Eliza Downes (married Craig)

Eliza DOWNES/DOWNS was the daughter of Daniel and Elizabeth DOWNES and was born on May 25, 1795, in County Armagh, Ireland.

She emigrated to the USA in April 1821 and took up residence in Morristown, St. Lawrence Co, New York. In December 1823 she married Samuel Craig who was born on February 22, 1795.

The couple decided to move to the prairies of Michigan first settling in Allen Prairie, Hillsdale County, Michigan. Two years later they settled in Girard, Branch County, Michigan.

Mrs. Craig held the distinction of being the first woman to give birth to a white male child in Girard. He was born on 4 September ca. 1825. 

Mrs. Craig joined the Presbyterian Church in Girard in 1843. She reportedly was "a kind and considerate mother, an excellent neighbor and a woman whom all acquaintances loved. . ."

Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Craig had six children:

        Mary Jane

        James

         David

         Daniel

         Samuel

          Eliza

According to a Coldwater, Michigan  newspaper reporter of February 20, 1875, Mrs. Craig "exhibited to me the flax wheel that she used when a girl and

specimens of domestic linen that she made in old Ireland when a girl. . ."

Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Craig moved from Girard some years before their death leaving their Girard property in the hands of three of their children.

Samuel Craig died on March 2, 1847, and Eliza Craig died on December 22, 1878, at the age of 83.  They are both buried in West Girard Cemetery, Girard, Michigan, USA.

 

Sources: History of Branch County, Michigan (USA) by Crisfield Johnson, pp. 238-239.

               Find A Grave dot com---See: West Girard Cemetery, Girard, Michigan, USA.

               Coldwater Reporter, Coldwater, Michigan, February 20, 1875.

Note: These are not my ancestors--PrairieRose