MDAH only has microfilm. (MF Roll # 36064)

Dates: 1848 - 1849.

Biography:

Hugh Craft

Hugh Craft was born in Maryland on January 22, 1799. He later became a dry-goods merchant with the firm, Craft and Fort, located in Milledgeville, Georgia. Craft married Mary Elizabeth Collier (1806–1879) of Connecticut around 1820. They had at least eleven children, some of whom died very young: Edwin Curtis (1820–1823), Elizabeth (b. & d. 1822), Henry (b. 1822), Martha (b. 1826), Caroline S. (1833–1875), Addison (1835–1909), Heber (1837–1896), Stella (b. 1839), Mary Anna (1839–1840), Emma (d. 1845), and Helen (b. 1847). Hugh Craft's buying trips often took him to New York where he also had relatives. During the land rush following the Treaty of Pontotoc (1832) that opened Chickasaw tribal lands in north Mississippi to public settlement, Hugh Craft became a land agent in Holly Springs, Marshall County, Mississippi. Mary Craft apparently remained in Georgia until sometime before the birth of her last child, when she and the rest of the family moved to Holly Springs.

While working as a land agent, Hugh Craft accumulated real property worth $10,400 by 1850 and $55,000 by 1860. His personal property was valued at $12,000 and that of his wife at $7,500 in 1860. Hugh Craft built a large home for his family in Holly Springs in 1851. Now known as the Craft-Fort-Daniel House, it remained in the family until the 1990s. Hugh Craft died on January 5, 1867.

Henry Craft

Henry Craft was born in Georgia on April 8, 1822. He was living in Macon, Georgia, in 1844, but he had moved to Holly Springs, Mississippi, by 1845. Craft attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) from at least 1847 to 1848. He was again living in Mississippi by 1849, apparently in Holly Springs. Craft found employment with his father as a land agent, and he later worked as a lawyer in Marshall County. He was practicing law in Memphis, Tennessee, by 1863, and he lived there through at least 1877.

 
Scope and Content:

The Henry Craft journal covers the years 1848 and 1849. It is paginated, with irregular entries beginning on Craft's twenty-fifth birthday in Princeton, New Jersey. He used the journal to record daily events of his life in Princeton, including college classes that he attended, interesting people that he met, philosophical matters, inspirational sermons, and the weather. Craft also recorded trips to a number of other places, including Tuscumbia, Alabama; Holly Springs, Mississippi; and Charleston, South Carolina. Occasional pages are only partially legible.

 

Series Identification:

Series 1: Journal. 1848–1849. 1 35 mm, positive microfilm roll (MF Roll # 36064).