The Critchfield family begins with the marriage of Ralph James Critchfield of Hunter, North Dakota and Anne Louise Williams of Viola, Iowa in 1913.  Anne Louise had taught school in Hunter prior to their marriage.  Jim, as he was always known, and Anne Louise resided in Hunter, Maddock, Fessenden, and Fargo, North Dakota.  The family also resided for a short period of time in the early 1920s in Minneapolis, Minnesota while he completed his medical degree.  They had five children: James, Betty, William, Peggy, and Richard.  The family moved to Fargo in the early 1930s and where Jim died in 1937.  Anne later worked as a Fargo policewoman to support the family.  In 1948 James Critchfield's wife, Connie, and David Baldwin were killed in a car accident near Mechanicsville, Iowa.  After the accident Anne, Jim, his children, and Peggy went to Germany to be with James, while Richard moved to Seattle to live with Betty and complete high school there.  It was not until 1974 that all five Critchfield children and their mother were together again.  Jim Critchfield moved to Virginia, and Bill, Peggy, and eventually Richard made their residences in Berkeley, California.  Their mother Anne died in 1982 in California.  Bill died in 1989 and Richard died on December 10, 1994. 
 

Critchfield Family Papers  |  Personal and Family Papers