Person:Alexander Craighead (1)

Notes

1.   Alexander, J. B. Biographical sketches of the early settlers of the Hopewell section: and reminiscences of the pioneers and their descendants by families, with some historical facts and incidents of the times in which they lived. (Charlotte, N.C.: Observer Print. and Pub., 1897)
   26.

   ... Alexander Craighead, the noted minister who taught the people to resist tyranny, who suffered himself to be driven from Maryland and Pennsylvania for his preaching opposition to kingly tyranny; when he came to Mecklenburg the people heard him gladly, and accepted his political teaching, the same as his religious teaching. A great deal is due the memory of Mr. Craighead, for the lessons of liberty he taught the people, that in a few years developed into the out-spoken Declaration of Independence, that astonished the British no less than it did the people of other colonies, who thought our people hasty, and action premature. Mr. Craighead ceased from his labors in 1762, and was buried in the graveyard of Sugar Creek. Yet the lessons he taught bore fruit to the satisfaction and happiness of our people, and all good people love to honor his name as a benefactor indeed. ...

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} 11723446 , in Find A Grave
   includes photo of memorial stone, last accessed Dec 2022.

   Memorial Stone Inscription
   ALEXANDER CRAIGHEAD
   (CREAGHEAD)
   b. MARCH 1707
   IN DONEGAL, IE
   d. MARCH 1766
   IN MECKLENBURG
   
   ULSTER SCOT IMMIGRATED 1715
   SON OF REV. THOMAS CRAIGHEAD
   FIREY NEW SIDE
   REVIVALIST PRESBYTERIAN
   PREACHED IN NJ, DE, PA, VA, NC
   BEN FRANKLIN PUBLISHED HIS
   RELIGIOUS PAMPHLETS
   RODE WITH GEORGE WHITEFIELD
   MINISTER AT SUGAR CREEK AND
   ROCKY RIVER 1758-1766
   SPIRITUAL FATHER OF THE
   MECKLENBURG DECLARATION
   OF INDEPENDENCE
   -----
   [Note: Elmwood Cemetery also contains a monument which reads, "Rev Alex. Craighead Pastor of Rockey River & Sugar Creek churches 1758-1766"]

3.   dead link, in Source needed.

   Alexander Craighead*; b. 1705/6 in Ireland. His name was also spelled "Creaghead". He emigrated from Ireland as a child, arriving in Boston during the first week of Oct., 1714 (some say 1715), with his parents on the ship Thomas & Jane (William Wilson, Master) to Boston. Afterward, he lived with his family in MA-NJ-DE-PA. He became the pioneering Presbyterian minister to preach west of the Susquehanna River. He was said to have antagonized some Pennsylvanians with his revolutionary views. He relocated first to Hanover County VA (NNE of Richmond), and other locations in the western frontier of VA, and then finally to Mecklenburg County NC and became the Pastor for the famous Sugaw Creek Presbyterian Church, the parent Church for a convention of churches held in Charlotte NC in May 1775. The idea of independence from England was endorsed by this convention, and the so-called Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence may have originated, in part, by ideas brought to light by Rev. Alexander Craighead and the traditions of Scottish Covenenters. The original of this document, however, has never been found.
   
   Alexander died in 1766 and was buried in March of that year at the original Sugaw (often pronounced "Sugar") Creek Presbyterian Church Cemetery on Craighead Road, in Charlotte NC. Note: The "Sugar Creek Schoolhouse", "Sugar Creek Road", "Craighead Road" and the "Sugaw Creek Park" are now within the city limits of Charlotte NC, in the NNE side of the city. The name "Sugaw" reflects the name of a local Indian Tribe. Today the creek is named "Sugar Creek", but the Church is named the "Sugaw Creek Church". ...

4.   Craighead, James Geddes (1823-1895). The Craighead family : a genealogical memoir of the descendants of Rev. Thomas and Margaret Craighead, 1658-1876. (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Printed for the descendants, Sherman & co., 1876)
   41.

   REV. ALEXANDEK CRAIGHEAD was the grandson of Rev. Robert Craighead, of Dublin, Ireland, and the son
   of Rev. Thomas Craighead, who came to New England in 1715, and who after preaching six years in Massachusetts, removed to Delaware, and subsequently to Pennsylvania, where he died. So far as known Alexander passed his youth in his father's family, where he probably acquired the greater part of his education, including his knowledge of the classics, which then, as now, was deemed
   essential to a Presbyterian clergyman. His study of divinity was either under the direction of his father, or some neighboring minister. He was taken under the care of Donegal Presbytery, June 7th, 1734 — in the bounds of which his father was pastor, and his trial-pieces for licensure assigned him. These were heard and approved, and he was licensed October 16th, 1734, and ordered to supply the frontier settlements "over the river."
   
