Crafts, John.

John Crafts was raised by his mother, Esther Sartwell Crafts Mead, and step-father, Rev. Samuel Mead at the family home in Walpole, N.H., along with his sister, Esther Crafts (later Mrs. Ebenezer Morse) and half-siblings Caroline Mead, Nancy Mead Holland, Samuel Orlando Mead, Harriot Mead, and Hannah Mead Handerson. Before he was 17, John Crafts e left home to live with his uncle, Royal Crafts (1774-1821), in Boston and improve his prospects in life

In Boston from 1806 until 1816, Crafts alternately worked as a teller and studied French, and by 1809 he had established himself in business. He spent the summer of 1808 in Groton, Mass., as a student of the Lawrence Academy. In the spring of 1817, Crafts accepted a position as agent for the fur-trading firm of Conant & Mack and made his way westward to Detroit.

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