My Genealogy Hound

JUDGE ALLEN CRAIG, present Judge of the Forty-third Judicial District of Pennsylvania, is one of the most prominent citizens of Mauch Chunk, having more than a state-wide reputation on account of the leading position which he occupies at the Bar and in political circles. He has steadily worked his way upward until he is now in the front rank among his brethren of the legal fraternity, and his success is the crown of merit and ability.

Judge Craig was born on Christmas Day of 1835, in Lehigh Gap, which was then in Northampton County, but is now in Carbon County, and within the limits df the latter county his entire life has been passed. The Craig family is of Scotch-Irish extraction, and the ancestors emigrated from Ireland and located in Northampton County, Pa., in 1728. The grandfather, Gen. Thomas Craig, served under Arnold in the French and Indian War, and commanded the Third Pennsylvania Regiment during the struggle for independence. Capt. Thomas Craig, the father of Judge Craig, was proprietor of the old Lehigh Gap Inn, at Lehigh Gap, and was also engaged in merchandising, lumbering, and ran a stage line between Easton and Mauch Chunk. He became a very prominent citizen of Carbon County, and took an active interest in political and public affairs. He married Catherine Hagenbuch, daughter of John Hagenbuch.

The subject of this sketch remained in Lehigh Gap until sixteen years of age, during which time he attended the public schools, and in a private school prepared for College under the tutelage of Rev. John Vanderveer. He then entered Lafayette College, in eastern Pennsylvania, in 1851, and on the completion of the classical course was graduated from that institution in 1855. Soon afterward he took up the study of law with Hon. Milo M. Dimmick, and after a thorough preparation was admitted to the Bar at Mauch Chunk in June, 1858. His abilities, natural and acquired, have well fitted him for his chosen profession. He is a man of deep research, a careful student, and possesses oratorical powers of a high order. His arguments are logical and convincing, his speech clear and forcible, and on all the important cases tried in Carbon County he has been found either as defendant or prosecutor. His ability was soon known, and won recognition in a large and extensive practice, which from the beginning has constantly increased.

Judge Craig was married, in 1866, to Miss Anna I. Douglas, who is a native of Pennsylvania, but was reared and educated in Connecticut. Four children have been born of their union, two sons and two daughters: Douglas, Harry, Hattie and Gay.

The Judge has done much for the upbuilding of the city in which he makes his home, through his connection with many of its leading enterprises. He was for many years a Director of the First National Bank of Mauch Chunk, and was also with the gas and water companies. His support and hearty co-operation are ever given to those enterprises which are calculated to promote the general welfare. He has also had an honorable political career. In 1859 he was elected District Attorney of Carbon County for a term of three years on the Democratic ticket, and in 1865 he was elected to represent Carbon and Monroe Counties in the State Legislature. He held that office for three successive terms of one year each, and in 1878 was elected State Senator for a term of four years, from the districts comprising Carbon, Monroe and Pike Counties. Ably did he perform the duties of the office, proving in both houses a most capable member, working earnestly for the best interests of those whom he represented. In 1893 he was elected Judge of the Forty-third Judicial District, and is now acceptably filling that office. No more capable man could have been selected for the position, for his thirty-five years of law practice and a keen, cool judgment make him well adapted for the Bench. His decisions are the result of careful and earnest deliberation.

In manner Judge Craig is always courteous and agreeable, possessed of a genial humor and social tendencies which make him a delightful companion. He is one of the best informed men of the state, his school privileges having been supplemented by extensive reading and study in later years. He was appointed one of the Trustees and superintended the erection of the Dimmick Memorial Library Building, which was provided for by the will of Milton Dimmick. He served for a short time in the war, jn 1862, as a member of the Nineteenth Pennsylvania Infantry, and has taken a prominent part in Grand Army affairs. When it was proposed to erect a monument “To all the brave defenders of the Union from the county of Carbon,” Mr. Craig was chosen Chairman of the building committee, and labored earnestly until the completion of the monument and its dedication, September 28, 1886. He is a great favorite with the boys in blue, and few public meetings and camp fires have been held in Mauch Chunk at which he has not been called upon to address his old army comrades.