CAPT. JOHN CRAIG: The Man and the Soldier
(1753-1850)
By Charles G. Edwards

Capt. John Craig was my 4th great-granduncle. He was born April 27, 1753 in Belvidere, Warren County, New Jersey to Samuel Sr. and Elizabeth McDonald Craig. Capt. John Craig married Martha Clark in 1780 in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and they had five children.

John Craig and his wife Martha raised the children of Martha's sister Margaret Clark Cathcart: Robert (my 3rd great-grandfather), James, and Jane Cathcart. Robert Cathcart was apprenticed or bound to John Craig, and in 1805, John Craig gave Robert Cathcart land in Sugar Creek Township, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania as a wedding present.

Captain Craig was a good scholar for the time and place in which he lived; he was an extra good penman and a diligent and attentive reader. He was very conservative in his opinions and actions, forming his own opinions and executing them in his own way. He kept well posted on the topics of his day; he opposed the adoption of the Constitution of Pennsylvania because it did not prohibit foreigners from voting until they had been in the country for at least fifteen years.

Captain Craig smoked a pipe, his constant companion. He was always narrating "tales of other days."

It is said that about three years after the family arrived at the Derry Settlement in Westmoreland County, his father sent him back to New Jersey for horses, giving him full instructions as to the distance he was to travel each day and where he was to stop for lodging on the way. It took twelve days to go on horseback; he carried out his father's program exactly, but when returning with four horses two more days were required.

On July 13, 1782 when the alarm was raised signaling the approach of the Indians, Mr. Craig was away and Mrs. Craig hid with her two children in a field of rye in sight of their home to wait for his return. He soon returned, and together they reached the fort in safety and helped in its defense. They were witnesses to the destruction of Hannastown, the first seat of justice west of the Allegheny Mountains.

On January 7, 1787, at the first court held after the removal of the courts to Greensburg, John Craig was one of the grand jurors and his brother Alexander a traverse juror.

In 1790, he was appointed collector of the whiskey tax and performed the duties of his office during the Whiskey Insurrection.

In 1794, the government decided to have surveyed and laid out in sections the territory now composing Armstrong and Indiana counties because the Indians had gone farther north. Captain Craig was selected to furnish provisions and act as bookkeeper for the surveyors. This gave him opportunity to acquire desirable tracts of land in the vicinity of Craigsville and Freeport, Armstrong County.

In 1795, John Craig and family moved to the vicinity of Freeport, where he made his home the rest of his life.

Captain Craig was one of the trustees appointed to purchase land for county purposes. By an act of April 4, 1803 they were directed to survey 150 acres of land, part of the Kittanning tract and part of which James and John Armstrong had given to the Governor for the use of the county; to lay out lots for public buildings and the residue to lay out in town lots and out lots, to sell at public auction for the use of the county; and to lay out a town to be called Kittanning, at the place where General Armstrong defeated the Indians in 1756.

John Craig enlisted on May 16, 1775, First Battalion, Westmoreland County Provincials as a Private. Colonel John Proctor was the Commander. John Craig was Second Lieutenant in January 1776 and First Lieutenant in July 1776. He was in the Ninth Pennsylvania Regiment Continental Lines May 1778 - September 1781 and Cavalry Light Horse Brigade September 1781 - 23 September 1784. He was a "minuteman" and Captain of Scouts to guard the frontier from 1782.

While scouting in the vicinity of Wallace's Fort on one occasion, he narrowly escaped being captured by the Indians. He was pursued so hotly that he was forced to throw away his gun. Relieved of its weight, he was just able to reach the fort.

Along with his brothers Alexander and Samuel, Jr. and their father Samuel, Sr., John Craig was ordered east in 1776 and fought in the battles of Trenton and Princeton, New Jersey under General George Washington. They suffered great hardships on the march through an almost trackless wilderness. In 1777, they were sent back to protect the western border from Indian attacks and served along the border until the close of the war. Lieutenant John Craig served under Captain John Shields, Captain Wilson, Captain John Moon, and Colonel Pomeroy on the western border.

Some time prior to the establishment of permanent peace by General "Mad Anthony" Wayne's victory against the British and a treaty with the Indians, a blockhouse was erected by John Craig (1792); it was called Craig's Fort or Craig's Blockhouse located on the Allegheny River about 120 rods above the mouth of Buffalo Creek, at what is now Freeport, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania. It was located on what was later known as Water Street, below Fifth Street. Its Commander was Captain John Craig, whose command consisted of forty men and whose business it was to watch the Indians from the Red Bank Creek to the Kiskiminetas River. He once decided to test the courage of his men who were not seasoned soldiers, so he raised an alarm to signal that they were under attack. The men were so frightened that they abandoned the fort.

History says that John Craig was famous in "Border Warfare," but he would never acknowledge having killed an Indian. When one of his men was once pursued by one and in danger of being tomahawked, he fired his rifle, but when asked if he had killed the Indian, he replied "I do not know, but my man came back safe."

One time Captain Craig ordered a group of men to scout the area of Armstrong County as far north as Redbank Creek for signs of Indians. They reported that they had found none. Later, one member of that party called for Craig and made a deathbed confession that they had taken an Indian prisoner during that mission. They obtained what information they could and then tied the Indian to a tree, and each of the persons in the group shot him so all would share equal guilt in the murder and none would tell the tale. Craig then questioned others from the party who acknowledged capturing the Indian but stated that John Harbison had tomahawked the Indian while he was conversing with an interpreter. They had agreed to keep the story quiet for the sake of Harbison who, because of his wife's capture and the deaths of his two children at the hands of Indians, had reason to hate them.

John Craig was assessed with two distilleries in 1808, 1809, and 1810. In later years he owned a mill. He is listed as one of the earliest Justices of the Peace in Armstrong County, and was a member of the Presbyterian Church. Captain Craig was five feet, seven inches tall and a remarkably active man until an advanced age. He died on March 3, 1850 at his home near Freeport at the age of 96 years and was buried in the Old Freeport Cemetery. His wife Martha preceded him in death by 25 years.

On Memorial Day in 2005, over 100 people attended a dedication to honor the efforts and contributions of Capt. John Craig. A marker was placed at the site where Captain John Craig's Blockhouse once stood.

More Patriot Ancestors:

Elnathan Cory and the Ox Bell
Solomon Jacobs: Young Patriot
Adam Lambert: A German Immigrant Takes Up Arms