CRAIG, D. H., b 1850; 1905 Bio, Chaffee County, Colorado http://files.usgwarchives.net/co/chaffee/bios/craigdh.txt --------------------------------------- Donated September 6, 2001 Transcribed by Judy Crook from the book: Progressive Men of Western Colorado Published 1905, A.W. Bowen & Co., Chicago, Ill. --------------------------------------- D.H. Craig Nature, who seems often reckless and inconsiderate in the distribution of faculties of men, sometimes mixing them into a sort of incongruous and inharmonious union in the same subject, still, in the main, to the discerning eye, pursues a general system in her benefactions, and along with endowments for certain lines of activity gives the spirit and determination to engage in them with persistency. A forcible illustration of this fact is furnished in the career of D.H. Craig, cashier of the First National Bank of Salida, who although born to a destiny of rural life, it would seem, was well fitted by natural endowment for fiscal and mercantile affairs, and has given to them the whole of his energy and all his time since he entered upon the great theatre of human action as a young man. He is a native of Woodford county, Kentucky, where he was born on November 6, 1850, and where he received a good common-school education, remaining there under the parental roof until he reached the age of eighteen years. In 1868 he moved to Missouri, and during the next thirteen years was engaged in mercantile business at St. Louis and Linneus, that state. In March, 1881, he took up his residence at Salida, which was then a municipal infant of less than a year old, still wrapped in its swaddling clothes of tents and uncanny wooden buildings, but full of lusty life and promise. Early in its youth, first in 1886, and again 1888, it passed through baptisms of fire, and at once thereafter assumed the more ambitious habiliments of a city, erecting substantial brick and stone dwellings and other structures in place of its canvas and frame ones, and entering with vigor on the progress and development it has since shown. In this advance Mr. Craig, as one of its interested and progressive citizens has taken his part like a man and performed his duty with unwavering fidelity. Soon after his arrival in the town he and his brother, L.W. Craig, opened a dry-goods store under the firm name of Craig Brothers, which they conducted until 1885, then sold the business and started a private banking institution which they called the Continental Divide Bank, they being its sole proprietors. The next year Mr. Craig bought back an interest in the former dry-goods establishment, which then became the firm of Craig, Sandusky & Company, but he retained his interest in the bank. In the latter part of 1889 he and his brother converted their bank into the First National Bank of Salida, which was opened for business in January, 1890, and is now the oldest bank in the city. L.W. Craig was president and F.O. Stead cashier, D.H. Craig continuing to give his attention to the mercantile establishment. In 1891 he sold his interest in this and united with J.A. Israel in a real-estate business, with which he was connected until 1894. He then left the real-estate firm and went into the bank, first as vice-president and some little time later as cashier, a position which he is still filling with profit to the institution and credit to himself. Prior to this, in 1890, his brother retired from the presidency, and since then the bank has had several presidents, Robert Preston, of Salt Lake, filling the office since 1897. Under the management of Mr. Craig as cashier, the bank, which has from its start done an extensive business, has greatly enlarged its body of patrons and volume of trade, and has become one of the soundest and most valuable institutions of its kind in the central part of the state. Mr. Craig is also connected with the real-estate interests of the community as a member of the firm of Jones & Craig, and owns considerable property in the town and county, houses, lands and mining claims. Politically he supports the Democratic party, but he has never been an active partisan, finding plenty to occupy his time and faculties in his extensive business operations. Fraternally he belongs to the Masonic order, which he joined when he was but twenty-two years of age, and the Knights of Pythias, holding his membership in the latter in the lodge at Salida, of which he is the only charter member living in the city. On September 26, 1877, at Lexington, Missouri, he was married to Miss Laura S. Hollis, a native of that state. They have two daughters, Emily Wiles and Marie Rose. =================================================== Contributed for use by the USGenWeb Archive Project (http://www.usgenweb.org) and by the COGenWeb Archive Project USGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit or presentation by other organization or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must obtain the written consent of the contributor, or the legal representative of the submitter, and contact the listed USGenWeb archivist with proof of this consent. The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb Archives to store the file permanently for free access.