Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 03.djvu/30

 CKAFTS

CRAGIN

He is the author of .1 Short Course of Qualitalivc Auul^tsis (1869).

CRAFTS, Samuel Chandler, governor of Ver- mont, was born in \Voodst(.)ck. Conn., Oct. 6, ITfiS. son of Col. Ebenezer Crafts (Yale. IToO), one of the first settlers of Craftsbury, Vt. He was graduated from Harvard in 1790, and in 1792, on the organization of the town of Craftsbury, was elected town clerk, serving as such for thirty-seven consecutive years. He was a mem- ber of the state con.stitutional convention in 1793, and in 1796 was elected a representative HI the general assembly. In 1798 and 1799 he was clerk of the house and was again elected a representative in 1800, 1801. 1803 and 1803. He was register of probate in the Orleans district, 1796-1815; judge of the county court. 1800-10; and chief justice, 1810-16. from 1809 to 1812 he was a member of the executive council, and again from 182.") to 1827, being also chief justice of the county court. 182.>-28. and president of the state constitutional convention in 1829. In 1816 he was elected a repre.sentative in the loth con- gress and was re-elected to the 16th, 17th and 18th congresses, serving 1817-25. In 1828 he v/as elected governor of Vermont and was re-elected in 1829 and 1830. From 1836 to 1838 he was again chief judge of the county court. In 1842 he was appointed b%- Governor Paine U.S. senator to till the unexpired term of Samuel Prentiss, re- signed April 11. 1842, and he served until March 4, 1843. He died in Craftsbury, Vt., Nov. 19, 1S53.

CRAFTS, Wilbur Fisk, author, was born in Fryeburg. Maine, Jan. 12, 1850; son of the Rev. Frederick A. and Maria L. (Soule) Crafts; and a descendant of Griffin Crafts, first settler of Roxbury, ilass. He was graduated from Wes- leyan university in 1869, and from the School of theology, Boston university, in 1872. He was stationed at Nahant. Mass., 1870; at Haverhill, N.H., 1872-73; Dover, N.Il., 1874; New Bedford, Mass., 1875-77, and at Trinity church, Chicago, 111., 1877-79. In 1880 he travelled in Europe and the east, and in 1880-83 was pastor of the Con- gregational church of Christian Endeavor. Brook- lyn, N.Y. He then became a Presbj-terian clergyman, having charge of the First Union Presbyterian church of New York city. After a five years" pastorate he founded the American Sabbath union, an official union of fourteen denominations, and became its field secretary. In 1892 he removed to Pittsburg, Pa., and became editor of 77/e Christian Statesman and lectured widely on reforms. In 1895 he e.stablished at Washington. D.C., an international agency for the promotion of reforms, liaving the corporate name " The Reform Bureau." which " promotes those reforms on which the churches sociologi- cally unite while theologically differing."' He is

author of: Through the Eye to the Heart (1873),- Trophies of Sony (1874); Childhood (1875); Tli^ Comiiuj Man is the Present Child (1876) ; The Two Chains (1878) ; Rcsrne of Child Soul (1880) ; Plain rs>s of the Black-hoard (1880); Talks to Boys ami (iirls Ahont Jesus (1881); Talks ayid Stories oj Ilrroes and IIol id-ays (1882) ; Must the Old Testament do (ISSS) ; Successful Men of Today (1883); ^liat the Temperance Century Has Made Certain (1885); Tlie Sahhath for Man (1885); Pocket Lesson Xotes (1886) ; Tlie Civil Sahhath (1890) ; Practical Christian Soriolocjy (1895) ; Before the Lost Arts (1896) ; Social Progress (1897) ; Practical Child Study (1899) ; and contributions to periodicals.

CRAGIN, Aaron Harrison, senator, was born at Weston, Vt., Feb. 3, 1821; son of Aaron and Sarah (Whitney) Cragin; and grandson of Ben- jamin and Rebecca (Farrar) Cragin; and of Richard and Sarah Whitney. His first ancestor in America, John Cragin, was born in Scotland, was pressed into the service of King Charles and was captured at Dunbar in 1650. In 1652 he was deported to America with 270 other prisoners of war, and while on board the ship was attacked with smallpox. He would have been thrown overboard but for the interference of an English- woman, Sarah Dawes, to whom he was married Nov. 4, 1661. Aaron H. Cragin was admitted ta the bar at Albany, N.Y"., in 1847 and practised in Lebanon, N.H. From 1852 to 1855 he %vas a representative in the New Hampshire legislature, and in 1854 was elected as a native American a representative in the 34th congress, and was one of tliose who voted to elect N. P. Banks speaker. He was re-elected to the 35th congress as a Re- publican, and in 1859 was again a member of the state legislature. In 1860 he was a delegate to the Republican national convention at Chicago. In 1864 he was elected a senator in congress and was re elected in 1870, serving 1865-77. He was. a delegate to the Philadelphia loyalists' con- vention of 1866 and chairman of the commission for the sale of Hot Springs, Ark., 1877-79. He died in Washington, D.C., May 10, 1898.

CRAGIN, Francis Whittemore, naturalist, was born in Greenfield, N.H., Sept. 4, 1858; son of Francis Whittemore and Mary Ann (L© Bosquet) Cragin; grand.son of Paul Cragin of Greenfield. N.H., and a descendant of John Cragin of Woburn. Mass. He was a student at Wash- burn college, Topeka. at the Brooklyn polytech- nic Institute and at Harvard, being graduated at the Lawrence scientific school in 1882. He was professor of natural history in "Washburn college. 1883-91 ; and profes.sor of geology and pale- ontology in Colorado college, 1891-99. He e.stab- lislied the Washburn college biological survey of Kansas in 1H^:3-.H4, and the work so begun resulted ill the discovery of many new species of animals