306 HISTORY OK THE WHEEL AND ALLIANCE. 



mind grasps at once the deplorable, condition of those 

 whom he has the honor to represent and suggests the 

 proper remedy. He has studiously and laboriously con- 

 sidered the whole situation and is fully abreast of the 

 times. Though cautious and discreet he is nevertheless 

 aggressive. Kind and affectionate in his disposition, he 

 never lacks for friends. He is the ideal type of the 

 American farmer. 



ISAAC MCCRACKEN. 



The history of an organization is intricately inter- 

 woven with the lives of the men who labor for the 

 dissemination of its principles and the attainment of its 

 objects. To the unselfish devotion of such men the world 

 owes its present advanced condition in civilization. Among 

 those who have actively engaged in the grand work, pro- 

 mulgating the principles of the Order, and placing it in 

 the high position which it now occupies as a labor organi- 

 zation, none have, perhaps, figured more conspicuously, or 

 accomplished greater good than Isaac McCracken, the 

 President of the National Wheel. 



" Isaac McCracken was born in Huntington, Canada 

 East, in the year 1846, of Scotch-Irish parents. His 

 parents lived in the little town in which he was born until 

 Isaac was 8 years of age, when they moved to Lowell, 

 Massachusetts. After having attended the common 

 schools, his parents apprenticed him to a block cutter. 

 Disliking the trade, and being of a roaming disposition, 

 Isaac concluded to try a sea-faring life; this was in the 

 year 1860. He shipped as a common seaman before the 

 mast in a whaling vessel, and during three years he fol- 

 lowed the sea. He visited Cuba, St. Domingo, Jamaica, 

 the Bermudas and Western Islands, also the coast of 

 Central America. 



