General James Craig

James Craig was born on February 28, 1817, in Washington County, Pennsylvania, the son of James Craig and Martha Slater. The family included sixteen children, of which James was the third son and Enos Craig one of the younger children.

When James was two years old, the family moved to Richland County, Ohio, near the town of Mansfield. He attended a log school, but when eight years of age was put to work for a merchant at Millersburg, Holmes County, Ohio. He worked there until he was twenty one and then served as clerk on a steamboat on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. He read law books in his spare time and at the age of twenty-two was admitted to the Bar at Fort Defiance, Ohio. He started the practice of law at New Philadelphia, Ohio, and in 18 was married to Miss Helen Marr Pfouts (1825-1907). The same year he moved to Oregon, Missouri, and opened a law office. Two years later he was elected to the Missouri legislature as representative of Holt County.

When the Mexican War broke out, in May 1847, Craig raised a company of volunteers in Holt County with himself as captain. This company was mustered into service at Fort Leavenworth on July 4 as Company C, Missouri Mounted Volunteers, but was too late to join Alexander W. Doniphan and Stephen Watts Kearny on their march to New Mexico. They were ordered to Fort Kearney, then on the Missouri River at Nebraska City, to protect the wagon trains moving west on the Overland Trail. Craig headed several expeditions against hostile Indians. In June 1848 Fort Kearney was moved 190 miles west to the south bank of the Platte River near the present site of Kearney, Nebraska. When the war was over, Craig's group was replaced by U.S. Army regular units. He returned to Fort Leavenworth and was honorably discharged on November 8, 1848.

During the war, Captain Craig's family had lived in St. Joseph, Missouri. In the spring of 1849 he crossed the plains to California by wagon train and spent a year at the goldfields. There he accumulated several thousand dollars and in the summer of 1850 he returned by Panama to New Orleans and St.Joseph where he opened a law office. He was elected prosecuting attorney in 1852 and was very busy because of the great numbers of emigrants going through St. Joseph. не served as district attorney until 1856 when he was elected to the Missouri legislature. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1856 and re-elected in 1858, serving until March 3, 1861. He was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1860 and as a Union man was challenged to a duel by a secessionist. When Craig returned to Missouri from Washington in March 1861, he found the population of St. Joseph predominantly Southern in sympathy. He remained strong for the Union, and was authorized by the adjutant general of the U.S. Army to raise a regiment of volunteers. Local opposition was strongly against this and he was unsuccessful. Craig had come to know President Abraham Lincoln and in April 1862 Lincoln appointed him a brigadier general, U.S. Volunteers. He was desirous of active combat service in the East, but because of his knowledge of the West he was assigned to the District of Kansas and directed to keep open the mail route to the West. The area of his responsibility extended up to the present eastern boundaries of Idaho and Utah. His headquarters were at Fort Kearney and Fort Laramie and he had with him about five hundred men. These forces were spread too thin and a number of Indian disturbances made the assignment difficult.

Craig applied for transfer to a more active seat of War, and when this was refused, he submitted his resignation on April 17, 1863. He then returned to St. Joseph to find the situation in northwest Missouri greatly upset by guerilla and "bushwhacker activity. Colonel . C. C. Thornton of Liberty, Missouri, was actively recruiting men for the Confederate Army and William (“Bloody Bill') Anderson was active in his guerilla career of fire and murder. In May 1864 Governor Willard P. Hall, a St. Joseph man, commissioned James Craig as a brigadier general in the Enrolled Missouri Militia. General Sterling Price, C.S.A., invaded Missouri in September 1864 and on October 8 was joined at Boonville by William Quantrill and William Anderson. Their assignment was to protect Price's flank north of the Missouri River. Sterling Price was defeated in the Battle of Westport on October 23 and General Craig's men succeeded in ambushing and killing 'Bloody Bill' Anderson.

When the Civil War came to an end, General Craig resumed the practice of law in St.Joseph and was active in the building and operation of railroads. He served as president of the Hannibal & St. Joseph Railroad and the St. Joseph & Denver City Railroad-later the "Grand Island. He built the Kansas City, St. Joseph, and Council Bluffs Railroad and was its first president. The town of Craig, Missouri, was named for him. Being a friend of President Lincoln, his defeat for Congress for the third term in 1860 was regarded as especially unfortunate for St. Joseph, since the start of building the Union Pacific Railroad from Omaha in 1863 might-remotely-have been by General Craig's influence, had he been in Washington at that time.

In 1866 James Craig was appointed by President Andrew Jackson as Collector of Inland Revenue of the St. Joseph District. He held the position until 1869 when President Grant appointed A. N. Sch this to the post. In 1880 Craig ran again for the U.S. Congress and was defeated by one vote. In 1887 he was a founding member of the Benton Club. On October 21, 1888, he died of cancer at his home, 402 South Twelfth Street. His funeral was held at Christ Episocpal Church and he was buried in Mt. Mora Cemetery.

General and Mrs. Craig had six children, four sons and two daughters. Willard died as a boy, Benjamin H. graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and died when a young Naval officer. James Craig, Jr., became an attorney in St. Joseph. Louis A. Craig graduated from West Point, was active on the western frontier, and was colonel of infantry in the Philippines in 1899. He married Miss Georgia Malin, daughter of Dr. Joseph Malin of St. Joseph and their son, General Malin Craig, became Chief of Staff of the U.S Army.

Of the daughters, Ida married Captain Wilcox of the Fourth Cavalry, U.S. Army and Clara C. married Major Samuel A. Garth of St. Joseph