Cravath, Samuel Austin
CRAVATH, DAVIS, BINGHAM, RALEY, BONSALL
Posted By: Don Wherry (email)
Date: 7/20/2010 at 20:32:48
Cravath, Samuel Austin, of Grinnell, is a native of Pennsylvania, born at Conneaut, Crawford county, September 27, 1836. His father, James Cravath, was a native of New York, who, after his marriage, settled on a farm in western Pennsylvania, where he died at an early age, leaving three sons. The mother, Emily Davis Cravath, also of New York, was a woman of fine musical attainments, and a singer of considerable local prominence. The name Cravath is of uncertain origin. The Cravaths of this country trace their origin to an ancestor who settled in Boston, Mass., in 1679, and who probably came from near Bristol, Eng. The name has been found in south central Europe as well as in England. Grandmother Bingham Cravath was a daughter of Colonel Bingham, from whom Binghamton, N. Y., was named. He was an officer of the revolutionary war, who lived to be 104 years of age. The immediate ancestors of the family were New England people from northern Connecticut. They moved to western New York, and were all prosperous farmers of good education. The boyhood days of S. A. Cravath were spent on a farm near Oberlin, Ohio, and in a thrifty Yankee community in Gainesville, Wyoming county, N. Y. In 1852 he entered the preparatory department of Oberlin college and continued his studies in connection with that institution until August, 1858, when he graduated, taking the degree of bachelor of arts. On account of his standing as a classical student, he was selected to teach Latin and Greek, in the institution in connection with the pursuit of his other studies. He also spent the three months of winter vacation teaching, either in common schools or schools of higher grade, in order to secure the means to complete his college course. Honors and prizes were not allowed in Oberlin college in those years. Immediately after graduating, he assumed the principalship of Madison seminary, at Madison, Ohio, in which position he remained three years, serving also as one of the county examiners of teachers. During the years 1862 and 1863, he superintended the public schools of Marion, Ohio, studying medicine meanwhile. In the winter of 1863-4, he took a course of lectures in Starling Medical college, at Columbus, Ohio. In the spring of 1864 he completed a course of lectures at the Cincinnati College of Medicine and Surgery, and received the degree of M. D. He began the practice of medicine in the city of Springfield, Ohio, but moved to Mitchell, Mitchell county, Iowa, in October, 1865, and continued in the practice there until 1872. He established the Mitchell County News, now called the Osage News, in 1869, and edited it for two years, in connection with his practice. Soon after he took charge of the paper, a county convention put in nomination a candidate for county superintendent of schools, who had little qualification for the place. The News nominated, and by its support secured the election of, the first woman to hold the office of county superintendent of schools in Iowa, Miss Julia C. Addington. Finding his double work too great a burden, Dr. Cravath sold the News in 1871; but a few months of freedom convinced him that he could not easily lay aside newspaper work, and he decided to return to it in a larger field. January 11, 1872, he bought a half interest in the Grinnell Herald, of J. M. Chamberlain, and soon after secured the whole plant. With the exception of a brief partnership with Col. S. P. Cooper, he continued as sole proprietor until 1879, when he sold a half interest to Albert Shaw, now editor of the American monthly Review of Reviews. After a partnership of three years, Mr. Shaw received an appointment on the editorial staff of the Minneapolis Tribune, and Dr. Cravath bought back his interest and was sole editor and proprietor until 1890, when he sold a half interest to Hon. W. G. Ray. This partnership continued until August, 1894, when on account of his health, he decided to retire from the business and sold all his interest in the plant to Ronald McDonald, who was for ten years night editor of the New York Times. During the twenty-three years of Dr. Cravath's connection with the Herald, it grew from a very meagerly furnished country printing office, occupying a single room, to a well equipped establishment with five printing presses and the complete machinery of a publishing house, including a bindery, and occupying both stories of a brick building of its own, built with elevator power and other modern conveniences. In 1878, the Herald was changed from a weekly to a semi-weekly paper, and has been issued in that form until the present time. It has always been republican in politics and conservative but positive in its utterances. The whole establishment went up in flames in a fire which consumed the core of Grinnell, June 12, 1889. Within sixty days, it was rebuilt in a better and more substantial manner. During his residence in Grinnell, Dr. Cravath has held several positions of responsibility and trust. He was secretary of the school board for fifteen years, served several years as a director and president of the Grinnell Building, Loan and Savings association; has been one of the directors of the First National bank of Grinnell for more than a decade; also director and second vice-president of the Merchants National bank of Grinnell, president of the Grinnell Savings bank, and one of the trustees of Iowa college.
During the presidency of Benjamin Harrison, he was appointed postmaster of Grinnell, and held the office four years. With these exceptions, and one term as school director, he has kept aloof from public office and candidacy.
S. A. Cravath became a member of the Congregational church when a young man, under the ministry of Charles G. Pinney, who was president of the college and pastor of the only church in Oberlin at that time. He was married in Philadelphia, July 11, 1860, to Mary Raley, of Hanoverton, Columbiana county, Ohio, Dr. Albert Barnes officiating. Mary Raley was a Quaker, of Pennsylvania ancestry, who was graduated at Oberlin in 1858, with the degree of A. B. She was later a teacher of some years experience. Since her residence in Grinnell she has been, from 1880 to 1895, a deaconess in the Congregational church. The children were Emily, Rose Mary, and James Raley, of whom only the son survives. He graduated from Iowa college in 1892, and occupied the position of electrical editor of the Street Railway Review of Chicago for 4 years. Dr. and Mrs. Cravath also raised a neice of Mrs. Cravath, (Ella B.*) who was left motherless in infancy.
- p. 445-446,
Biographies and Portraits of the Progressive Men of Iowa:
Leaders In Business, Politics, And The Professions, 2 vol.; 1210 pps.
Gue, Benjamin F.; Shambaugh, Benjamin Franklin
Conaway & Shaw; Des Moines, IA; 1899* Transcriber's addendum, 01-Feb-2012: Elizabeth Raley (Bonsall) Hamlin (1856-1936). See posted obituary:
http://iagenweb.org/boards/poweshiek/obituaries/index.cgi?rev=374528
Poweshiek Biographies maintained by Cindy Booth Maher.
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