John James Craig married Amanda R. Goodloe December 18, 1855, in Boyle County, Kentucky.  The county marriage record for the couple tells us that both were living in Boyle County at the time.  The groom was born in Lincoln County and the bride in Madison County.  The bride and groom were both 23 years of age.

1855 – Fifty Years – 1905

The Craig Golden Wedding

The Kentucky Advocate, Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky

Wednesday, December 20, 1905

Tuesday, from three o’clock in the afternoon until nine in the evening, Waveland, the Craig homestead, was the scene of an event rare in its occurrence, and beautiful in the observance, when Mr. and Mrs. John J. Craig celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of their marriage.  It was at the old Owsley home, now known as the McClain place, near Danville, on December the eighteenth, eighteen hundred and fifty-five, that John J. Craig and Amanda R. Goodloe were married.  Fifty years later, after a life of happiness, congeniality and prosperity, blessed with devoted children and grandchildren, this much beloved and greatly blessed couple were spared to commemorate their golden wedding.  In response to the bidding hundreds of relatives and friends accepted the opportunity to pay tribute to this lovable couple and rejoice with them in the celebration of an event denoting an epoch of such great import in their lives.  The interesting old homestead, erected over a century ago, was most artistically decorated.  The walls of the quaint old parlors and halls were draped with garlands of southern smilax and wreaths of holly, mistletoe entwining the chandeliers, and many waxen tapers adding brilliancy to the scene.  Mr. and Mrs. Craig received their guests in the west parlors, the bride of fifty years ago wearing a becoming gown of white taffeta silk, trimmed with handsome old point lace, and carried a bouquet of Mareschal Neil roses.  The eldest daughter, Mrs. Alex Irvine, was gowned in white voile, trimmed with Duchesse lace, and wore white flowers in her hair.  Mrs. Marshall Allen was dressed in blue silk and lace.  Miss Craig wore a very elegant costume of gauze, hand-embroidered in gold.  Rev. Alex Irvine and Mrs. Irvine, Rev. Marshall Allen and Mrs. Allen, and Miss Craig, and four grandchildren, John Craig Irvine, William Irvine, Louise Irvine and John Craig Allen, composing the immediate family of Mr. and Mrs. Craig were all present, as also was the old family servant, Isaac Fisher, who was Mr. Craig’s footman and rode on the bridal coach.

The supper rooms, three in number, decorated with smilax and holly, were each set with a large center table, with smaller tables distributed around the room.  The principal or bride’s table was a reproduction of the original bride’s table, in the center of which was a large design, representing a pagoda, of icing and candies, mounted upon two round cakes.  Above this center piece was suspended a marriage bell made of yellow rose buds and presented by Mr. Craig’s associates in the Directory of the Citizen’s National Bank.  On this table were several large cakes, a roast pig with the apple in its mouth, and three unique designs – the old log cabin, the old oaken bucket, the flower girl and a guitar and an open music book upon which was inscribed the Wedding March.  When Saxton’s orchestra began Mendelssohn’s wedding march, Mr. and Mrs. Craig led the way to the supper room.  Seated with them at the bride’s table were Mrs. Fannie Talbott, Mrs. J. T. Fackler, Col. John Cowan, Mr. Ed Samuel – all of whom were present at the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Craig – Dr. and Mrs. Green Craig, Mrs. Carrie Neale and Mr. Wm. F. Booker.  The supper was served in two courses, the old-time way.  After the first course a poem, contributed by Mr. J. L. Waggener, Jr., was read by Mr. J. M. Wallace, and during the course of the afternoon and evening similar contributions by Mrs. Emma T. Cecil, Mrs. Marion Green Heizer and Dr. Lewis Barbour, who performed the marriage ceremony in ’55, also were read and very much enjoyed.  At the conclusion of the repast all guests joined in singing to the tune of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ a special composition, ‘The Bride and Groom of Fifty Years Ago.’

The color scheme of the supper was white and gold, typical of the occasion.  The ices were white roses resting on a nest of yellow spun candy, and served on doilies of white and gilt paper.  The souvenirs were gilt wishbones, with a small bow of ribbon attached, and a highly-prized memento.  It was a card on which were photographs of Mr. and Mrs. Craig, reproduced from daguerreotypes taken soon after their marriage in 1855.  The supper, prepared by Kline, of Louisville, was delightful and most bountifully served.  The guest book, over which Mrs. J. M. Lee presided, covered with white satin beautifully hand-painted, was a remembrance from Mrs. J. T. Fackler, and upon its pages are recoded the names of all the guests.

Mr. and Mrs. Craig requested that no present be tendered and none was accepted but the guest book and marriage bell of flowers.

The entertainment was one of the most beautiful ever given in Danville, and occasioned, as it was, by a rare event, will be long remembered.  Assisting in providing for the comfort and entertain of the guests were Mrs. J. A. Quisenberry, Mrs. J. M. Wallace, Mrs. C. P. Cecil, Jr., and Miss Sue McDowell.  Among the visitors from out of town were Mrs. James Edgar, Detroit; Mrs. Carrie Neale, Miss Lizzie Goodloe, Miss Letitia Bullock, Lexington; Dr. Owsley Goodloe, Seymour, Ind.; Dr. and Mrs. Evans, Mr. and Mrs. Phelps, and Mr. and Mrs. Tevis, Richmond; Judge and Mrs. Benton, Winchester; Dr. and Mrs. Green Craig, Chicago; Dr. and Mrs. G. H. Rout and Miss Rout, Versailles; Miss Betty Brent Johnson, Paris; Rev. and Mrs. Frank Clelland, Mercer County; Mrs. Fannie Talbott, Carlisle; Mrs. C. H. Fox, East Orange, NJ; Mrs. Edwards, St. Lewis; Mr. and Mrs. W. F. Booker, Mr. and Mrs. George G. Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Owsley Brown, Miss Elizabeth Brown, Miss Lizzie wood and Dr. F. J. Cheek, Louisville; Mr. and Mrs. J. S. Owsley, Lincoln County; Judge L. L. Lewis, Richmond, VA; Mr. E. D. Samuel, Frankfort; Col. John Cowan, Chattanooga; Mr. and Mrs. D. M. Lackey, Lancaster.

