Person:Hiram Craig (2)

Hiram Craig was one of the Early Settlers of Augusta County, Virginia

Contents 1 Records in Augusta County, VA 2 Early history of Green Township, Morgan County, Indiana		Welcome to Old Augusta Early Settlers Beverley Manor Borden's Grant Register Data Maps Places Library History Index
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Records in Augusta County, VA

From Chalkley’s Augusta County Records:

• Vol. 2 - Peterson vs. Craig--O. S. 159; N. S. 56--Bill, 1808. Orator, Morton Peterson. He holds by devise from his father, Mathias Peterson, a tract in Montgomery County, 237 acres, originally surveyed for John Daviss under Loyal Company. Davis sold to James Smith and then devised the unpaid purchase money to Mathias, who by a compromise with Smith came into possession of the land. Smith was arrested for debt and conveyed the land to John Craig and Thomas Quirk to become his bail. Both Craig and Quirk are dead and Hiram Craig, a son of John, is in possession, together with William Neil, who claims under Quirk.

Early history of Green Township, Morgan County, Indiana

From "Counties of Morgan, Monroe and Brown, Indiana" by Charles Blanchard (1884) pp. 162-163:

GREEN TOWNSHIP.

THE FIRST SETTLEMENT.

The second settlement of the county was in Green Township. In the spring of 1819, James Stotts, William Offield, Hiram T. Craig, Daniel Higgins, Nimrod Stone and two others came from Lawrence County, and located farms on a small stream which was named in honor of James Stotts. As soon as the farms were staked out, all of the settlers except Mr. Stotts started back to Lawrence County to bring out loads of seed- corn and wheat, vegetables, provisions, household implements, and to drive out hogs, sheep and cattle. Of these seven first settlers of Green Township, Craig and Stotts were the only two single men of the party. The following is quoted from Mr. Craig's reminiscences of the trip back:

High water prevented our return as soon as we anticipated, but we finally concluded to try the plan of loading our baggage on a two-horse wagon, considering it easier on our horses than to load them with such heavy packs, as much of our route lay through a dense wilderness, it being the same old trace we had first traveled, and the road had to be cut so as to admit the passage of a wagon, which made our progress very slow, so that the noon of the second day found us still on Little Salt Creek. Here, in attempting to cross an insignificant little stream, our wagon stuck fast in the mud. Our only chance was to unload the wagon, pry it up and make our team haul it out. In doing so, we had to make a short turn and unfortunately broke an axletree. Here was a fix, twenty miles at least from any shop where repairing could be done. The only alternative was to mate a new axletree from the green timber of the forest. All hands went to work on the part assigned them. Mine was to prepare some dinner. I will give the bill of fare. I took my gun, and in less than an hour, perhaps, had killed nine fat gray squirrels. I dressed them as nicely as any lady could desire, and put them to boil with a sufficient slice of fat pork and some salt to give them the proper seasoning. While hunting for the squirrels, I had discovered near the creek a bountiful crop of wild onions growing ten or twelve inches high, and very tender. These I picked and cleaned, cut them up and put them in the pot when the squirrels were done, and succeeded in making a first-class pot of soup. This was the dinner, and it was a good one. By the usual time of starting next morning, our repairing was completed after a fashion, and we proceeded on our way. But our newly made axletree caused our wagon to run so heavily that we had to divide the load. A sack containing three bushels of corn seed was committed to my charge and about the same amount of corn-meal to Mr. Offield, and we were told to push on and not wait for the wagon. We were on horseback, and upon reaching Big Salt Creek we found a settlement and were told to take the road for Bloomington. Nothing of note occurred until we reached Big Indian Creek, where we found that White River and its tributaries were on a bender. Offield could not swim, but finally after a long time I succeeded in carrying our loads across the stream on my back, crossing on logs and a heap of driftwood that had formed across the creek. We took dinner on Mr. Cunningham's land northeast of Martinsville, and in the evening reached the settlement on Stott's [sic] Creek, where we found everything in good shape.

This extract is quoted from Mr. Craig's writings to illustrate the common experience of the early settlers in coming to the new country, and in going from place to place after they had become established in their new homes. After Mr. Craig had been out a short time, Mr. Ladd, of Port Royal, was charged with the murder of a stranger whose corpse was found half eaten by wolves and buzzards on White River near the bluffs. The prosecution was favored by Mr. Stotts, Mr. Craig and several others who were prosecuting witnesses; but Mr. Ladd was acquitted, and so slight was the evidence and so bitter had been the prosecution that Mr. Ladd commenced action, either for libel or false imprisonment, and seemed so likely to succeed that Mr. Craig returned hurriedly to Kentucky, his former home, and Mr. Stotts and others effected a compromise with the injured man, and thus the matter was forever dropped. The stranger had no doubt been killed by an Indian.