Bio of CRAFTS, Dr. Leo Melville (b.1863), Hennepin Co., MN
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EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical
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LEO MELVILLE CRAFTS, M.D. - Vol III, pg 275-277
Dr. Leo Melville Crafts, physician and surgeon of Minneapolis, is a native son
of this city, born October 3, 1863, his parents being Major Amasa and Mary J.
(Henry) Crafts. He is a representative of one of the earliest colonial families,
the Crafts having been among the founders of Boston, who came to America with
Governor Winthrop's expedition in 1630. Members of the family were active and
prominent in connection with the Colonial and Revolutionary wars and in the
public life of various communities. The parents of Dr. Crafts were among the
earliest of the pioneers of Minneapolis, having settled here in 1853.
Leo Melville Crafts was educated in the public schools and in the University of
Minnesota, from which he was graduated with the B. L. degree in 1886. He next
entered the Harvard Medical School, in which he completed his course in 1890 and
during the preceding and the succeeding year he was house physician at the
Boston City Hospital. He then established himself for practice in Minneapolis
and through the intervening period has borne a prominent part in connection with
the professional interests and public life of the city. From 1893 to 1908 he was
pro­fessor of mental and nervous diseases at the Hamline University Medical
School and was dean of the faculty from 1897 until 1903. His efforts have
constituted a most valuable contribution to the development and improvement of
the school, as he was instrumental in securing a new plant, new grounds and new
equipment for the institution. He is visiting neurologist on the staff of four
of the Minneapolis hospitals and has always enjoyed an extensive private
practice. He has been an active worker in the medical societies and at all times
has upheld the highest pro­fessional standards. He served as treasurer of the
Hennepin County Medical Society from 1895 until 1897 and was chairman of the
nerve section of the State Medical Society in 1899. During the World war he was
on the neurologist district medical advisory board for the war draft. He belongs
to the American Medical Association, is a fellow of the Massachusetts Medical
Society and belongs to the Harvard Medical and the Boston City Hospital Alumni
Associations, and the Minnesota Neurological Society, of which he is
ex-president. He is widely known in professional circles as the author of
numerous articles which have appeared in the leading medical magazines and the
general public knows him as a most interesting and instructive writer on many
Sunday school topics.
Extensive and important as are his professional. duties, Dr. Crafts has always
found time to cooperate in matters of vital moment to the public and few men
more keenly realize their duties and obligations in this respect. He has been
par­ticularly active in church and Sunday school work. He is a Congregationalist
in religious faith but without narrow denominational bias. He was president of
the Minnesota State Sunday School Association from 1893 until 1896 and
continuously served on its board for many years. He was also president of the
Minneapolis Sunday School Officers Association from 1895 until 1906 and is most
keenly and helpfully interested in the question of religious education for the
young. Another line along which he has been a most earnest and effective worker
is that of forest preservation. He was a member of the board of directors of the
Minnesota National Park and Forestry Association and was secretary of the
general executive com­mittee of all organizations combined for a national park
and reserve in the state. He has delivered many public addresses and has written
many articles on the sub­ject of forest preservation, as well as on Sunday
school topics and professional ques­tions, and he has the ability to utter in a
clear, convincing way the thought which he wishes to bring before the public. He
is also a student of state history and has prepared several articles and
delivered various addresses on that subject.
Politically Dr. Crafts is a progressive republican. He was president of the
Pro­gressive Club of Hennepin county in 1913 and vice chairman of the
progressive state central committee in 1914. He belongs to the Sons of the
American Revolution, to the Phi Rho Sigma and to the Native Sons of Minnesota,
of which he was president in 1906. He was a member of the committee of American
physicians on medical preparedness and was on the medical advisory board of the
United States selective service. In 1913 he was a delegate to the International
Congress of Medicine at London. Valuable as have been his efforts along many
lines, it is perhaps in the field of his profession that his efforts have been
most far-reaching and effective. He has delved deep into those rules and
sciences which govern health and he is the discoverer of a new eye sign in
locomotor ataxia and an original test for the pathological great toe sign,
comparable to the Babinski test, recorded by the National Research Council of
the National Academy of Science, Washington, D. C., in recognition of four
contributions in original research adding to scientific knowledge. He was chief
neurologist on the special neuro-psychiatric board, examining the command at
Camp Funston in the summer of 1918 and he is now attending specialist in
neuro-psychiatry for the United States Veterans Bureau.
In Minneapolis, on the 4th of September, 1901, Dr. Crafts was married to Miss
Amelia I. Burgess. He is a member of the old Minneapolis Commercial Club, the
Minneapolis Automobile Club and the American Legion. He is interested in
legiti­mate sports but finds his own recreation in outings among the pine woods
of northern Minnesota. He makes his home at No. 610 Fifth street Southeast, and
hass his office in the Physicians and Surgeons building. He has made wise
apportion­ment of his time, talents and energies, in his labors for and devotion
to not only his profession but to great causes effecting the uplift and benefit
of mankind, his splendid powers as an organizer and his zeal and interest in the
work giving marked impetus to the questions of Sunday school interest and forest
preservation. He is also frequently heard as an after-dinner speaker and if he
cared to devote his time merely to pleasurable interests his social prominence
would equal his professional leadership.