Elijah Craig - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Rev. Elijah Craig was a Baptist

Baptist

Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...

preacher in Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

, who became an educator and capitalist entrepreneur

Entrepreneur

An entrepreneur is an owner or manager of a business enterprise who makes money through risk and initiative.The term was originally a loanword from French and was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon. Entrepreneur in English is a term applied to a person who is willing to...

in the area of Virginia that later became the state of Kentucky

Kentucky

The Commonwealth of Kentucky is a state located in the East Central United States of America. As classified by the United States Census Bureau, Kentucky is a Southern state, more specifically in the East South Central region. Kentucky is one of four U.S. states constituted as a commonwealth...

. He has sometimes, although rather dubiously, been credited with the invention

Invention

An invention is a novel composition, device, or process. An invention may be derived from a pre-existing model or idea, or it could be independently conceived, in which case it may be a radical breakthrough. In addition, there is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social...

of bourbon whiskey

Bourbon whiskey

Bourbon is a type of American whiskey – a barrel-aged distilled spirit made primarily from corn. The name of the spirit derives from its historical association with an area known as Old Bourbon, around what is now Bourbon County, Kentucky . It has been produced since the 18th century...

by improving the locally made distillate from an un-aged corn liquor to the familiar reddish-brown drink through barrel-aging in charred oak casks.

Early life and education

Rev. Craig was born in Orange County, Virginia

Orange County, Virginia

As of the census of 2000, there were 25,881 people, 10,150 households, and 7,470 families residing in the county. The population density was 76 people per square mile . There were 11,354 housing units at an average density of 33 per square mile...

(formerly Spotsylvania County) in 1738 or 1743, the 5th child of Polly Hawkins (descendant of John Hawkins

John Hawkins

Admiral Sir John Hawkins was an English shipbuilder, naval administrator and commander, merchant, navigator, and slave trader. As treasurer and controller of the Royal Navy, he rebuilt older ships and helped design the faster ships that withstood the Spanish Armada in 1588...

) and Taliaferro or Toliver Craig, Sr.

Toliver Craig, Sr.

Toliver Craig, Sr., first called Taliaferro Craig, was an 18th-century American frontiersman and militia officer. An early settler and landowner near present-day Lexington, Kentucky, he was one of the defenders of the early fort of Bryan's Station during the American Revolutionary War. It was...

He was converted by David Thomas and ordained as a Baptist preacher in 1771. His older brother Lewis and younger brother Joseph also became Baptist preachers. Like other independent Baptists, Craig was jailed at least once (in Fredericksburg

Fredericksburg, Virginia

Fredericksburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia located south of Washington, D.C., and north of Richmond. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 24,286...

before the American Revolution

American Revolution

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

) for preaching without a license or episcopal ordination from the Anglican

Anglican Communion

The Anglican Communion is an international association of national and regional Anglican churches in full communion with the Church of England and specifically with its principal primate, the Archbishop of Canterbury...

establishment. Craig was imprisoned briefly in South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

, apparently for disturbing the peace with his sermons.

In 1777, Craig became establishing pastor

Pastor

The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....

of the Blue Run Church, halfway between Barboursville

Barboursville, Virginia

Barboursville is an unincorporated community in Albemarle and Orange counties in the U.S. state of Virginia. Barboursville is famous for being the birthplace of renowned American military commander and President Zachary Taylor...

and Liberty Mills, Virginia

Virginia

. Craig discussed with attorney and future president James Madison

James Madison

James Madison, Jr. was an American statesman and political theorist. He was the fourth President of the United States and is hailed as the “Father of the Constitution” for being the primary author of the United States Constitution and at first an opponent of, and then a key author of the United...

how to guarantee freedom of religion

Freedom of religion

Freedom of religion is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any...

in the state constitution after the American Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

. Madison also ensured that religious freedom was protected in the federal Constitution.

Travel to Kentucky area of Virginia

Still seeking religious freedom, in 1781 Rev. Elijah Craig traveled with his brother Lewis and his congregation of up to 600 people known as "The Traveling Church" . The migrants included slaves held by the Craigs and others. They walked down to present-day Lynchburg

Lynchburg, Virginia

Lynchburg is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The population was 75,568 as of 2010. Located in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains along the banks of the James River, Lynchburg is known as the "City of Seven Hills" or "The Hill City." Lynchburg was the only major city in...

and Roanoke

Roanoke, Virginia

Roanoke is an independent city in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. state of Virginia and is the tenth-largest city in the Commonwealth. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia. The population within the city limits was 97,032 as of 2010...

