Elijah Craig

Elijah Craig (November 15, 1738 – May 18, 1808) was an American Baptist preacher, who became an educator and capitalist entrepreneur in the area of Virginia that later became the state of Kentucky.

Converted by Baptist David Thomas in 1764, Elijah Craig soon began holding meetings in his tobacco barn.

[8] In 1771 Elijah Craig was ordained and became the pastor of Blue Run church,[9] halfway between Barboursville and Liberty Mills, Virginia.

In 1774, the convention of independent Baptists designated Elijah Craig and John Waller as apostles (missionaries) to evangelize north of the James River.

[13] As such, he worked with Patrick Henry and James Madison to protect religious freedom federally and in Virginia after the Revolutionary War.

Ultimately, religious freedom became protected in Virginia by statute (and the Anglican Church was disestablished, i.e. lost government financial support), as well as in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

In 1782 (just after the Revolutionary War), Elijah Craig led the immigration of his congregation from Orange Co., VA, and purchased 1,000 acres (4.0 km2) in what was then Fayette County of Kentucky, where he planned and laid out a town originally called Lebanon, which was incorporated in 1784.

Notice is hereby given that on Monday, 28 January next, a school will be opened by Messrs. Jones and Worley, at the Royal Spring in Lebanon Town, Fayette County, where a commodious house, sufficient to contain fifty or sixty scholars, will be prepared.

They will teach the Latin and Greek languages, together with such branches of the sciences as are usually taught in public seminaries, at twenty five shillings a quarter for each scholar.

Craig has sometimes been claimed to have been the first to age the distillation in charred oak casks,[1][2][3][4] "a process that gives the bourbon its brownish color and unique taste".

[1][2][4][24] Craig continued to prosper, eventually owning more than 4,000 acres (16 km2) and enough slaves to cultivate it, and operating a retail store in Frankfort.

[25] John Taylor wrote of him in A History of Ten Baptist Churches, "His preaching was of the most solemn style; his appearance as of a man who had just come from the dead; of a delicate habit, a thin visage, large eyes and mouth; the sweet melody of his voice, both in preaching and singing, bore all down before it.

"[26] The Kentucky Gazette eulogized Craig as follows, "He possessed a mind extremely active and, as his whole property was expended in attempts to carry his plans to execution, he consequently died poor.