Elbert-Fulton County GaArchives News.....The State Capital - Forty-First Day September 4, 1885
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Valerie Craft http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00017.html#0004248 November 30, 2007, 2:05 am

"Weekly Telegraph And Messenger," Macon, Georgia September 4, 1885
     Atlanta, August 28 - In the Senate this morning, at 12 o’clock, the special
order was the report of 
the committee appointed to prepare suitable resolutions ont he death of the late
Senator Craft.  Mr. 
Craft was one of the most useful members of the body to which he belonged, was held
in high esteem 
by the members of the Senate, and was a prominent man in his section of the State.
In presenting the 
resolutions which are reported in the legislative proceedings, the committee,
through its chairman, 
Hon. John S. Davidson, of Augusta, paid a beautiful and eloquent tribute to their
dead colleague.  It is a 
tribute worthily bestowed on a man who was every inch a Georgian; whose sense of
honor and duty, in 
public and private life, was as one who followed the banner of Lee through all the
jorrors of that four 
years’ struggle. It will well repay the reading and I send it herewith in full, if
you can give it the space:
      Mr. President: The committee appointed to prepare suitable resolutions
commemorative of the life 
and character of Hon. J.F. Craft, senator of the thirty first district, beg leave to
present the following 
report:
     Hon. John Franklin Craft was born in the county of Elbert and at the date of
his death had attained 
the age of forty seven years.  He was the oldest son of Hon. Willis Craft who was
much respected by his 
people and who frequently represented his county and district in the general
assembly of the state.  
Surrounded by the refining influences of a well ordered home, he grew to man’s 
estate from a quiet, 
truth-speaking, industrious youth, and by the testimony of one of his early
instructors who is now a 
member of the house of representatives, his devotion to study, regard for honest
speach and pleasing 
manners made up the full measure of hte hope which was verified in his manhood.  He
had scarcely 
reached majority and entered upon the successful pursuit of business enterprise when
the tocsin of 
civil war called from their peaceful avocations the sons of the south to maintain at
the sacrifice of 
blooda nd treasure the honor and safety of their country.  With a readiness, the
result of profound 
conviction not only of duty but of the right, he at once exchanged the plowshare for
the sword and as a 
lieutenant in one of the companies of the Fifteenth Georgia regiment, answered to
the roll call with that  
devoted band of heroic defenders, who followed with such exalted hopes, the battle
flag which waved 
above the head of the immortal Lee.
      In the weariness of the march, the trials of the camp, the fearful ordeal of
bloody conflict he 
displayed hte characteristics which gave proof that in him a sturdy hand a loyal
heart found close 
companionship.  His superior officers recognizing at an early date his rare
executive ability, 
recommended him for another department of the army, and after the seven days’ fight
around 
Richmond he was promoted to the rank of captain and became connected with the
quartermaster 
service. Here he discharged every obligation with fidelity and dispatch and
continued to give full 
satisfaction in the many demands made upon his time and talents.  When at last the
“grim visaged war 
had smoothed his wrinkled trout.” he returned with his comrades to the plow, like
unto Cincinnatus of 
old, and though he did not enjoy the blessed reflection which would have followed
upon success, he at 
least was persuaded that even in defeat, “it is the cause, not the fate of the cause
which is glorious.”  In 
a few years subsequent to his return from the army he held by reason of his merits,
a leading position 
among his people, and in the attractive arts of peace was easily a leader. During
hte administration of 
the Governor Alexander H. Stephens he filled the office of an aid upon the
governor’s staff and awas by 
his associates recognized as a legitimate inheritor of such an honor. In the
community in which he lived 
every enterprise which tended to andvance the public weal received his cordial
indorsement and 
prompt support. Fully appreciating the advantages education to the masses in the
present condition of 
our country, he allied himself at an early day with the educational interests of his
section and occupied 
longand acceptably the position of scholl trustee. Hisaptitude for business affairs
was clearly illustrated 
by the intelligence and construcion of the Hartwell railroad, an important
undertaking that by 
commonconsent would have failed of successful issue butfor his segactiy, fine
judgement and weil 
ordered determination. At the election for member of the present general assembly
his people, among 
whom he had gone in and out for many years, and who well understood and admired his
character as a 
man, his values as a citizen and his worth as a representative of thier interests,
called him with most 
compimentary unanimity to a seat  in the senate of Georgia. He entered upon the
discharge of his 
duties here with a becoming recognition of their scope and weight with wich abundant
promise of a 
faithful fulfillment of the well grounded hopes of his constituents. But alas! in a
few short days which 
bore good witness of a resolute resistance to the approach of insiduious disease, be
laid aside the 
senatorial toga for a contest with that dread enemy of mankind, which, ruthless,
relentless, 
remorseless, must a some hour become the deadlyf oe of every living man. Standing in
the presence of 
such antagonist he soon realized, however, the futility of resistance and only a few
days since came 
among his associates in this body for the last time; in the same failing breath
spoke his greeting and 
farewell, and then with resignation took his place near to that “belt of karness
where the life to come 
touches the life that is.”
             On the twenty third day of August, 1885, in the presence of the beloved
wife whose gentle 
ministration had robbed death of many pangs, and surrounded by the affectinate
children who 
delighted to call him father, he passed within the shadow  which hid his spirit from
mortal view but 
which we sincerely hope was only the curtain that in a moment alter lifted,
revealing his enratured sight 
“green islands fragrant with the breath of flowers that never wither,” and where
“old sorrows are 
forgotten or but remembered to make sweet the hour that overpays them; and wounded
hearts that 
bled or broke, are healed forever”
              We are told to say of no man that he is happy until he is dead, and
standing today, besides the 
vacant chair in which he sat while discharging the duties of his senatorial office,
looking with becoming 
solemnity upon the funeral emblems that tell us a voice is silent and a hand is
still- a voice and hand 
which in life represented the faithful husband, the loving father, the good neighor,
the public spirited 
citizen, the wise and earnest legislator; remembering that amid all the temptations
and disasters which 
beset his existence he found patience and fortitude and hope in the teachings of
that church to the 
horns of whose alter he had clung for many years, with abiding faith and unchanging
trust, watching as 
we do in the spirit the last assult upon life’s citadel, and beholding the Christian
valor with which he 
took from death its sting and from the grave its victory, we reverently and tenerly
hame him - happy, 
believing, as we do, that:
         ‘Whatever record leaps to light - He never shall be shamed.”......
       
  .......The committee offered for adoption the following resolution:
         Resolved by the senate that in the death of Hon. John Franklin Craft, this
body has lost a faithfull 
and able legislator, and the sate of Georgia a valued and honorable citizen.
          Resolved 2.  That as a further mark of respect to his memory the senate do
now adjourn until 
Monday nex.
         Resolved 3.  That a copy of this memorial be entered upon the journal and a
copy be sent to the 
family of the decesed, to whom our warmest sympathies are tendered.
                                     John S. Davidson, Chariman
                                     W. J. Northen,
                                     R. G. Mitchell,
                                     B.A. Thornton,
                                     J. F. Sikes,
          Mr. Northen, of the Twentieth, and Mr. Thornton, of the Twenty-fourth,
spoke for the resolutions, 
and testified to the high character of the deceased Senator.
        On the motion of Mr. Falligant of the the First, the resolutions were
adopted by a rising vote, and 
the Senate adjourned to Monday 3 p.m.

Additional Comments:
John Franklin Craft was the son of Willis Craft and Martha T. Franklin and husband
of Sarah Eleanor Goss

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