before crossing the Blue Ridge

Blue Ridge Mountains

The Blue Ridge Mountains are a physiographic province of the larger Appalachian Mountains range. This province consists of northern and southern physiographic regions, which divide near the Roanoke River gap. The mountain range is located in the eastern United States, starting at its southern-most...

and Cumberland Mountains

Cumberland Mountains

The Cumberland Mountains are a mountain range in the southeastern section of the Appalachian Mountains. They are located in southern West Virginia, western Virginia, eastern edges of Kentucky, and eastern middle Tennessee, including the Crab Orchard Mountains...

through the Cumberland Gap

Cumberland Gap

Cumberland Gap is a pass through the Cumberland Mountains region of the Appalachian Mountains, also known as the Cumberland Water Gap, at the juncture of the U.S. states of Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia...

. They came to in the area of Virginia known as Kentucky, where Boonesborough

Boonesborough, Kentucky

Boonesborough is an unincorporated community in Madison County, Kentucky, United States. It lies in the central part of the state along the Kentucky River. Boonesborough is part of the Richmond–Berea Micropolitan Statistical Area....

was the first settlement at which they arrived. Later, in 1792, the Kentucky area would be separated from Virginia to form the new state of Kentucky

Kentucky

.

Rev. Elijah Craig purchased 1000 acres (4 km²) in what was then Fayette County

Fayette County, Kentucky

Fayette County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. The population was 295,083 in the 2010 Census. Its territory, population and government are coextensive with the city of Lexington, which also serves as county seat....

of Virginia, in 1782, where he planned and laid out the nearby town originally called Lebanon, incorporated in 1784. (In 1790 the town would later be renamed as Georgetown

Georgetown, Kentucky

Georgetown is a city in Scott County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 29,098 at the 2010 census. The original settlement of Lebanon, founded by Rev. Elijah Craig, was renamed in 1790 in honor of President George Washington. It is the home of Georgetown College, a private liberal arts...

in honor of Gen. Washington.) Craig preached at several churches and became pastor of the Great Crossing Church, which is still active in the Georgetown area. (He was buried next to his mother in the early church cemetery, now covered by a parking lot.)

Rev. Elijah Craig established the first classical school

Classical school

The Classical School in criminology is usually a reference to the 18th-century work during the Enlightenment by the utilitarian and social contract philosophers Jeremy Bentham and Cesare Beccaria. Their interests lay in the system of criminal justice and penology and, indirectly through the...

in Kentucky in 1787. His advertisement in The Kentucky Gazette read:

“Education. Notice is hereby given that on Monday, 28th of January next, a school will be opened by Messrs. Jones and Worley, at the Royal Spring in Lebanon Town, Fayette County
Fayette County, Kentucky
Fayette County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kentucky. The population was 295,083 in the 2010 Census. Its territory, population and government are coextensive with the city of Lexington, which also serves as county seat....

, where a commodious house, sufficient to contain fifty or sixty scholars, will be prepared. They will teach the Latin and Greek language
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

s, together with such branches of the sciences as are usually taught in public seminaries, at twenty five shillings a quarter for each scholar. One half to be paid in cash, the other half in produce at cash prices. There will be a vacation of a month in the spring, and another in the fall, at the close of each of which it is expected that such payments as are due in cash will be made. For diet, washing and house room for a year, each scholar pays L3 in cash, or 500 weight of pork on entrance, and L3 cash on the beginning of the third quarter. It is desired that, as many as can, would furnish themselves with beds; such as cannot may be provided for here, to the number of eight or ten boys, at 35s a year for each bed. ELIJAH CRAIG. LEBANON, December 27, 1787.”

The school was later linked to the Rittenhouse Academy, founded in 1798 and led by Rev. Craig. He donated land for the founding of Georgetown College, the first Baptist college founded west of the Allegheny Mountains

Allegheny Mountains

The Allegheny Mountain Range , also spelled Alleghany, Allegany and, informally, the Alleghenies, is part of the vast Appalachian Mountain Range of the eastern United States and Canada...

. The college continues today.

Rev. Craig was a business

Business

A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...

man and a local magnate

Business magnate

A business magnate, sometimes referred to as a capitalist, czar, mogul, tycoon, baron, oligarch, or industrialist, is an informal term used to refer to an entrepreneur who has reached prominence and derived a notable amount of wealth from a particular industry .-Etymology:The word magnate itself...

