Among the successful and progressive physicians and surgeons of Racine County is Dr. R. W. McCracken, who has engaged in practice in Union Grove for a number of years. His birth occurred in Daviess County, Indiana, on the 4th of February, 1872, and his parents are Hiram and Sarah J. (Williams) McCracken, the former born in that County in 1842 and the latter in 1843. The father devoted his life to farming and dealing in stock and through good management has gained financial independence. He is a democrat in politics. The mother is a member of the Christian church. They have two children: R W. and J. O., who has engaged in the practice of medicine since 1905 and who is married and lives in Kenosha. The history of the McCracken family has been traced back to Alexander McCracken, who immigrated from the north of Ireland to the United States about 1622. Dr. McCracken’s great-grand- father, John McCracken, who was one of a family of five sons and two daughters, was born in the east but removed to Indiana where he passed away. His son, Richard McCracken, was born in Maryland, in 1787, and received his education in the east and in Kentucky, but in 1816 became a resident of Daviess County, Indiana. He took up various tracts of land in that state, the patents to his farms being signed by Presidents Monroe, Van Buren and Jackson. The family homestead was entered on the 18th of August, 1823, during the administration of President Monroe and is still in possession of the family, being owned by Hiram McCracken, the Doctor’s father. The maternal grand parents, Jacob and Margaret (Williams) Williams, were born respectively in Indiana and in Kentucky, but both died in Indiana, the father’s demise occurring in 1906 when he was eighty-three years of age..
R. W. McCracken was reared under the parental roof and after completing the course offered in the high school at Washington, Indiana, entered the Kentucky School of Medicine at Louisville from which he was graduated in 1893. He located for practice in Montgomery, Indiana, but subsequently removed to Lyons, Wisconsin, whence he came to Union Grove in 1896. He has since remained here and as the years have passed and his skill and conscientiousness have become more widely known his practice has increased rapidly. He gives his patients most careful attention and has remained a student of his profession, keeping well informed as to the new methods of treatment which are Wine: worked out from time to time. In 1905 he took a post-graduate course in Louisville, Kentucky, and he is an active member of the Racine County Medical Society of which he served as president several terms; of the State Medical Society, to which he has been a delegate a number of times; and of the American Medical Association.
Dr. McCracken was married in 1903 to Miss Anne B. Wetmore, who was born in Beloit, Wisconsin, and they have become the parents of two sons: John W., twelve years old; and Robert O., nine years of age. The doctor is a democrat in politics and in 1914 made an excellent run for election to the state senate but was unable to overcome the large republican majority of his district. He is a member of the Masonic lodge, in which he has held the office of master, and his wife is affiliated with the Episcopal Church. Both are well ell known and their friends are many.