
Published March 21, 2024
By William McIntyre
A photo of Elijah Lewis Craig in his younger years.
(Photo courtesy of the author)
A photo of Elijah Lewis Craig in his younger years.
(Photo courtesy of the author)
Elder Elijah Lewis Craig led an interesting and accomplished life. His life exemplifies migration patterns of Americans, many of whom left Kentucky for Illinois and some who would continue to move on to other areas within Illinois and to other states. Families and friends travelled together and settled in adjacent areas. Church was a unifier of communities and important in individual lives. His life is a microcosm of Adams County and the Midwest during much of the 19th century.
Elijah Craig was born on January 12, 1816, in Jefferson County, Kentucky, near Louisville. He was a member of the large Craig family whose patriarch was Taliaferro “Toliver” Craig and included the Craig brothers who were prominent ministers in the late 18th and early 19th century. Elder Craig died in Butler County, Kansas, in 1881 after living in Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas.
As a boy he was raised by his parents along with his one sibling Lanthia Laura Craig. Elijah attended “common school” till the age of 9. In 1825 his parents moved to Port William, later named Carrollton, Kentucky, just northeast of Louisville on the Ohio River. The following year, his mother died. With his father’s consent he went to live with a relative, Benjamin Craig, Jr., who was a prominent and successful farmer and a veteran of the War of 1812.
Benjamin Craig, Jr., and his wife Elizabeth Morris Craig and their 11 children welcomed and loved Elijah as a son and brother of the family. The Craigs lived in a mansion built in 1805 known as Riverview because it stood overlooking the Ohio River. Elijah received an education and apprenticed with Benjamin until the age of 21. Though the Craigs had been devout Baptists and highly respected church leaders, like many in that area at that time they began to follow the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) after the revivals at Cane Ridge, Kentucky, in 1801. The denomination became formalized in 1832 at Lexington. At the age of 18, Elijah Lewis Craig joined the Christian Church. This set forth his life’s work and his passionate devotion. On February 18, 1836, at age 20, he married.
In 1839, Elijah and his wife Adeline, moved to the river town of Alton, Illinois, after traveling by paddleboat. After one year, they settled further north near Quincy in Fall Creek Township, just outside the village of Payson. Soon after arrival in 1842, Elijah became an ordained minister of the Christian Church. This was at the time of the organization of the local Christian Church which was later referred to as the Craigtown Christian Church. The community looked up to him as a spiritual and community leader. The informal community became known as Craigtown in his honor.
In 1849, the Quincy newspapers reported that at least 200 men from Adams County were planning to head west in the Spring to seek their fortunes in gold. In the 1850 Census of Adams County, taken early in the year, Elijah and his wife Adeline were counted in Fall Creek. However, in October of 1850 he was also counted in the Census of Pleasant Hill, El Dorado, California. His occupation was listed as a miner. With him in the Gold Rush were other Fall Creek residents, Nathaniel P. Rood, Charles Arterburn, Columbus Hunsaker, Ambrose Young, and Jacob Rood of Quincy. After an arduous trip out west and back, these Fall Creek adventurers returned to their families in Adams County without substantial gold fortunes.
Soon after this western adventure, Elijah and Adeline moved to the nearby Pike County town of Barry. They stayed four years before moving to Jacksonville where he preached and was a financial agent for Illinois college.
During the beginning days of the Civil War, Elijah and his family moved again to Carrollton, Illinois. He did not enlist in the Army but pastored a church in Carrollton. He wrote and edited what eventually became the Gospel Echo, a highly regarded publication, which was as a source of religious inspiration and news and was distributed across many states. He was a strong congregationalist, which reflected a principle of the Disciples of Christ denomination, in that each congregation, and not a church hierarchy, made the decisions about the focus of the church. He faced much opposition but also much camaraderie in his beliefs. Elijah’s kind demeanor and pure heart drew many to him in his decades of work in the ministry.
After the death of his wife, the family moved to El Dorado, Kansas. He remarried a widow who had been born in at Cain Ridge, Bourbon County, Kentucky, site of the founding of the Christian Church-Disciples of Christ.
He was described as a pleasant speaker who spoke with reason and had a dignified delivery. He was amiable, kind, eminently sociable and at times humorous. He held many warm and true friendships. He became ill in the Spring of 1881. His final words were that he always “meant to do well” and that to “those who think the religion of Jesus as fanaticism, that to himself it is more precious than gold and had brought him wisdom and its glorious radiance lights the darkest depths of the shadow of death.”
Elder Elijah Lewis Craig lived a life of dedication to his faith, his family and his community. His writings in Christian Church journals will live on as a testament and his impact on those he served as a minister. For but a brief few years, he lived among family and friends on a small farm in the picturesque countryside of Fall Creek where the remembrances of Craigtown have not faded. The site where the Craigtown Church stood is still there for any to visit.
Sources
1850 United States Federal Census for Elijah Craig. Ancestry.com
Abilene Christian University. The Christian Evangelist. Digital Commons @ ACU.
Baptist History Homepage. A Source for Original Baptist Documents. The Travelling Church, by George W. Ranck, 1891 (baptisthistoryhomepage.com)
Cane Ridge Meeting House. Religion on the Frontier. Cane Ridge Meeting House – Official Web Site
“Death of Elijah Craig.” The Daily Commonwealth, Topeka, Kansas, May 22, 1881.
“The Death of Elijah Craig.” The Walnut Valley Times, Eldorado, Kansas, May 27, 1881.
Disciples of Christ Historical Society. Digital Commons @ Disciples History.
“The Gospel Echo, Volume 4 (1866)” by Elijah Lewis Craig and Elijah Perry Belshe (discipleshistory.org)
Disciples of Christ Historical Society. Digital Commons @ Disciples History. Stone-Campbell Movement Resources (discipleshistory.org)
Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/124410377/elijah-lewis-craig
Tucker, William E. and McAllister, Lester G. “Journey in Faith, A History of the Christian Church (Disciples
of Christ).” St. Louis, Mo: The Bethany Press, 1975.
“The Wife of Elder E. L. Craig. Alton Telegraph, August 8, 1873.