Craig, Samuel G.

Born: 1811-04-04 Kentucky

Died: 1871-02-27 Danville, Illinois

Samuel G. Craig was a farmer, court clerk, merchant, Whig, state representative, railroad commissioner, and real estate investor. He moved from Kentucky to Indiana while young, then relocated to Danville, Illinois in 1838. He married Catherine McCrea in 1842 and had at least two children with her before she died in March 1856. He served as clerk of the Vermilion County Circuit Court as early as 1842, a position he held for twelve years. Afterwards, he worked in the dry-goods business. In February 1857, Craig helped incorporate the Danville and Bloomington Railroad Company and became one of its commissioners. Later that year, he married Rebecca Gilbert. He purchased hundreds of acres of land across several counties in Illinois in the 1850s, and his personal wealth grew substantially within the last two decades of his life. By 1860, he had accumulated $25,000 in real and personal property. He served in the Illinois House of Representatives during the Twenty-Second General Assembly in 1861, on behalf of Vermilion County.

H. W. Beckwith, History of Vermilion County, Together with Historic Notes on the Northwest (Chicago: H. H. Hill, 1879), 392; Indiana Marriages Database through 1850, 11 June 1842, Indiana State Library, Indianapolis, IN; A. Cameron & Co. v. Williams et al., Martha L. Benner and Cullom Davis et al., eds., The Law Practice of Abraham Lincoln: Complete Documentary Edition, 2d edition (Springfield: Illinois Historic Preservation Agency, 2009), http://www.lawpracticeofabrahamlincoln.org/Details.aspx?case=137215; Illinois Daily Journal (Springfield), 22 September 1852, 3:1; U.S. Census Office, Seventh Census of the United States (1850), Danville, Vermilion County, IL, 599; “An Act to Incorporate the Danville and Bloomington Railroad Company,” 11 February 1857, Laws of Illinois (1857), 438, 440; Illinois Statewide Marriage Index, Vermilion County, 26 November 1857, Illinois State Archives, Springfield, IL; For an exhaustive list of Craig's land purchases, search "Craig Samuel G," https://www.ilsos.gov/isa/landsrch.jsp; U.S. Census Office, Eighth Census of the United States (1860), Danville, Vermilion County, IL, 15; John Clayton, comp., The Illinois Fact Book and Historical Almanac, 1673-1968 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970), 223; Catherine A. Craig, Samuel G. Craig, Gravestone, Spring Hill Cemetery and Mausoleum, Danville, IL.