Charles Russell CRAIG

March 29, 1854 - October 26, 1926

*Obituary
Benton County Democrat
Tuesday, October 26, 1926

CRAIG, Charles Russell - Charles R. Craig, well known real estate man, died at his home in Bentonville at 11:30 Tuesday morning following an illness of two months. Mr. Craig had gradually failed since his return from St. Louis last week and death was expected at any time. Mr. Craig suffered from a cancer and had spent the past seven weeks in Joplin and St. Louis where he had the care of specialists. Until this malady had come upon him he was strong and hearty and had been ill scarcely a day in his life. His passing is a great loss to the community that had known him his entire lifetime. Mr. Craig is survived by his wife and five children, Mrs. John Capp, Tarkio, Mo.; Mrs. Edwin F. Jackson of Rogers; James R. Craig of Fayetteville; Mrs. Elmer Pickens and Ed M. Craig of Bentonville. Also a brother, George Craig of Port Arthur, Texas. Mr. Craig was born in Cane Hill March 29th, 1854. He was the son of James T. and Elizabeth R. Craig who came to this county from Ray county, Tennessee in 1818. His father was a pioneer merchant and kept one of the first stores in Bentonville. Waiting to hear from Mr. Craig's brother in Port Arthur funeral arrangements have not yet been made. It is thought that the services will be held Thursday afternoon.

*Obituary
Benton County Herald
Thursday, October 28, 1926

In the death of C.R. Craig, widely known Bentonville man and capitalist which occurred at his home here at 11:20 o'clock Tuesday morning at the age of 72 years, the county and section lost a citizen who for more than half a century had been prominent in civic and church as well as business affairs and an outstanding figure in the development of Northwestern and Western Arkansas. Mr. Craig had been critically ill since his return a week before his death from a St. Louis hospital where no hope was given for his recovery and in rapidly failing health for some time but until a very few months ago was actively engaged in business as the senior member of the C.R. Craig & Company real estate, loan and insurance business which he established more than 40 years ago. As a very young man Mr. Craig was associated with his father, James T. Craig, in the mercantile business here when Bentonville was hardly more than a frontier town. Later entering the real estate business he became so widely known that he was soon associated with the Kansas City Southern Railway Company in its days of early development and for 15 years was that company's general townsite manager, having laid out DeQueen and Mena, Arkansas and other prosperous cities along the route of the K.C.S. A descendant of two Tennessee families who were among the earliest Arkansas pioneers, Charles Russell Craig, born here in Bentonville on March 29th, 1854, was a son of James Terrell Craig and Elizabeth Anne Russell Craig, his parents having been married at the historic old Arkansas college site of Cane Hill in Washington County on June 19th, 1851. Just before his 22nd birthday he was married on March 27th, 1876 to Miss Charlotte Elizabeth Redding at "Redding's Mill," the old homestead of the pioneer Redding family of Missouri in the edge of what is now the city of Joplin, Mo. Their 50th wedding anniversary, celebrated at the Craig home here in March of this year, marked the end of a half-century of as happy married life, without doubt, as two people ever lived, for the life of each centered in the other, in their home and their children and grandchildren. Mr. Craig's cheerful manner and cordial bearing at all times will be missed not only in Bentonville but elsewhere by a host of acquaintances and friends, as will his helpful interest in the affairs of community life, in his church and throughout the town. Besides his wife he is survived by two sons, James R. Craig, who is in the life insurance business at Fayetteville, Ark.; Ed M. Craig, Bentonville, a partner in the firm of C.R. Craig & Company; and two daughters, Mrs. John Capp of Tarkio, Mo. and Mrs. Elmer C. Pickens, Bentonville. Another daughter, Mrs. Mae Craig Jackson, died here a number of years ago. Mr. Craig is also survived by sixteen grandchildren and two great-grandchildren, and by one brother, George M. Craig, president of the Merchants National Bank of Port Arthur, Texas. Funeral services of Mr. Craig are being held this afternoon at the Methodist Episcopal Church, South of which he was a member, conducted by the pastor, Dr. W.T. Thompson. Interment to be made in the Bentonville cemetery.

Contributed on 6/23/13 by judyfrog
Email This Contributor

Suggest a Correction

Record #: 899471

Don't Follow