John D. Craven

BARKER, BLAIR, CHARLTON, CONWAY, CRAVEN, DUNCAN, HERR, PYLE, SALTUS, TROGDEN

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 10/19/2004 at 19:25:47

J. D. Craven, a veteran of the Civil war and an able farmer of this county, passed to his reward many years ago but his memory is still cherished by those who knew him well. He was born in Morgan county, Indiana, July 31, 1830, of the marriage of Ira and Abigail (Barker) Craven, both natives of North Carolina, who removed to Indiana and there passed away.

J. D. Craven was reared in the Hoosier state and in 1856 came with his wife to Madison county, Iowa, buying eighty acres of unimproved land in Grand River township. He built a log cabin but while he and his wife were on a trip to Indiana their house was blown away by a tornado. Upon their return to this county they traded that eighty acre farm for an eighty acre tract south of Macksburg and there Mr. Craven engaged in farming until 1862, when he enlisted in Company H, Twenty-third Iowa Volunteer Infantry. He was with the colors for three years, or until the end of the war, and proved a courageous and loyal soldier, never faltering in the performance of duty no matter how dangerous it might be. Although he was never wounded, nor in a hospital, he was home for six weeks on a sick furlough. After the close of the war he returned to this county and resumed farming. He not only cultivated the soil but also raised stock and was considered an excellent agriculturist. He passed away when forty-six years of age, dying on the 21st of November, 1876. He was the first veteran of the Civil war to pass away in his locality and when the post of the Grand Army of the Republic was organized in Macksburg it was named in his honor the J. D. Craven Post, No. 322.

On the 19th of September, 1852, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Craven and Miss Eliza M. Duncan, who was born in North Carolina on the 23d of August, 1832, a daughter of John B. and Cynthia (Trogden) Duncan. Her father was born on the 18th of January, 1804, in North Carolina and passed away on the 1st of May, 1857. The mother was also born in that state on the 21st of April, 1811. They removed to Indiana when their daughter, Mrs. Craven, was three years of age and both died in the Hoosier state. Mr. and Mrs. Craven had eight children: Sylvester, a resident of Canada, who married Alice Jessup, now deceased; Cynthia A., who is the widow of Daniel Herr and resides in the state of Washington; Nancy Jane, the wife of Albert Charlton, of Loup City, Nebraska; Mary E., who gave her hand in marriage to Francis Saltus, of Sherwood, Oregon; John D.; Charles, who married Mary Blair, now deceased, and lives in Sherwood, Oregon; Emma E., the wife of William Pyle, of Des Moines; and Frank, a resident of Macksburg, who married Emma Conway and has five children.

Mr. Craven gave his political allegiance to the republican party and conformed his life to the teachings of the Baptist church, of which he was a member. In his demise the county lost a good citizen and there were many who felt a sense of personal bereavement when he was called to his reward.

Mrs. Craven remained upon the farm for two years after the death of her husband and then removed to Macksburg, where she owns a comfortable home. She is now in her eighty-third year but is still in splendid health and does all of her own work. She is noted for her skill in cooking and for twenty-five years has conducted a hotel. When she first moved to Macksburg there was no hotel in the town and she began keeping travelers as there was no place else for them to go for she could not bear to see them lack comfortable lodging and good food. She is not only one of the oldest but is also one of the most esteemed residents of Macksburg and her reminiscences of life in the early days are of value in linking the present with the more primitive past which has made the comforts of today possible.

Taken from the book, “The History of Madison County, Iowa, 1915”