Gospel preacher.

Gospel Advocate Obituary:
On May 9, 1911, Brother C. H. Cranford, of Walker County, Ala., passed on to his reward. He died on the farm where he had lived all his life, near the town of Oakman, at the advance age of seventy-eight years, three months, and four days. He corresponded with me in March and April about holding a meeting at New Hope; and after receiving my promise to come in July he wrote that he did not expect to live till the meeting was held, but that he wanted his neighbors to have the benefit of the meeting, anyway. I stayed at his old home with his son-in-law, Brother Gray, while holding the meeting. The fact that the meeting had been arranged by him and that his place was vacant gave the entire meeting a tinge of sadness. Sister Cranford, his wife, preceded him a short time to the eternal city. Brother Cranford raised a large family and lived to see them all settled in business, save one who preceded him to the final home. He was always loyal to the truth, and one of the greatest regrets of his life was that some of his boys became dissatisfied with the "old paths" and departed after the modern things in religion. Brother Cranford had the greatest solicitude about the success of the cause of truth in his neighborhood, and was especially anxious about the success of the congregation at New Hope. He obeyed the gospel in early life, being baptized by one of the Randolphs, either Brother Dow or Brother Jerry. When he became a Christian, it amounted to something to be a Christian only, in Walker County, for every man that held out faithfully had to fight for every inch of ground he stood on; but in later years, with the compromises that are frequently made with denominational errors, people can be one thing about as easy as another. The old guard are fast passing away in Alabama, and it is necessary that young men of courage and conviction take their places and fill up the ranks. --F. B. Srygley. Gospel Advocate, August 3, 1911, page 855.

Chesley Hardy Cranford was one of 14 children, they are as follows;

1. Abner Cranford
2. Winifred Cranford b. 1811
3. Mary "Polly" Cranford
4. Celia Cranford
5. Martha Patricia Cranford
6. William Cranford b. 1818
7. Thomas Matthew Cranford b. 1820
8. Charlotte Cranford
9. John Monroe Cranford
10 Malinda E. Cranford b. 1825
11 Nancy Emily Cranford b. 1827
12 Minerva "Dannie" Cranford
13 Lydia Ann Dorcas Cranford b. 1831
14 Chesley Hardy Cranford b. 1833