OF LOCAL INTERESTFor Local Records: a Time Line Biography of The Rev. John Craig - 1709- 1774.
1709 - Born - August 17th, in the parish of Donagor, County Antrim, Ireland - John Craig - destined to be the first to Presbyterian minister to the people of the area which has come to be known as the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.
1732 - John Craig graduated with an M.A. from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Later, speaking of that time: "America was then much in my mind, accompanied with the argument that service would be most pleasing and acceptable where most needful and wanting, which raised in me a strong desire to see that part of the world.?
1734 - John Craig embarked from Larne Harbor, Ireland June 10th, 1733 and after sixty-seven days at sea, landed at New Castle, Delaware August17th - which was also his 25th Birthday.
1737 - In September John Craig was ordained as a Minister of the Presbyterian Church. He had "entered on trials" and was licensed by the Presbytery of Donegal, having read under the Rev. John Thompson during several years of teaching school.
1738 - During 1727-38 James Anderson formed a Christian Society among settlers in "the Triple Forks of the Shenando" in the Virginia wilderness. Members of this society sent petitions to the Synod of Philadelphia asking for a minister in 1738 and l739.
1740 - Rev. John Thompson followed James Anderson briefly as a supply ministers at the wilderness outpost. In reply to the petition of 1739, Rev. John Craig was sent to the first congregation of the area when ordained in 1740.
1744 - John Craig married Isabelle Helena Russell also of Donagor , Ireland with whom he had, as a youngster attended church. They were married in Philadelphia, and returned to the wilderness ministry. They had nine children, three of died in infancy.
1774 - In the month of October the life of John Craig came to an end. He was buried in what is now called the "Old Cemetery" east of U.S. Route 1 near the site of the original Augusta Meeting House. The "new church" stands on a hill to the west as a sturdy memorial to its first minister.
A.L.M. January 13, 2006 [c376wds]
