John Gemmill Craig

John was born into this setting in 1824, only a few years after his family’s arrival. The Lanark Co. Genealogical Society holds a copy of a hand-written Craig family tree by Bonnie Kuehn of St. Paul, MN[1]. I have not included the details of this information here, but indications are that John is the 5th (at least) child of Adam and Janet (Gemmil) Craig, who were among the 1820-22 settlers. John’s birth date on this chart is given as 14 Sept. 1824, which is consistent with the age of the person later identified as the husband of Nancy Walker and the father of Annie S. Craig.

John and Nancy were married in 1850, and began raising a family the same year. Annie was their first born, and they had nine children in Canada before leaving for the United States. Sadly, four of their children died before 1863 and are buried in Lanark Village cemetery. Two more were born after they had left Lanark. The very poor land conditions in Lanark made life there difficult, at best, and many of the early families of Lanark decided to move on, including John and Nancy and their young family.

The last child born before departure may have been John Francis (1864): This is inferred from the fact that their next child, Hannah, is known to have been born in St. Mary’s, Ontario in February of 1866, some 300 miles west of Lanark. John’s obituary in “the Lanark Era” indicates that at the time of his death he had a brother, David, living in St. Mary’s, so David and John’s families may have left Lanark together. Or, perhaps David left before John, but it seems plausible that they may have lived in the same place during the winter of 1865-1866. According to U.S. census records, their next child, Helen G. Craig, was also born in Canada, in 1868. The naturalization declaration of Annie states that her first entry into the U.S was on Sept 29, 1869.

The route from Lanark to St. Mary’s points towards Sarnia, Ontario, which lies at the southern tip of Lake Huron, just above Detroit MI. Although we have no information on the route that John’s family took to Minnesota, this suggests that they may have traveled west via the Great Lakes, perhaps to Duluth. However, it is really not clear whether the migration route to the Northwest took them to Winnipeg in the north, or perhaps through the large cities like St. Paul. It’s likely that they were following others from the Lanark settlements, and it is known that there were a significant population of Scot-Canadians in the Red River settlements near Winnipeg, but I have also found Craigs of Canadian heritage in the early censuses of St. Paul.

The obituary of Annie’s brother, Richard W. Craig, gives the next clue regarding the family’s travels, stating that they first settled at Alexandria, Douglas Co., Minnesota in 1868. Further information lies in land records for the era, which I have obtained but not yet incorporated into this history. At any rate, John, Nancy, and their family are placed in Alexandria by the 1870 US Census, taken June 21, 1870.

In 1871 the family made their last move, about 50 miles northwest to the area near Fergus Falls in Otter Tail County. The Richard’s obituary states that this last portion of their long migration from Lanark, a present-day trip of over 1,300 miles, was made by ox cart and covered wagon, as the railroads had not yet arrived at Fergus Falls. The 1871 railroad map of Minnesota shows lines passing to the northeast (Northern Pacific from Brainerd to Fargo) and to the southwest (St. Paul & Pacific from Willmar to Breckenridge), but the only road between Alexandria and Fergus Falls at this time was the “Stage Road”, a branch of the “Middle Trail”, one of the Red River ox-cart trails.