Resource: Craik-Lord Family papers | U of L Archives Catalog

Letters, clippings, a photo, legal records, and miscellany documenting the lives of descendents of James Craik, physician to George Washington. Among them were prominent clergymen James Craik and Charles Ewell Craik of Louisville, both deans of Christ Church Cathedral in and active in the national Episcopal church in the nineteenth century. Also Nathan and Samuel Lord, Louisville businessmen. Some of the records concern activities of the Lord and Stitzel families in operating the Stitzel Distillery.

Dates

1818 - 1950s

Creator

Craik-Lord Family (Creator, Family)

Conditions Governing Use

Extent

5.375 linear feet (2 records center boxes, 6 manuscript boxes, 3 half-mss boxes, 1 flat box)

Additional Description

Biographical / Historical

U of L law professor Nathan S. Lord donated this portion of his family's personal papers in October, 1981. Letters, business and legal documents, genealogies and clippings document the lives of some of the descendents of Revolutionary Era physician James Craik (1730-1814) and longtime Dartmouth College president Nathan Lord (1792-1870). Most of the material relates to Craik's grandson and namesake, James Craik (1806-1881) and his mother, Maria D. Craik Ewell of Kanawha County, Virginia and later Paducah, Kentucky. James Craik served as rector of Louisville's Christ Church from 1844 until his death and was succeeded there by his son, Charles Ewell Craik. The former served the national Episcopal church in important positions also, especially during the Civil War.

A smaller number of letters and other documents relate to Nathan S. Lord (1831-1885), the son of the college president; especially during his service with the Sixth Vermont Volunteers during the Civil War. (Of note is a photograph of General Grant at Lookout Mountain.) The younger Lord married Maria Craik and, following her death, Juliet Craik, her sister. Both were daughters of James Craik and each bore three children. The firstborn of the second marriage, Samuel Shrewsbury Lord, was the grandfather of the donor. The family papers rested with Samuel's daughter, Elizabeth, until she gave them to the donor.

A larger collection of family papers was given to Christ Church Cathedral in the 1970s by the donor's wife, Rachel Lord. The dean placed them in the safekeeping of Delinda Buie, Department of Rare Books, Ekstrom Library. This portion contains family correspondence from the 1850s-1870s and documents the business investments of James Craik, especially in railroad companies.

The archives of Christ Church Cathedral contain many of the writings of Rev. James Craik, including a history of the church and The Divine Life. The archives of the Diocese of Kentucky contain a photograph of the James Craik family and additional biographical information about the de facto Bishop of Kentucky in the last years of the tenure of Benjamin Bosworth Smith.

The Craik-Lord Papers at the U of L Archives date from 1818 through the 1950s, with the bulk in the 1820s - 40s. They occupy.25 linear feet.'

Related Material

Lord and Stitzel Family Papers

Accretion to Craik-Lord Family Papers (Acc. 83-21)

Record Group 209

Additional information about the Craik Family can be found in an oral history interview with Susan S. Craik (Mrs. Charles Ewell Craik, Jr.) conducted by Sherrill McConnell on June 2, 1983.

Tapes 1983-55,56

Mrs. Craik transmits family tradtions concerning Rev. James Craik and recalls some aspects of the career and home life of his youngest child, Rev. Charles Ewell Craik, Dean of Christ Church Cathedral following his father, and of his grandson, her late husband, also an Episcopal clergyman who served churches in the Diocese of Kentucky and the Diocese of Lexington before retiring in 1949.