Born in Whately, Massachusetts, to Chester and Phila (née Jewett) Crafts,[6] he arrived in Holyoke at age 11, and after attending school began his first business driving a stagecoach between Springfield and Northampton carrying mail and passengers.

[2] Ever present in the political landscape of the town, he ran successfully for a representative seat for the Massachusetts Legislature in 1872.

When Pearsons was elected by a majority of sixty-two the Transcript came out with a cut of the most exultant, arrogant, loud-throated rooster that it was ever our fortune to gaze upon.

[4] By the end of his life, Crafts had held several properties in the city, as well as a stake in the Bemis Paper Company.

He died at his residence in Holyoke on September 3, 1904, from kidney failure, and was interred in Forestdale Cemetery.