James Riley Craighead
~1857-1933

James Riley Craghead was born Bell County, Texas, (probably in Nolanville,) on July 13th, 1857, son of Allen Craighead & Revenny Sutton Middleton. The fisrt record we have of him is the 1860 census of Bell County, Texas, where he is shown in the household of his newly widowed father, along with older brother Lytle Criswell Craghead and older sister Permelia. James was named after their neighbor at that time, James Riley Sutton, Revenny's youngest brother, who, like Allen, would become a veteran of the Confederate Army.

He again shows up on the 1870 census, this time with stepmother Mary Barker and his half siblings by her.

By 1880, James had left the household of his father, and was probably married about this date to Mary Catherine Reed, who was born 31 May, 1856 in Carbon, Eastland County, Texas. Together they had ten children, starting with Margaret Ann, known as Maggie, born in August of that year.

Maggie was followed by a son, Asa Allen, born in 1882, and then by James Tandy in 1883. John T. followed in 1885. 1886 brought a daughter, which James named after his mother: Reveney Craghead.

Tragedy must've marked the months from late 1888 through summer of 1889. Mary gave birth that November to a stillborn infant son, which was buried in Center Point Cemetery in Carbon, unnammed. Then, on 15 June 1889, James & Mary lost their son James Tandy. He also was buried at Center Point.

That December, on the last day of the year, Mary gave birth to daughter Leona May. No more children were born until October of '92, when fraternal twins Claude & Maude were born. Their finaly child, Sarah Rebecca, known as Sally, was born in 1895.

Mary died 9 June, 1910, and was buried at Center Point Cemetery in Carbon. James died 13 August, 1933.

Maude Craighead, daughter of James R. With husband Owen Oxford Murray in 1913 wedding photo Photo Courtesy Grayson Murray

Maude and Owen, some twenty years later in Eastland Photo Courtesy Grayson Murray

What we do not have:

The compiler does not yet know where or when James & Mary were married, nor what James did for a living. And his burial location is still unknown.