Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1915
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 556
JOHN H. CRAIG

Among those citizens of Harrison county, Iowa, who have impressed their personality upon the community of their residence and have borne their full share in the upbuilding and development of this county, mention must not be omitted of John H. CRAIG, the well-known carpenter and builder, who can well point with just pride to many evidences of his skill scattered throughout the county.

John H. CRAIG is an adopted son of this great nation, having first seen the light of day in County Down, Ireland, on January 25, 1856, being a son of James and Mary (MCROBERTS) CRAIG, both of whom were natives of the same county. The family emigrated to America in 1859, while John H. was still a child in arms, their passage being taken on a sailing vessel which consumed six weeks in making the voyage, which is now made in less than one week. They landed at the port of New York and remained in that city for one year, at the end of which time they decided to come westward into the heart of this great continent. James CRAIG was a carpenter and they found a suitable location in Dubuque, this state. He secured employment with the Illinois Central Railroad Company as a pattern-maker, being an expert workman, and remained with that company for thirty years. He passed from this life in 1907, in his sixty-sixth year. His wife preceded him into the Great Beyond a number of years, her death having occurred in 1874. She was a faithful member of the Presbyterian church, and he had found his religious home with the Methodist Episcopal church. They were the parents of nine children, four of whom are still living, those beside the immediate subject of this sketch being Mary (Mrs. FULTS), residing at Paris, Illinois; Ella (Mrs. SENATE), who lives in Oklahoma, and Susan (Mrs. SWEENEY), living in Plain county, Nebraska.

When a youth John H. CRAIG attended the city schools of Dubuque, going to the first ward school throughout his school days. From his father he early received instruction in the carpenter trade, and in 1878 he left Dubuque, coming to this county and locating in Missouri Valley, where he secured employment with the Chicago & Northwestern Railroad Company, remaining with that company for ten years. He also was at Council Bluffs for a short time. While with the railroad company he had charge of the water supply for a certain division, putting up water tanks, wind mills, pumps, etc. After marriage Mr. CRAIG followed his trade in Missouri Valley and has the reputation of being a very fine workman. Desiring to try some other line, he for two years operated a chop house and billiard hall in Missouri Valley, but not being satisfied with this business, disposed of it. He decided to try farm life and for eight years rented the farm which he now owns and where the family make their home. In 1904 he purchased the place, which contains one hundred and twenty acres, and has since added many valuable improvements, making it one of the best residence farms in this section. He has never farmed himself, having had his work done by others while his children were small, and now that the son of the family has reached the proper age, he has assumed the management of the home place.

On June 18, 1886, Mr. CRAIG was united in marriage with Mary MARTIN, a native of Dubuque and a daughter of John and Catherine (SWEENEY) MARTIN, both natives of Ireland, who were brought to this country by their parents while they were still small. The families first settled in Pennsylvania, later coming to Iowa, and in 1856 John MARTIN and his wife came to Harrison county and located in section 36, St. Johns township, on the land where the CRAIGs now reside. They secured this land while still in a wild condition, paying one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre, and theirs was all the hard work of reclaiming it from the grasp of the wilderness and converting it into a comfortable and productive home. In 1892 Mr. and Mrs. MARTIN, feeling the burden of the encroaching years, left the farm where they had put in the best of their lives and took up their residence in Missouri Valley, and in that town both of them closed their lives. Mr. MARTIN was a man who was well known and universally respected. He was eminently entitled to the honor of every true American, for he was one of the faithful adopted sons of the nation who went to the front during the dark days of the sixties and bore the burden and heat of the battle the same as a native-born son. He gave three full years of service toward the preservation of the nation. In politics he was a Democrat and throughout his life was a communicant of the Catholic church. There are four of his children still living, those other than Mrs. CRAIG being Elizabeth (Mrs. CLARK), living in Missouri; Louisa, unmarried, who resides in Missouri Valley, and Kate, also unmarried, who makes her home in LaGrange township, this county.

Mr. and Mrs. CRAIG have an interesting family of six children: John Frank, a farmer, of St. Johns township, this county, whose wife was Zora JONES before her marriage. Stella is the wife of Edward O'RORKE, of Broken Bow, Nebraska, and the other children, Katie, Frances, Marion and Edward, remain under the parental roof, the latter having charge of the business of the farm. The CRAIGs are accounted among the excellent families of their community, all being well liked and the home being the center of much gaiety with its young people and their friends. Mr. CRAIG and his family are communicants of the Catholic church at Missouri Valley. He is one of that fine type of virile manhood, one who accomplishes things and is eminently entitled to the flattering degree of respect in which he is held by all who know him.

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