The Kentucky Advocate, Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky

Monday, August 24, 1908

Craig

At 6:30 a.m. Sunday, August 23^rd, Mrs. John J. Craig passed peacefully from this life into the life immortal.

Mrs. Craig had been in poor health for several years, but had recently seemed much better in her last few days.  She had driven to Danville twice on Saturday, the day preceding her death.

Her spirit took its flight just at the Sabbath’s dawn.

Amanda Rodes Goodloe was born in Madison County, Kentucky, on April 25^th, 1832, and was the daughter of Judge William C. Goodloe and Almira Owsley.

At the age of six she went to Frankfort to live with her grandfather, Judge William Owsley.  When Judge Owsley was elected Governor in 1844, he took this young girl, as his adopted daughter, into the old mansion, which has been the home of so many of Kentucky’s chief executives.  At the end of his term, Governor William Owsley moved to Boyle County, to the farm on the Harrodsburg turnpike, recently occupied by the Misses McClane.  This beautiful spot was the home of Amanda Goodloe until she was married to John J. Craig on December 18, 1855.

She then moved to ‘Waveland,’ the former home of Dr. William Craig, where she and her husband have lived for fifty-three years.

The hospitality and good cheer of this home is known far and wide.  No week nor hardly a day passed that did not find a guest of Mr. and Mrs. Craig’s at ‘Waveland.”   The writer of this little sketch could tell of hundreds of times that he had enjoyed their hospitality.

On December 18^th, 1905, Mr. and Mrs. Craig celebrated their golden wedding.   It was that happy occasion that will be long remembered by the many who attended.  Some who had been present at the wedding in 1855, and guests from many cities and states came to the feast.  It was indeed a feast of love, wit, poetry, music and then the table was spread with everything to tempt and satisfy the hungry.  That occasion seemed to many of us as the climax of fifty years of genuine Kentucky hospitality in a Christian home.

Mrs. Craig leaves behind her, to mourn her loss, a husband and three daughters.  The daughters are Mrs. A. M. Irvine, of Corydon, Ind.; Mrs. Marshall Allen, of Ishpeming, Mich.; and Miss Betty Craig.  Four grandchildren will from this day begin to learn how much they have lost.

Mrs. Craig was a consistent member of the Second Presbyterian church of Danville, and her deeds of charity and love speak for her life.

Her life has reached out beyond three score years and ten.  That time has been spent in the Blue Grass of Central Kentucky in the midst of some of God’s best people.  She loved and served this people and the love was not lost, but fully returned.

Her funeral will be held at ‘Waveland’ at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, the burial in the Danville cemetery.

Mr. Craig and his daughters will know, in a thousand ways, how tender and loving this community can be.  We cannot bring her back, neither would we, for the blessed Lord knows best, but we can join our prayers for them.

May the God of all comfort fulfill to husband and children the promise, ‘I will comfort you.’

The Kentucky Advocate, Danville, Boyle County, Kentucky

Thursday, December 24, 1914

Craig

After a long and useful  life, nearly all of which was spent upon his farm on the outskirts of Danville, Mr. John J. Craig, after an illness superinduced by advancing years, passed peacefully into the great beyond, at 8:30 o’clock last evening.

John James Craig was born April 26, 1832, in what was then Lincoln County, and when he was about five years of age his father moved to the farm on the Hustonville turnpike, about one mile from town, where the family have since made their home.

In 1855 Mr. Craig was united in married to Miss Amanda Goodloe, of Boyle County, who preceded him to the grave several years ago.  The surviving children of this union are Mrs. Alexander M. Irvine, of North Vernon, Indiana; Mrs. M. M. Allen, of Ishpeming, Michigan; and Miss Bettie Craig, of Boyle County.

He was a brother of the late Dr. Willis Green Craig, of McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois, and the late Mrs. Thomas M. Green, of Danville.

The subject of this brief notice was a man of sterling character, honest to a fault in all his transactions with his fellow-man, a kind-hearted and genial friend and neighbor, fond of the company of his acquaintances, and while they will be sincerely grieved because of his demise, it is his children and his immediate relatives, who knew and loved him best because of his indulgent and kindly nature, who will most poignantly realize their loss.

He had been a deacon in the Second Presbyterian Church of this city for many years, and until recently its treasurer, and was long connected with the Citizens National Bank of Danville, a portion of the time as its Vice-President.

Funeral services will be conducted by Dr. J. Q. A. McDowell, at the Second Presbyterian Church, on tomorrow (Saturday) afternoon, at 2:30 o’clock, and interment will follow in Bellevue Cemetery.  No flowers.

Photo of Waveland taken from January 30, 1966, Lexington-Herald Leader.