ELI M. CROSSWAIT was born in Fulton County, Illinois, on January 9, 1938. His family moved to Lewis in 1856, where his father was a money-lender before the first bank was established in the county. Eli Crosswait returned to Illinois and received his college education at Indianola. He married Mary Shawver in 1862 while teaching in the Warren County schools. In 1864, the Crosswaits commenced farming in Warren County, Illinois,and in 1870 they farmed in Mills County, Iowa, remaining there for eleven years. Eli and Mary Crosswait then moved to Marne and lived here for two years, and in 1883 they purchased a 240-acre tract of land in Section 6 of Brighton Township, in the far northwest corner of the township. Their children included Oscar, Frank, William, Ernest, James, Robert and Alma.

Transcribed from "The First Century, A History of Marne, Iowa 1875 - 1975", published in 1975, Marne, Iowa: The Marne Centennial Historical Committee, pg. 25. Transcribed (2015) by Cheryl Siebrass and contributed September, 2019.

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