Gilbert & Louisa Cruit along Old Stage Road

Hollinger, as mentioned last week, was an up and coming community in southern Monroe County in the late 1800s. Yet history is more than the names of forgotten towns on the yellowing pages of old newspapers and maps. The real history comes in the every day lives of those who made their way through day to day living, who reared families, worked, lived and died in the areas they held dear. No story is more poignant to the above sentiment than the story of Gilbert and Mary Louisa Cruit, who lived at Hollinger during the 1800s.

In days of old, Gilbert is said to have been born in Devon, Engla...