   The first congregation "over the river" was on the Conodoguinet, about two miles north of Carlisle, at Meeting-House Springs ; to which John Penn gave three hundred acres of land for the church and parsonage. In the old graveyard of the church, there are still tombstones "with coats of arms graven on them." Mr. Craighead was their first supply in 1734, and consequently was the first clergyman who preached west of the Susquehanna. A call was placed in his hands April 4th, 1735, from Middle Octorara, Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, which he accepted in the following June, and was ordained and installed on the 20th of November of the same year.
   
   Mr. Craighead is represented by his contemporaries as an earnest, fervid preacher, and as a zealous promoter of revivals. Rev. Mr. Blair speaks of a sermon preached by him, which produced such a state of feeling in the audience, that "some burst out with an audible noise into bitter crying." He was a great admirer and friend of Whitefield, whom he accompanied in some of his preaching tours. With Messrs. Tennent, Blair, and Craighead, Whitefield traversed Chester County, and as they rode along "they made the woods ring, most sweetly singing and praising God."
   
   His zeal in revival measures, and his sympathy with the Tennents, whose cause he warmly espoused, rendered him obnoxious to the more rigid and conservative of his brethren. His zeal was not always tempered with the highest wisdom, nor was his spirit as charitable as it might have been, as was evinced by his persisting to preach within the bounds of the congregation of a neighboring pastor, who failed he thought to preach the whole Gospel ; and by his insisting upon new terms of communion, which required parents when they brought their children for baptism to adopt the Solemn League and Covenant. Accordingly these two things, together with that of absenting himself from ecclesiastical meetings, were made subjects of complaint to his Presbytery, which met by appointment in his church to investigate the
   charges. When the members came to the church they found Mr. Craighead preaching from the text, "Let them
   alone, they be blind leaders of the blind;" and in their report to Synod they speak of the sermon as a " continued invective against Pharisee preachers, and the Presbytery as given over to judicial blindness and hardness."
   
   At its close, the Presbytery and the people were invited to repair to "the tent" to hear his defence read. The Presbytery declined to attend, and were proceeding to business in the church, when such a tumult was raised that they were obliged to withdraw. At the meeting next day Mr. Craighead appeared and had his protest again read, in which he declined the jurisdiction of the Presbytery, on the ground that they were all his accusers. They suspended him for contumacy, "directing, however, that if he should signify his sorrow for his conduct to any member, that member should notify the moderator, who was to call the Presbytery together to consider his acknowledgment and take off the suspension." [Hodge, vol. 2, p. 172.]
   
   At the meeting of Synod, May, 1741, Mr. Craighead appeared and was enrolled as a regular member, although he had refused to submit to trial by his Presbytery, and was therefore clearly not entitled to appeal to a higher judicatory. This point, however, was waived in his favor, and the Synod took up the question of his right to a seat, and consumed the balance of the week discussing it, without coming to a decision ; when the proceedings were interrupted by the protest of Rev. Mr. Cross and others, which separated the conflicting parties and divided the Synod.
   
   In the division of the Synod Mr. Craighead joined the New Brunswick party, but did not remain long with it, because the Presbyteries composing it refused to adopt the Solemn League and Covenant. Soon after he published his reasons for withdrawing, the chief of which was, that neither the Synod nor the Presbyteries had adopted the Westminster Standards by a public act. He, at this time, united with the Covenanters, and almost immediately opened a correspondence with the Reformed Presbytery of Scotland, "declaring his adherence to their sentiments and methods, and soliciting helpers," who might assist him to contend for "the whole of the faith." The immediate results which followed this application we do not know; but before many ministers could be induced to come to his help, Mr. Craighead removed to Virginia, and leaving his more recent ecclesiastical relations, united again with New Castle Presbytery, and was a member of the Synod of New York in 1753. He was dismissed from the latter Presbytery in 1755, to form the new Presbytery of Hanover.
   
