William D. Craig Biography


	This biography appears on page 1511 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	WILLIAM D. CRAIG, cashier of the James River Bank, at Frankfort, 
Spink county, is a native of the province of Ontario, Canada, where he 
was born on the 26th of August, 1849, being a son of David C. and Mary 
J. Craig, both of whom were born in the state of New York. In 1855 they 
removed from Canada to Winneshiek county, Iowa, remaining but a short 
time, since within the same year they removed to Fillmore county 
Minnesota, where Mr. Craig became one of the early settlers and pioneer 
farmers, being duly successful in his efforts and being one of the 
influential citizens of his section. The parents came to Spink county. 
near Frankfort, in 1882, and here died, the mother dying in the summer 
of 1899, and the father dying in the summer of 1901. During the war of 
the Rebellion the father served three years and ten months as a member 
of the Third Minnesota Volunteer Infantry. The subject of this sketch 
was reared on the home farm in Fillmore county Minnesota. and received 
his early educational training in its common schools. He continued to 
assist his father in the work and management of the home place, until he 
married, when he engaged in farming on his own responsibility, 
continuing his residence in Minnesota until 1884, when he came to South 
Dakota and located in Spink county, where he secured a farm of three 
hundred and twenty acres and engaged in farming and stock growing. In 
the autumn of 1888 he was elected sheriff of the county and was 
reelected in 1890, while in 1892 he was elected to represent his 
district in the state senate succeeding himself in the election of 1894, 
and proving himself a valuable working member of the general assembly of 
the newly admitted commonwealth, while in 1902 he was elected a member 
of the lower house of the legislature, as a representative of Spink 
county. He is still the owner of valuable farming land in the county and 
is also engaged in the buying and shipping of grain, in addition to his 
banking interests, while he has shown a helpful interest in all that has 
tended to conserve the advancement and material prosperity of his home 
town and county. In politics he has ever been staunchly arrayed in 
support of the principles and policies of the Republican party, and 
fraternally he is identified with Frankfort Lodge, No. 77, Ancient Free 
and Accepted Masons, and Frankfort Lodge, No. 303, Ancient Order of 
United Workmen, being recorder of each of these organizations at the 
time of this writing. For the past quarter of a century he has been a 
member of the Methodist Episcopal church, and of the same Mrs. Craig 
also is a member. 

	On the 25th of May, 1873, at Harmony, Fillmore county, Minnesota, 
was solemnized the marriage of Mr. Craig to Miss Addie R. Elliott, who 
was born in St. Lawrence county, New York, in March, 1852, her parents 
having likewise been born in the old Empire state, whence they removed 
to Minnesota in the pioneer days. Mr. and Mrs. Craig have two children, 
John D., who was born on the 26th of April, 1874, and Edith J., who was 
born on the 23d of February, 1879, and who married Oscar Blain, of 
Frankfort, South Dakota.