Individual Details

Pauline Craig Hughes says of her father in her memoir:
"John Craig was the youngest child. His brother William never married and upon his baby brother he bestowed all the warmth of his loving, generous heart. William took great interest in the education of his younger brother, and being a good English scholar himself, assisted him in every possible way, also arranging for him to take a classical course. Improving the opportunities thus afforded him, John was a good Greek and Latin scholar while still in his teens.
John followed William to Alabama from Tennessee about 1822. They lived awhile near Nanofolia but the location proved to be unhealthy and a friend, Matthew Parkham, advised them to go to Marengo County. They did so and Parkham used his influence in getting up a school for the young Tennessean. He took him around from house to house, that he might get acquainted with the people, and among other places, they called at Mr. Lewis Barfield's. The next thing was to secure a boarding place for the young teacher and Lewis Barfield's was selected as the most suitable.
In Mr. Barfield's family were two daughters, Mary, then in her twentieth year, and Sarah, some years younger. The young teacher was of medium height and of slender build. His complexion was fair but his eyes were dark brown, and they seemed to penetrate your very soul when he looked earnestly at you. John and Mary were married October 16, 1823.
John Craig taught school at Greensboro, Alabama, in 1824 but returned to Marengo County the latter part of that year and bought a home in sight of the Glover Church, one of the first Methodist churches established in that section. He and his wife joined the church and had their daughter Pauline. Here John practiced medicine with Dr. Sexton.
Soon after his conversion he felt called to preach and was licensed by the quarterly conference as a local preacher. He never joined the itinerancy, but he travelled a great deal as he was very popular and his services were called for far and near by many of his warm friends and admirers. Charles Steveson was one of these, and requested on his death-bed that John Craig should preach his funeral sermon, though twenty miles away.
John joined the Masonic fraternity a short time before the wave of anti-Masonry (which originated in the North) had reached the South. The bitter feeling of the anti-Masons against the Masons was so intense that, in some instances, not only the obligations of Christianity, but even those of common humanity, were forgotten or ignored. He suffered much persecution, principally from ministers who were opposed to Masonry, for in those days a good many ministers in the M.E. Church were against it. Now, a Methodist preacher who is not a Mason would be a Rara-avis. John became a prominent Mason, reaching the degree of Royal-Arch, and was a Knights Templar. He was for some time Grand lecturer of the State of Alabama.* A copy of the By-Laws of Perry Lodge lists John as Master.
John's health began to fail so that he could not travel much but he continued to preach near home. He was a born orator and very earnest in his manner of delivery, and doubtless did much good during the few years of his ministry.
In 1834 he went into the mercantile business in Marion, Alabama, but owing to the rascality of his partner, the business did not meet his expectations, so he turned again to teaching school. This he followed until a few weeks before his death, which occurred at Mississippi Springs November 3, 1841, and was buried by the side of his daughter Mary, who had preceded him just seven weeks before. Just before he died he tried to sing with his faltering tongue, "Hallelujah to the Lamb, Who has purchased our pardon, We will praise Him again when we pass over Jordan."
John's brother William made his home with John's family a good part of the time until after John's death. "

Betty Hughes adds the following:
"Her father (Pauline's), and her grandfather -- John Craig (senior) -- were both ministers in the Methodist Church, the former a teacher as well as preacher. He was a man well-endowed both by nature and training for leadership, having received exceptionally good educational advantage early in youth. As both preacher and teacher he excelled, making scores of friends and admirers wherever he went. He was a mason, and was reckoned among the leaders in that fraternity in the state of Alabama, where he lived much of his life.
He was married to my grandmother, Mary Barfield, in 1823. For a number of years they lived in Marengo County, Alabama, and it was there that my mother and the most of her sisters and brothers were born. He moved to Mississippi with his family when my mother was in the early "tweens." He lived not many months after coming to this state, succumbing to a serious illness in the fall of 1841. He was not much past forty years of age when this fatal illness cut short a career of true usefulness. He left a wife and a "house full" of children, eight in all. The oldest, Jane, barely seventeen at the time, and Pauline, two years younger. There were six sisters, Jane, Pauline, Mary (who died only a month or so before her father), Matilda, Sarah, and Louisa. This youngest of the girls was born in less than a month after her father's death. The two boys, William and John, were among the younger of the children."

A letter written by Rev. Wesley Smith describes his life of Methodism. In 1819 his father moved from Tennessee to Lauderdale county Alabama and settled on Blue-water Creek. Their rude cabin became a preaching place of the Methodist circuit riders. His early recollections are associated with preachers local and itinerent. Among the preachers most remembered he mentions John Craig. He didn't remember what became of him; "but when I reached Texas in the fall of 1851, the first Methodist preacher I met was a brother of our old Tennessee Craig. The Rev. William Craig, who has since died, lived near Henderson, Texas. He was a remarkable man in some respects. He was a terror to all dogs and evil-doers at a camp meeting. My father used to support a tent at a camp-ground, over in the edge of Lawrence County, Tennessee, known as Woolsey's Camp-ground ; and I well remember the terror I felt at seeing old Brother Craig passing to and fro, wielding his terrible shillalah after the dogs." (M'Ferrin 400)

*Oliver Day Street's Sketch of Freemasonry in Alabama lists Rev John Craig among other men who held the important position of Grand Lecturer.

Birth	Abt 1801	South Carolina, United States
Marriage	16 Oct 1823	Marengo, Alabama, United States - Mary Barfield
Census (family)	1830	Marengo, Alabama, United States - Mary Barfield
Census (family)	1840	Mary Barfield
Death	2 Nov 1841	Mississippi Springs, Hinds, Mississippi, United States

Spouse	Mary Barfield (1803 - 1860)
Child	Eliza Jane Craig (1824 - 1894)
Child	Pauline Craig (1826 - 1910)
Child	Mary Craig (1828 - 1841)
Child	William Henry "Will" Craig (1831 - 1880)
Child	John Craig (1834 - 1861)
Child	Sarah C. Craig (1839 - )
Child	E. Matilda Craig (1838 - 1862)
Child	Louisa Anna Craig (1841 - 1887)

Father	Rev. John Craig Sr. (1772 - 1840)
Mother	Jane Miller ( - 1819)
Sibling	Rev William Craig (1800 - 1854)
Sibling	Samuel Craig (1800 - 1826)

Notes