self, learned the printing business in the same office.) Serving an apprenticeship of four and a half years, young Craig went to Illinois and worked at Quincy, Peoria, and Springfield, remaining at the latter place four years, as an employé of the Illinois State Journal, edited by Simeon Francis,[1] and served in various capacities as compositor, reporter, editorial writer, and telegraph operator. While in Hannibal, Craig began reading law, and all spare moments in Springfield were thus employed, part of the time in Lincoln & Herndon's office. Indue time he passed a rigid examination, B. S. Edwards, John T. Stewart, and Abraham Lincoln being his examining committee, and was licensed on September 15, 1850, the license being signed by S. H. Treat, chief justice, and Lyman Trumbull, associate justice. He practiced law as occasion offered, and performed editorial work on the Journal until the latter part of 1852. He then went to Washington, spending the winter, and in the spring of 1853 started for Oregon via the Isthmus. He remained at Panama a few months, acting as foreman of the Panama Daily Star. He soon went to San Francisco, but only remained a little while, when he started for Oregon, and arrived in the Columbia Kiver November 25, 1853. He soon found his way to Salem, and sought employment of Asahel Bush, then proprietor of the Oregon Statesman, on which paper he worked for a short time. Unable to get permanent employment with Mr. Bush, he had to seek other fields, and hence began teaching school. It was while thus engaged that Mr. Adams sent for him to act as his fore-
- ↑ Simeon Francis was born in Wethersfleld, Connecticut, May 14,1796. He served an apprenticeship in a New Haven printing office, and in 1824 published a paper in New London for a time. Then he removed to Buffalo, New York, and published The Emporium. In 1831 he removed to Springfield, Illinois, and in connection with three brothers began the publication of the Sangamo Journal, afterwards changed to the Illinois State Journal, and remained with it until 1857. In 1841 he was appointed Indian agent for Oregon by President Harrison, but after making all the needed preparations for the trip, he resigned.
