“The History of Jefferson County, Wisconsin”, published: Chicago:  
Western Historical Company.   1879.


HON. ALEXANDER J. CRAIG,  deceased;  born in the town of 
Wallkill, Orange Co., N.Y., Nov. 11, 1823; after receiving his early 
education in his native State, he came to Palmyra in 1843, where he 
resided until 1860, though he was editor of the State Journal of 
Education at Racine four years.  Mr. Craig was elected to the Wisconsin 
Legislature in 1859, and was appointed State Assistant Superintendent of 
Education in 1861, and held the office until 1867, when he was elected 
State Superintendent, and was re-elected in 1869 by a majority of 10,000 
votes; before the expiration of his second term, he fell a victim to 
pulmonary consumption and died July 3, 1870.  Mr. Craig enlisted in 
1864, in the 40th W.V.I., and served as Adjutant to the close of the war.  
He was a man of broad and liberal ideas, of sound and well-trained 
judgement, as well as unusual industry; when called upon by the people 
to assume a responsible office, he ever performed the duty in an able and 
conscientious manner.  Mr. Craig married Miss Eliza M. Dibble, of 
Rochester, N.Y., May 3, 1842; they have seven children – Elmer H., 
Mary L., Alice J., Herbert E., Seward J., Allen A. and Julius R.; Helen E. 
Craig died Feb. 26, 1872, in Palmyra; Elmer H. is United States Pension 
Agent; Mary L. is the wife of A. E. Bourne, Superintendent of Schools, 
Sandwich, Ill.; Seward J. is in Buffalo, N.Y.; Alice J. is a teacher of 
elocution in the Wisconsin State University; Herbert E. is a teacher in 
Texas; Allen A. and Julius R. remain in Palmyra with their mother.  A. J. 
Craig was an earnest member of the Congregational Church, as well as 
of the Republican party.


Submitted by:  Linda Pingel  (LPingel@worldnet.att.net)