Craine, George 1814 - 1889

CRAINE, HARDIN, ROTH

Posted By: Deborah Brownfield - Stanley (email)
Date: 6/9/2005 at 08:57:17

The Fairfield Ledger
Oct. 30, 1889
Page 3 col. 4

CALLED FROM EARTH. GEORGE CRAINE, a prominent citizen and business man of Fairfield, died at his home in this city on Thursday last. His final illness was of several weeks’ duration, and death resulted from that wearing out of the machinery of life incidental to old age. MR. CRAINE was in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He was born near Hollidaysburg, Pa., where he grew to manhood. As a young man he came to Illinois, and in 1841, in Sangamon County, was married to NANCY J. HARDIN, who died here in January 1888. In 1842 MR. and MRS. CRAINE removed to Iowa City, this state, where their first child was born and died. Later in the same year they came to Fairfield, which was their home for nearly half a century. Here nine children were born to them, five of whom grew to mature years. Four of these are now living, E. W. of Missouri Valley; ALICE; MANNIE and GEORGE H. of this city. For thirty-two years the family circle was unbroken, but since 1888 the parents and a daughter, MRS. J. E. ROTH, having been called to their long home.

GEORGE CRAINE led an active and busy life from early manhood almost to the day of his death. A carpenter by trade, he was almost Fairfield’s earliest and latest builder. He erected the first brick structure ever built in the town, now a part of the home of MRS. ELIZA ECKERT, and probably more buildings had been erected under his direction than that of any man who ever lived in Fairfield. The old courthouse was a piece of his early work, and the greater portion of the handsome buildings around the square stand as monuments to his memory, evidence of his skill and honest work. MR. CRAINE was a most excellent man and citizen, and his honesty and integrity were of the strictest sort. His life here was marked by the esteem in which he was held by those who had known him longest and who reposed in him the utmost confidence. The funeral occurred on Friday afternoon, and was largely attended by old friends and neighbors and the Masonic lodge, of which he had long been a member.