Book digs up history on Craig

For some time now, Russ Lang has been digging up interesting facts about people buried in Craig Cemetery.

A Confederate general is buried there.

So is a Union veteran who was in four prison camps.

And a street lamp lighter.

In his latest tome, “A Craig Scrapbook,” the area resident has compiled a plethora of data that includes information and photos on approximately 300 families. The 610-page book came out in May. Since then, he’s sold half of his stock and hopes to sell more.

“It has a lot of important family history, a lot of good pictures and it just tells the story of a village in Nebraska,” said Lang, 74.

Lang, a former Dodge County extension educator, has written other books, including “The Land History of Nebraska,” which took him five years to write. That book led him to write about Craig.

He started with a file of The Craig News from 1910 to 1960 after the town’s library closed about 12 years ago. Copies of the newspapers are kept on microfilm at the Nebraska State Historical Society, but Lang went through actual newspapers and cut out the obituaries, now on file at the Burt County Museum in Tekamah.

“I was amazed at how much information I could find about the history of Craig from its founding in 1881 until 1910,” Lang said, adding that personnel at the museum helped greatly.

Lang, a farmer, was particularly interested in the extraordinarily low land prices decades ago and the role the railroad played in the town’s formation.

The railroad came through the area in 1879, but the village of Craig wasn’t founded until two years later. That’s because two families �” the Clarks and the Craigs �” owned land in the area which they’d purchased for 67 1/2 cents per acre, he said.

They raised sheep on the land and made a lot of money through the sale of wool (used for soldiers’ uniforms) during the Civil War. Because these families had a big sheep ranch in the area, railroad officials figured nobody was living there and didn’t want to put in a rail station.

Then William S. Craig donated 49 acres to the railroad on the condition that they put in a station. Craig was founded in 1881.

Craig also would have a cemetery and, Lang said, some people with interesting histories are buried there. They include:

n John A. Garner �” Named a chaplain in the Confederate Army, Garner rose to the rank of brigadier general by the time the Civil War ended. He came to Nickerson where he was a Christian church pastor and drove his wagon from there to Craig to preach. His son, John Jr., was a hardware merchant in Craig.

n John H. Conrad �” This Craig resident and Civil War veteran had been in four different prison camps. He was at the notorious Andersonville camp where some 12,000 of 30,000 inmates died.

“They jammed them into an area of about 40 acres and they were so crowded that they couldn’t survive and disease spread through and thousands died,” Lang said.

Conrad was involved in a prisoner exchange and was back fighting when he was recaptured. He spent time in the Danville and Florence prisons. He eventually settled in Craig.

“In 1912, it was important news when Conrad finally received a pension of $30 per month,” Lang said, adding Conrad got a pension for just three years before he died.

n Wallis Ireland �” This man literally lit up the town. He lighted the village’s street lamps. He had another job.

“He was a mason. He built things,” Lang said.

It took Lang about 2 1/2 years to write the book.

“I wrote it because I had the resources and it had to be done,” Lang said. “There was a small book written in 1967 with some of the history of Craig, but it wasn’t very complete.”

The book is in several libraries, including Keene Memorial Library in Fremont. Lang also sells the self-published book for $37, plus shipping and handling.

“Publishing books is a money-losing proposition,” he said. “You don’t really gain money, but you do it for the fun of it and for people who enjoy reading their own family history and other family histories.”