Francis Burton Craige (Congressional Biographical Directory)

CRAIGE, Francis Burton, a Representative from North Carolina; born near Salisbury, Rowan County, N.C., March 13, 1811; attended a private school in Salisbury, and was graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1829; editor and proprietor of the Western Carolinian 1829-1831; studied law; was admitted to the bar in 1832 and commenced practice in Salisbury; one of the last borough representatives in the State house of representatives 1832-1834; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-third and to the three succeeding Congresses (March 4, 1853-March 3, 1861); chairman, Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds (Thirty-third Congress); delegate to the State secession convention in 1861 and introduced the ordinance of secession in the form in which it was adopted; delegate to the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States which met in Richmond, Va., in July 1861; died in Concord, Cabarrus County, N.C., while attending the courts of that county, December 30, 1875; interment in Old English Cemetery, Salisbury, N.C.