The Craig family have been identified with Liberty Township for over eighty years. The late James H. Craig was born in that township nearly seventy-five years ago, and was long one of the most capable farmers and hardworking and straight-forward citizens.
He was born on an adjoining farm June 23, 1844, and died at his home place in section 36, five miles southeast of Liberty Village, June 9, 1909,aged sixty-four years, eleven months and seven days. His father, John Craig, was born in Kentucky August 10, 1812, and when a child went with his parents to Indiana. In 1830 he came to Adams County and settled in Liberty Township. In 1836, John Craig married Agnes Farmer. She was born in Alabama May 18 1818, and was brought to Adams County by her father in 1835. John Craig was one of the prosperous pioneers of Liberty Township, owned 400 acres of land, and died August 28, 1877. He and his wife had twelve children, and of those to reach mature years there were four daughters and six sons, named Milton, Sarah A., Charles W., James H., Perleta J., John C., Jasial, Andrew J., Lucy E., and Malvina A. Those who survived James Henry and have since died were: Sarah, Mrs. Gordon, who died at Santa Rosa, California; Mrs. Lucy Hunsaker, of Decatur Arkansas; Mrs. Malvina Calahan, of Wichita, Kansas; Jesse, of Timewell, Illinois; Jackson, who lived with his brother James and Paulina A. Miller. Those who died before James were Milton, who served as a Union soldier from 1862 in the Seventy-EightsIllinois Infantry to the end of the war, and afterwards lived in Liberty Township and died about a year before his brother James; Robert, who died in early youth; and Charles, who died at the age of thirty-five.
May 23, 1883, James Henry Craig married Miss Sarah Miller. Theirs was an ideal companionship for over a quarter of a century. For four yearsJames Craig served as deputy sheriff under his cousin, George Craig, and during that time lived in Quincy and had charge of the jail. His home farm comprises 160 acres, a part of his father’s old homestead. James Craig built the present house just before his marriage and afterward put up barns and there lived an industrious and peaceful life. He was a democrat. He was not a church member but attended the Pleasant View Baptist Church of which Mrs. Craig is a member.
Source: Quincy and Adams County History and Representative Men, p. 1313; by David Wilcox. Chicago: Lewis Publishing, 1919.
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