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 SAAC N. CRAIG, a wealthy and retired farmer, has been a citizen of Charleston for nearly twenty years, taking up his residence here after his abandonment of farm life in 1869. His homestead consists of sixty-two and one-half acres of valuable land adjacent to the city limits, and besides this property he is the owner of 700 acres elsewhere in Coles County. Since becoming a resident of Central Illinois he has distinguished himself as a wide-awake and enterprising citizen, identifying himself with the interests of the people, and being the especial encourager and supporter of the institutions pertaining to the intellectual and moral welfare of the people. He is one of the pillars of the Baptist Church, and has been connected with the Second National Bank as a stockholder and Director, since its organization. His career illustrates in a marked manner the influence which a man of wise judgment and generous impulses may exert upon a community, and the good which may be accomplished directly and indirectly by one, who, while looking after his own property, has a thought also for the interests of the community around him. Isaac N. Craig is a native of Montgomery County, Ky., his birth taking place Sept. 25, 1810. His parents, Robert and Elizabeth (Nickel) Craig, were natives of Virginia, but reared in Kentucky. The paternal grandfather of our subject, also a native of the Old Dominion, was a blacksmith by trade, and the son of Victor Craig, who was of Scotch-Irish ancestry, and who settled in Virginia early in life, and engaged in merchandising. Robert Craig was born in 1781, and was but a lad when his parents moved to Kentucky. He was reared on a farm and within the confines of Strode Fort, to which his father at one time removed for protection from the Indians. He received the advantages of a good English education, and remained in the Blue Grass regions until 1828, in the meantime being bred to farming pursuits. He carried on agriculture several years, then sold out, and coming to Clark County, this State, purchased a quarter section of Government land upon which he built a log house, and proceeded with its improvement and cultivation until 1842. Thence he removed to Edgar County, where he remained until his death, in 1847. His wife also died the same year. Robert Craig was a stanch Democrat, politically, and served as a soldier in the War of 1812. He was one of the first to identify himself with the Masonic fraternity, and was also connected with the Universalist Church. His wife, Elizabeth, was a Baptist. They reared a family of eight children, of whom only two survive, namely, Isaac N. and his sister, Narcissa, Mrs. Thomas Davis, of Morgan Township, this county. The subject of this history was reared on the farm until about twenty-one years of age, receiving a common-school education. One of the first steps toward the establishment of a home, was his marriage with Miss Catherine Henson, a native of Kentucky, which, took place at the home of the bride, April 14, 1831. After their marriage, the young people located upon sixty acres of land in Clark County, given them by the father of our subject, and of which they retained possession for five years. Mr. Craig then sold out and purchased 164 acres in Morgan Township, this county, which he occupied thirteen years, and where his wife died, leaving five children, three now living, namely, Lafayette; Elizabeth, Mrs. Gregg, and Harriet, Mrs. Mitchell. The second wife of our subject was in her girlhood Miss Elizabeth Bloyer, who was born in Pennsylvania, and is the daughter of John and Elizabeth (Harding) Bloyer, natives of Switzerland. They emigrated to America in 1817, and located in Pennsylvania, where they became the parents of three children, of whom Mrs. C. is the only one living. Mr. Bloyer only lived seven years after coming to America. The mother afterward came to this county, and locating at Charleston, remained a resident there until her death, in 1851. The union of Isaac N. Craig and Miss Elizabeth Bloyer resulted in the birth of six children, namely, Catherine, now Mrs. McMullen; James W., practicing law at Mattoon; Andrew J., a farmer; L. E., Mrs. Swange; Isaac B., an attorney at Mattoon, and Thomas J. |
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