Western Pennsylvania Genealogy
Compiled by Douglas H. Lusher


Family Group Record



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John Craig and Mary Daugherty




Husband John Craig 1 2

           Born: 1787 2
     Christened: 
           Died: 1868 2
         Buried: 


         Father: Capt. John Craig (1753-1845/1852) 3 4 5 6
         Mother: Martha Clark (      -      ) 1 3 7


       Marriage: 



Wife Mary Daugherty 2

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 


Children
1 M James Craig 8

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 
         Spouse: Sarah Foster (      -      ) 8
           Marr: 13 Apr 1837 8


2 F Martha Craig 9

           Born: 10 Aug 1811 9
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 
         Spouse: Dr. Robert Wallace (1801-1870) 9


3 F Mary Craig 10

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 
         Spouse: David Shields (      -      ) 10


4 F Nancy Craig 10

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 
         Spouse: J. F. McCurdy (      -      ) 10


5 F Isabelle Craig 11

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 



6 M Shields Craig 11

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: while young
         Buried: 



7 F Eliza Craig 11

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 
         Spouse: Robert Campbell (      -      ) 11
         Spouse: Christopher Foster (      -      ) 11


8 F Matilda Craig 11

           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 
         Buried: 
         Spouse: [Unk] Lovell (      -      ) 11



General Notes: Husband - John Craig


After the removal of his father's family to Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, he and his sister Elizabeth were sent back to Westmoreland County to attend school, as there were no schools in Armstrong County at that time. Although he received no education in school beyond reading, writing and arithmetic, yet by using his spare time in reading and study, he was regarded as one of the most intelligent men in his community he had a good command of the English language, and a convincing way of speaking in conversation, argument and public speaking. He was a successful business man in factory, mill and mercantile business, also in the oil business and dealing in Western lands.
He was an active temperance man, not only a total abstainer himself, but would not permit the use of liquor on his premises; with three or four others he formed a temperance club, which afterward became a large and useful society.
At an early age John Craig united with the Presbyterian church and was elected to the office of ruling elder when comparatively young. He was an active worker for the emancipation of the slave at the time when abolitionists were few in his locality (he being one of five in Armstrong County) and were branded as "traitors to the Government, trying to destroy its Constitution," and called "nigger lovers who wanted to associate with them as equals." Although he did not live on the main line of the "Underground Railroad," yet his house was a station on a branch road, and he helped many a poor slave on his way to freedom.
When the Presbyterian General Assembly passed a Resolution requiring their ministers to remain neutral on the slavery question, he and a few others, believing this action to be wrong, withdrew from the Presbyterian church, and petitioned the Free Presbyterian Presbytery near New Castle, Pennsylvania, to organize a Free Presbyterian congregation at Worthington, Pennsylvania, and this was done. After they increased in numbers they built a church, and continued in the Free Presbyterian church until slavery was abolished, when there was no longer a reason for them maintaining a separate congregation and they were received into the Presbyterian church.
Mr. Craig was a delegate to the National Convention at Buffalo when a candidate for President was nominated by the Abolition party, and afterward when the name of the party was changed to that of Free Soilers, he was sent as a delegate to the National Convention held in Philadelphia in 1865 when John C. Fremont was nominated for President.
The estimate in which the Craigs of Craigsville, Pennsylvania, were held in their own vicinity was expressed by a neighbor in the following way: "I believe old John Craig was as honest a man as ever lived; that young John (Samuel's son) would rather break his neck than his word, and that old Sam was a sight honester than either of them." It has been said that in their business transactions, and in their controversies in propagating their advanced ideas about temperance and slavery, they were never charged by their most bitter opponents with dishonesty, insincerity or untruthfulness.

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Sources


1 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 685.

2 Jane Maria Craig, Samuel Craig, Senior, Pioneer to Western Pennsylvania, and His Descendants (Greensburg, PA: Privately printed, 1915), Pg 34.

3 John W. Jordan, History of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, Genealogical Memoirs, Vol. II (Chicago, IL: The Lewis Publishing Company, 1906), Pg 409.

4 —, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Her People Past and Present (Chicago, IL: J. H. Beers & Co., 1914), Pg 315.

5 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1913), Pg 684.

6 Jane Maria Craig, Samuel Craig, Senior, Pioneer to Western Pennsylvania, and His Descendants (Greensburg, PA: Privately printed, 1915), Pg 16, 23.

7 Jane Maria Craig, Samuel Craig, Senior, Pioneer to Western Pennsylvania, and His Descendants (Greensburg, PA: Privately printed, 1915), Pg 24.

8 Jane Maria Craig, Samuel Craig, Senior, Pioneer to Western Pennsylvania, and His Descendants (Greensburg, PA: Privately printed, 1915), Pg 36.

9 Jane Maria Craig, Samuel Craig, Senior, Pioneer to Western Pennsylvania, and His Descendants (Greensburg, PA: Privately printed, 1915), Pg 37.

10 Jane Maria Craig, Samuel Craig, Senior, Pioneer to Western Pennsylvania, and His Descendants (Greensburg, PA: Privately printed, 1915), Pg 38.

11 Jane Maria Craig, Samuel Craig, Senior, Pioneer to Western Pennsylvania, and His Descendants (Greensburg, PA: Privately printed, 1915), Pg 39.


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