Craig, Eli T


Eli T Craig - Departed this life Sept. 22nd 1867, at his residence in Harrison Co., Texas Hon. 
Eli T. Craig, age 54 years nine months, and eighteen days. He was born Lincoln county Tennessee, 
in the year 1812. Married in Fayette county, Tennessee, in 1834. Professed religion and joined 
the Cumberland Presbyterian church in 1839 and moved to Texas in 1846.

Without attempting to speak or eulogize beyond what is strictly true, brother Craig was most 
certainly a man of great moral worth, useful in all the relation he sustained to individuals or 
society at large He was for years a ruling Elder in the Ewing Chapel congregation, lead in the 
church music, superintended the Sabbath School, conducted the prayer meetings, and was remarkably 
able in prayer and exhortation, so much so, that in his death the church lost one of her most 
efficient and useful members, and we cannot, but contemplate with sorrow and regret, his seat 
made vacant in the house of God.

He was not only a very useful and influential member of the church, but filled a seat in the 
Legislature of our State with honor to himself and much satisfaction of his constituents. True 
in his early life his literary advantages were limited. Yet he was a close thinker, an attentive 
reader, and with a good memory and a sound judgment, he had stored his mind with a stock of 
useful information, which he could use with ability, and present on public occasion with great 
clearness and ease. It is a fact well known, that his honest and fair presentation of the truth 
never failed to carry with it a force and persuasive energy that gained access to the hearts of 
his hearers. But alas! His labors are now ended, and his voice is now silent in death, yet his 
works will follow him, but his place will be hard to fill. No one who knew him but must regret 
his death, and especially is this true with those who knew him best. May his virtues, his pious 
example, good advice, his prayers and exhortations long live food in the memory of those who 
survived him.