CHARLES M. CRAIG. This highly respected gentleman, a native-born and lifelong resident of Donegal township, is descended from vigorous and robust North-of-Ireland people, a race known the wide world over for their resolute and honest lives. The first of the Craig family, in Washington county, to come to American shores, was James Craig, a native of Antrim, Ireland, where he married a Miss Martin, and the young couple then set sail for the distant shores of Columbia. This was toward the close of the last century, and about the year 1800 they settled in Washington county, Penn., in West Finley township, where they reared an interesting family of sturdy children named, respectively, Hugh, Samuel A., James, Margaret, William, Ann and John. Here this honored pioneer couple closed their eyes forever, after a life of honest toil and characteristic rectitude.
Hugh Craig, the eldest son of James Craig, was born in West Finley township, this county, and there was married to Martha Martin, by whom were born to him the following named children: Jane, who died after reaching adult age; James, deceased when nineteen years old; Martin, who died in October, 1828, at the age of fourteen years; Enos, who died in April, 1840, aged eighteen years; Charles M., the subject of this sketch; Margaret, who died at the age of twenty-one years, and one son and one daughter both of whom died in infancy. Hugh Craig followed farming, and also his trade, that of shoemaking, in the township of his birth until 1829, when he moved to Donegal township, having purchased a farm about three and one-half miles northwest of Claysville. Here he passed the remainder of his days, dying in 1833.
Charles M. Craig, the subject proper of this biographical memoir, was born March 4, 1822, near Claysville, and at the common schools of the district received a fair education, which he afterward greatly improved by home reading and study. Early in life he began the arduous duties incident to the farm, and followed agricultural pursuits under the tuition of his father until the latter's death, when he took entire charge of the homestead, living with his mother and sister, Jane, up to the time of their respective deaths, the mother dying in 1873, the sister in 1890. Mr. Craig has since made his home with a neighbor, whose farm adjoins his. For several years he has done no real work, but spends the greater part of his time in reading, of which he is passionately fond, and he keeps himself thoroughly posted on the issues of the day, political and otherwise. He has always been a great reader, an ardent lover of books, a keen observer of men and things; indeed, there is scarce a topic, either of the past or present, with which he is not familiar, and his conversation on all subjects is bright and of a most entertaining nature. At one time an Old-line Whig, he is now, and has been since the formation of the party, an enthusiastic Republican, and, whilst loyal to the cause, has always shunned political preferment.
Text taken from page 1044 of:
Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893).Transcribed March 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project.
Published March 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.[ [Back to Beers Table of Contents] [Back to Beers Project Page]