolis Speedway
My own father left Tennessee in 1914 to work as a mechanic on the first Indianapolis race car to exceed 100 mph, with Howdy Wilcox, a national celebrity at the time, driving. This is when ‘mechanics’ rode in the car.

California
In 1928, my family left Tennessee for the first time since the Revolution. My dad, two brothers, and his sister drove to California in a 1929 Model ‘A’.
A ‘Grapes of Wrath’ number of events that was told to me by my folks forever.
Daddy supported the family by hunting meat for high-end restaurants. At the outbreak of WWII, he smuggled illegal gun powder from Mexico, selling to wealthy skeet shooters in Los Angeles.