Biography:

Dr. Richard “Ernest” Reycraft was born in 1866 in Orford Township, (Chatham-Kent).  He was the 6th of 11 children born to James Reycraft and the former Phillicia Shannon.  Mr. Reycraft owned a shoemaking and shoe repair business in Highgate and he owned 100 acres in Orford Twp.  Mr. Reycraft and his sons cleared the land and farmed it.  Dr. Reycraft’s siblings were; Ellen Reycraft (who died in infancy), George Franklin Reycraft, Sarah Jane Reycraft, Albert James Reycraft,  Ellen M. Reycraft, John William Reycraft, Joseph Henry Reycraft, Phillicia Reycraft (who died in infancy), Minnie P. Reycraft and Ethel “Blanche” Reycraft.

Dr. Reycraft was practicing medicine in the Highgate and Bothwell area of Chatham-Kent by 1891.  At the age of 28, Dr. Reycraft died of Typhoid Fever on the 14th of June, 1894.  He was buried at the Gosnell Cemetery near Highgate.

*Dr. Reycraft’s brother, Dr. Albert James Reycraft practiced medicine in Fostoria, Ohio.