   An event occurred during the period of Mr. Craighead's residence in Pennsylvania, which we cannot pass over, on account of its influence and bearing on his future life and work. With an ardent love of personal liberty and freedom of opinion, he was also far in advance of his ministerial brethren in his views of civil government and religious liberty. These views he gave to the public in a pamphlet which attracted so much attention that in the year 1743, Thomas Cookson, one of his majesty's justices for Lancaster County, appeared and laid it, in the name of the governor, before the Synod of Philadelphia. Though published anonymously, its authorship was very generally attributed to Mr. Craighead. The Synod unanimously agreed that the pamphlet was "full of treason and sedition," and made haste to declare their
   abhorrence of "the paper, and, with it, all principles and practices that tend to destroy the civil and religious rights of mankind, or to foment or encourage sedition or dissatisfaction with the civil government that we are now under j or rebellion, treason, or anything that is disloyal. If Mr. Alexander Craighead be the author, we know nothing of the matter." [Webster, p. 436.]This may not have been the only cause, but was doubtless the chief one, for his leaving Pennsylvania, and seeking a home where he could find greater freedom for the expression of his opinions, and the practice of his principles.
   
   From the best evidence at our command Mr. Craighead removed to Virginia in 1749, and took up his residence on Cowpasture River ; "his preaching-place being a short distance from the present Windy Cove Church, and his dwelling on the farm now occupied by Mr. Andrew Settlington." [Foote's Annals of North Carolina, p. 189.] A settlement had been formed here a few years previous by farmers from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. It was on the frontiers of the State, and peculiarly exposed to the incursions of Indians, who were instigated to plunder and murder by the French. Here he remained until the year 1755, at which time, by the disastrous defeat of General Braddock, the whole frontier of Virginia was in great danger from the bloodthirsty savages," and terror reigned throughout the valley." In the autumn of this year he removed, with most of his congregation, to Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, making his home at Sugar Creek.
   
   His six years spent in Virginia, though occupied in abundant labors, were in some respects not congenial to his spirit. Outside of his own denomination, and perhaps his own charge, he found few to sympathize with, but many to oppose his political principles, for which, as we have seen, he had been persecuted in Pennsylvania. Besides, he was restless and dissatisfied under the exactions and impositions of the Episcopal Church, which was the established church of the province, and which would not allow his members the right of marriage according to the ceremonies of their own church, and obliged them to support a ministry on whose services they did not attend.
   
   These causes, together with the apprehended danger from Indian incursions, influenced him, as also his
   people, to seek a new home where they could live free from all such evils. In "a beautiful, fertile, and peaceful" part of North Carolina he fixed his abode, and here he passed the remainder of his days in the active duties of a pioneer minister of the Gospel. At a meeting of the Presbytery of Hanover in 1758, Mr. Craighead was directed to preach at Rocky River; and, receiving and accepting a call from Sugar Creek Church, he was installed by Rev. Mr. Richardson, his son-in-law, in September of the same year. [He was the first pastor. Charlotte was then a part of his charge, ] "This was the oldest church in the upper country, being organized in 1756, and was in some measure the parent of the seven churches that formed the convention in Charlotte in 1775."[Foote's Annals of North Carolina. ] Here he continued his ministry until his death, in March, 1766, "leaving behind him the affectionate remembrance of his abundant and useful labors."
   
   His immediate successor in the pastorate was Rev. John Alexander. Afterwards, his son Thomas supplied
   the church, but declined to settle ; and he was succeeded by Rev. Hall Morrison, D.D., and by his grandson. Rev. David Craighead Caldwell, who was the beloved pastor of Hopewell and Sugar Creek Churches for thirty-five years.
   
   In this retired region, and among a people "so united in the general principles of religious and civil government," Mr. Craighead had the opportunity he so long desired, fully to express his sentiments respecting freedom of the individual conscience and political liberty. And right nobly did he improve his advantage. For, as Rev. Dr. Foote states, "He was the teacher of the whole population. Here he poured forth his principles of religious and civil government, undisturbed by the jealousy of the government. He had the privilege of forming the principles, both civil and religious, in no measured degree, of a race of men that feared God and feared not labor and hardship or the face of man — a race capable of great excellence, mental and physical, whose minds could conceive the glorious idea of independence, and whose convention announced it to the world in May, 1775, and whose hands sustained it in the trying scenes of the Revolution. The community which assumed its form under his guiding hand, had the image of democratic republican liberty more fair than any sister settlement in the South." [Foote's Annals of North Carolina.]
   
