In 1888, John Crafton buried his second child at Rose Hill Cemetery. A son, Woodard, had perished from brain fever before reaching his first birthday. \nSometime in the next decade -- newspaper reports are spotty on exact dates -- John Crafton would return to the grave, purchasing additional plots and a large monument. One day, he and his family would be entombed beneath it and their names would be engraved upon its smooth marble. One day, Crafton believed that he, his wife and his oldest son Harry would join Woodard here in their final resting place. \nIn 1937, his wife perished and was laid to rest at the Rose Hill site. Harry died a year later and was buried there as well. \nCrafton never made it back. \nIn 1912, after a two-month vacation in Europe, a homesick Crafton decided to return to Indiana. Eager to see his wife and son, Crafton actually traded his departure ticket for one aboard a brand new ship that was set to leave a week sooner.\nThe ticket cost him a little more than 28 British pounds. But the voyage cost him his life.\nOn April 10, 1912, Crafton boarded the RMS Titanic. He was not among the 706 survivors who were rescued from the water by the RMS Carpathia. Crafton's final hours will forever remain a mystery, but one thing is certain: When the Titanic hit an iceberg 94 years ago today, Crafton's tomb shifted from Bloomington to the icy waters of the Atlantic.\nCrafton's grave still stands in remarkable condition, one side featuring the Craftons' names and the other engraved with four words: "Lost on the Titanic."\n"In Rose Hill cemetery, a fine granite monument stands," a reporter wrote in a short piece that appeared inside the Bloomington Telephone in April 1912. "(It is) now a sentinel of the awful disaster that will forever prevent the body from reaching the resting place that had been so carefully marked for that purpose."\n
Crafton and the Titanic
\nFour days after the Titanic hit an iceberg, Crafton's family received word of his potential demise. \nWhite Star Line, the shipping company that owned the Titanic, sent a message to Crafton's wife. "John B. Crafton is among the lost of Titanic," is all it said, according to an April 19, 1912, article that appeared on the front page of the Bloomington Telephone.\nIn that same story, the reporter noted that the news only confirmed the family's worst suspicions and that it was doubtful Crafton's corpse could be recovered, but added that the "family will save no expense if it is possible to secure the body."\nThe Weekly Star, another Bloomington newspaper from that era, led its April 19, 1912, edition with the headline "VICTIM OF SEA HORROR." That story addressed Crafton's apparent death and included some biographical details, including that Crafton owned a farm and a stone quarry, but in the years before his death, he had become increasingly involved in the lumber business. It also noted that Crafton had worked for the Monon Railway in Bloomington about 25 years earlier. \nThe Monon Railroad recognizes Crafton even today and has posted his story on its trivia page at www.monon.org. Tom Kepshire, a retired firefighter and paramedic who is the Webmaster for the group, learned about Crafton and published some of the facts. \n"I thought it was interesting, and I wondered if people knew about it," he said. "I searched online just looking for anything Monon-related when I found out about him."\nA third Bloomington newspaper, The Weekly Courier, also wrote about Crafton in its April 19, 1912, edition. The reporter wrote that Crafton had "accumulated a small fortune of $50,000" and was once known as "the stone king" because he owned so much land in Bloomington quarries.\nAccording to the Encyclopedia Titanica, an online directory of information relating to the ship, Crafton sought treatment for his rheumatism in Europe but ended up wishing to leave early because he missed his family. He switched tickets from the Kaiserin Auguste Victoria, which would have left on April 17, to buy one on the Titanic, according to the Web site.\nIn the week after the disaster, there was one "last ray of hope," according to The Weekly Courier story. A friend received a postcard Crafton sent from Italy that had been mailed several days before the Titanic set sail. In it, "he expressed intentions of visiting several points of interest before his return, (so Crafton's friend) hopes that he may not be among the missing passengers," according to the story.\nBut in the weeks following, Crafton's friends and family would learn that his fate had been sealed and his body lost forever.\n
Crafton the Villain?
\nIn "The Titanic Murders," a novel by Max Allan Collins, John Crafton is a blackmailer aboard the ship and a secondary villain. Collins, a critically acclaimed author whose work includes "Road to Perdition," chose names of real passengers from the Titanic for a fictional murder mystery set aboard the ship.\nIn an e-mail interview, Collins said he chose the names based on people he believed were "lost to history." Collins also explicitly defined the practice in the afterword to avoid confusion with the real passengers.\n"In my afterword, I spelled out that the character in the book had nothing to do with whoever the real gentleman had been -- that while I portrayed him as something of a villain he might well have been a vicar," Collins said. \nCollins said he received a complaint a few years ago from a relative of Crafton's, but that he intended no disrespect by using the name. And the reason he picked Crafton out of all the victims was solely because of the way his name sounded, Collins said. He said he has no regrets about using it.\n"At the time, my research indicated he was a forgotten man, and I went to elaborate lengths to explain in my afterword that the Crafton in the novel was a fictional character," Collins said. "... If I had turned up specific information on who Crafton was, I would not have used him. I was looking for a name, and one that had resonance for my mystery writer's purpose."\n
Rose Hill Cemetery
\nAs sexton for Rose Hill Cemetery, Jay Davidson has kept up the grounds and met all sorts of visitors in the last 14 years. But in that time, despite an ongoing fascination with the Titanic and a film about it that set box office records, not too many inquire or visit Crafton's grave.\n"When the movie came out, one of the TV channels in Indy came here," he said. "I'm sure there are some visitors. But it's not like I post a vigil around it and count."\nIf he did, Davidson might have met Marty Jones. Jones is a safety coordinator for Touchstone Energy and his job takes him all across the state. Jones said he's developed a hobby of photographing the state's historic sites -- from its covered bridges to its famous headstones. His fascination took him to Crafton's monument in the late 1990s.\n"It's just one of those things you don't expect to see and all of a sudden, it's right there," he said. "You feel a real connection standing a few feet away from something like that. You kind of feel disconnected because some things happen on the other side of the world and suddenly you realize something is right in your back yard."\nVisitors wishing to see the Crafton plot can find it by entering Rose Hill's entrance on Fourth Street. At the first intersection, make a left and look for a large marble and granite monument on the right beside a tree about halfway down the road. \nOr just look for Davidson, who might tell you about Crafton as well as the other famous people buried at Rose Hill.\n"He is just another story for the cemetery," he said. "And there's so many stories -- we have University presidents, Hoagy Carmichael, Dr. Kinsey all here. It's a history lesson in the ground"