, providing many jobs and generating socio-economic development. He built Kentucky's first fulling mill (for cloth manufacturing), its first paper mill

Paper mill

A paper mill is a factory devoted to making paper from vegetable fibres such as wood pulp, old rags and other ingredients using a Fourdrinier machine or other type of paper machine.- History :...

, its first ropewalk

Ropewalk

A ropewalk is a long straight narrow lane, or a covered pathway, where long strands of material were laid before being twisted into rope.Ropewalks historically were harsh sweatshops, and frequently caught on fire, as hemp dust forms an explosive mixture. Rope was essential in sailing ships and the...

(for manufacturing rope from hemp), and the first lumber and gristmill

Gristmill

The terms gristmill or grist mill can refer either to a building in which grain is ground into flour, or to the grinding mechanism itself.- Early history :...

at Georgetown.

Distillery

In approximately 1789, Craig founded a distillery

Distillation

Distillation is a method of separating mixtures based on differences in volatilities of components in a boiling liquid mixture. Distillation is a unit operation, or a physical separation process, and not a chemical reaction....

. This last enterprise likely led to his subsequent dubious reputation as the inventor of corn

Maize

Maize known in many English-speaking countries as corn or mielie/mealie, is a grain domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times. The leafy stalk produces ears which contain seeds called kernels. Though technically a grain, maize kernels are used in cooking as a vegetable...

-based bourbon whiskey. Rev. Craig has been claimed to have been the first to age the distillation in charred oak casks, "a process that gives the bourbon its reddish color and unique taste."

When he built it, Rev. Craig's distillery was in the territory of the original Fayette County

Fayette County, Kentucky

, from which later Bourbon County was created, although the distillery was not located within the area that would become Bourbon County. Both Fayette County and Bourbon County were named in honor of the noted Revolutionary War Gen. Gilbert du Motier, marquis de Lafayette of the French nobility and its royal House of Bourbon.

As American whiskey authority Charles Kendrick Cowdery has observed, "By the time Bourbon County was formed in 1785, there were dozens if not hundreds of small farmer-distillers making whiskey throughout the region… Ultimately, most of the corn-based whiskey made west of the Alleghenies was called 'bourbon', to distinguish it from the rye-based whiskies that predominated in the East." Cowdery casts substantial doubt on the notion that Elijah Craig should be credited with the invention of Bourbon whiskey.

Death

Rev. Craig continued to prosper, coming to own more than 4000 acres (16.2 km²) and operating a retail store in Frankfort

Frankfort, Kentucky

Frankfort is a city in Kentucky that serves as the state capital and the county seat of Franklin County. The population was 27,741 at the 2000 census; by population it is the 5th smallest state capital in the United States...

. He died in Georgetown in 1808. The Kentucky Gazette eulogized:

“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.” Some Baptist sources say he sold out to the world, but “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. If virtue consists in being useful to our fellow citizens, perhaps there were few more virtuous men than Mr. Craig.”

Legacy

Craig may be most widely known for the premium bourbon that bears his name that is produced by Heaven Hill

Heaven Hill

Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc., is a private family-owned and operated distillery company headquartered in Bardstown, Kentucky that produces and markets the Heaven Hill brand of Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey and a variety of other distilled spirits. Its current distillery facility, called the...

distillery.

Elijah Craig whiskey is made in both 12 "Small Batch" and 18 year-old "Single Barrel" bottlings. The 18 Year Old Single Barrel Bourbon is touted as "The oldest Single Barrel Bourbon in the world at 18 years . . ." made in oak barrels that are "hand selected by Parker and Craig Beam," losing nearly 2/3 of the barrels contents in Angel's share. The barrels are thereafter sold to the Scotch Whiskey industry, and for use by microbrewers in making cask-conditioned beers

Cask ale

Cask ale or cask-conditioned beer is the term for unfiltered and unpasteurised beer which is conditioned and served from a cask without additional nitrogen or carbon dioxide pressure...

, such as Goose Island Brewery

Goose Island Brewery

Goose Island Brewery is a brewery located in Chicago, Illinois, that began as a single brewpub known as Clybourn, which was opened in May 1988 by John Hall in Lincoln Park, Chicago, Illinois. The larger brewery was opened in 1995, while the second brewpub, Wrigleyville, was opened in 1999...

"Bourbon County" Imperial stout.

In the San Francisco World Spirits Competition of 2010, the 18 year-old Elijah Craig Single Barrel Bourbon was awarded Best Bourbon and a Double Gold Medal rating. In previous years, it had received a Double Gold Medal rating in 2008, a Gold Medal rating in 2004, and four silver ratings in other years (2003, 2005, 2006, and 2007).

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