   Similar testimony is borne by Rev. A. W. Miller, D.D., to the commanding and pervasive influence of Mr. Craighead in educating the people in the principles of liberty, and in preparing them for the work to which Providence called them. In his centennial discourse, delivered at Charlotte, May 20th, 1875, the purpose of which was to show the connection between ecclesiastical and civil polity, and religious and civil liberty, and the influence of the Presbyterian Church in training the people who first took up arms against Great Britain in the Revolution, he says:
   
   "To the immortal Craighead, a Presbyterian minister of Ireland, who finally settled in Mecklenburg in 1756, [* Mr. Craighead moved to Sugar Creek, North Carolina, 1755, soon after General Braddock's defeat.] the only solitary minister between the Yadkin and the Catawba,' who found in North Carolina what Pennsylvania and Virginia denied him — sympathy with the patriotic views he had been publicly proclaiming since 1741 — to this apostle of llberty the people of Mecklenburg are indebted for that training which placed them in the forefront of American patriots and heroes. It was at this fountain, that Dr. Ephraim Brevard and his honored associates drew their inspirations of liberty. So diligent and successful was the training of this devoted minister and patriot; so far in advance even of the Presbyterians of every other colony had he carried the people of this and the adjacent counties, that on the very day, May 20th, 1775, on which the General Synod of the Presbyterian Church, convened in Philadelphia, issued a pastoral letter to all its churches, counselling them, while defending their rights by force of arms, to stand fast in their allegiance to the British throne, on that day the streets of Charlotte were resounding with the shouts of freemen, greeting the first declaration of American independence."
   
   The twenty or thirty members of the Convention at Charlotte, North Carolina, who framed the Mecklenburg
   Declaration of Independence, May 20th, 1775, were all of them connected with the seven Presbyterian churches of the county ; two of which were Rocky River and Sugar Creek, and from these the other five sprang. Abraham Alexander, a ruling elder from Sugar Creek Church, was chairman of the convention ; it was addressed by Rev. Hezekiah James Balch, [Died in summer of 1776. He is said "to have been a man of fine personal appearance and an accomplished scholar."] pastor of Rocky River and Poplar Tent, who was also one of the committee of three to draft the resolutions ; and nine other ruling elders, of these seven Presbyterian churches, were active participants in the proceedings. Although Mr. Craighead was not permitted to live to see those principles of civil and religious liberty, of which for more than a score of years he had been the zealous and uncompromising champion, embodied in the Mecklenburg Declaration, yet his descendants, and besides them forty millions of his countrymen, this day rejoice in the precious and abundant fruits of his teachings and labors, and of other kindred spirits.
   
   Of the nature of his work and the purpose which ever animated him, as also of the effects of his ministry in North Carolina, we are not left in doubt. Like other self-denying pioneer preachers of that day, his time was divided between the pastoral work of his own charge, and that of supplying settlements which were without the stated means of grace, of organizing churches and providing them with pastors. The spirit in which he engaged in this work, and the fidelity he evinced for the spiritual welfare of his people, are thus spoken of by one [Rev. Dr. Foote]who enjoyed the most ample opportunities to see and study the influence of his ministry. "He was a great admirer of Whitefield's spirit and action ; and drank deeply of the same fountain of truth and love. Like the man theyf admired, both these ministers possessed the power of moving men; and both left an impress upon the community in which they lived in Carolina, and stamped an image on the churches they gathered, which are visible to this day. To all human appearance there has been a great amount of fervent piety among the churches planted and watered by these men, which has been bequeathed to their descendants from generation to generation, as a precious inheritance of faith." Again, speaking of Rev. Mr. Craighead, he says: "Soundness of doctrine, according to the Confession of Faith, has been maintained by his congregation at all hazards ; and a
   standard of warm-hearted piety and ardent devotion has been handed down as a legacy from their fathers to succeeding generations, to which the Church has always looked with kindling desire." [Referring to Rev. James Campbell, a Scotchman, who preached in Gaelic to the Highlanders, who, for the rebellion in 1746, was expatriated, and settled in North Carolina.]
   
   Having thus "made full proof of his ministry and finished his course, he was laid to rest, 1766, in the
   graveyard adjoining his church, and among the people he loved," "leaving behind him the affectionate remembrance of his faithful, abundant, and useful labors." Respecting his place of burial. Dr. Foote further says : "Turning westward from the present [The third house of worship. The first was one-half mile west from this ; the second, a few steps south, the pulpit being over the place now occupied by the pastor's grave.] brick church, about half a mile through the woods, you find on a gentle ascent the first burying-ground of this congregation. In the southeast corner, without stone or mound, is the grave of Alexander Craighead, and of the six succeeding graves, whose members composed the entire convention in Charlotte, May, 1775. Tradition says that these two sassafras trees, [They both stand (1876), but one is dead ; the other flourishing, and is twenty-two inches in diameter. — D. J. Stinson.] at the head and foot of the grave, sprung from two sticks on which as a bier the coffin was borne. Being stuck into the ground to mark the spot temporarily, the green sticks, fresh from the mother stock, took root and grew. Was it an emblem ? — the fulfilment of this mute prophecy?" So it would seem. For the principles he so persistently and ably proclaimed, have become the cherished inheritance of this great and prosperous nation.