ENOCH A. CRAFT EULOGY
 

Transcribed by JB Francis

The following article is transcribed from the Mountain Eagle Whitesburg, Ky. date unknown.

Article introduction: Now, I told you sometime ago that I would share with you an old article about Uncle Chunk Craft.  The article was written in February, 1937, after the passing of this grand old patriarch.  It appeared in The Neon News (which later combined with The Mountain Eagle).  The article, titled “In the Shadows of the County Seat,” was written by N. M. Webb, who founded The Eagle.

It says:

            “An angel from the inside of the Halcyon Gates visited the Earth Tuesday night and on spirit wings bore away the tired life and glorious spirit of the veteran soldier of the Cross, my dear cousin, Enoch A. Craft of Millstone.  We rejoice in tears at his going; we’ll miss the beautiful, noble and inspiring life that he lived, but the wisdom of his words, the purity of a long life well mellowed and enriching other lives surely as the days come and go will live on.  (This was more than 40 years ago.)  As a child he was first outside my won humble household that I knew first and I often tottered behind him and looked up to him to be charmed and benefited by the sunshine that enriched him and the simple wisdom of his words.  Even as a beardless boy he heard the clarion call of the bugle notes of the South, donned his country’s gray, shouldered his flintlock rifle and marched bravely to the front of the fighting, and right or wrong he faced the cannon fire and slaughter until the last shot was fired and the dove of peace hovered once again over Dixie’s crimson soil.  Clasped arm in arm with my brother, long ago called to fame’s eternal camping ground, the now cold clay marched away, and as they did so, his minister-father, Uncle Archaelous Craft, turned to my father and remarked aloud, “God will take care of your boy and mine.”  And He did, for at Shiloh and on the bloody battlefields of Old Virginia, when the very grounds lifted by the cannon’s roar where the dead and dying lay thick around them they stood their ground and came out unsinged, the bold, and brave and noble boys that hey were.

            “In speaking of the life and passing of Chunk Craft (he is not dead but lives eternal) I trust News readers will pardon me if I indulge a little to sentimentally.  We are too prone to idealize those we love, too ready, maybe, to turn this day and age.  I will not surrender the idea that nobility of manhood and womanhood, the ideality of Christian character and the things that mold and make nobler in the sight of God should be passed lightly.  The long life of the deceased, the beautiful examples set, the leaven spread wherever he moved will beckon those of today and those who follow after him to nobler and better lives.  Therefore, excuse me if you choose. 

            “On February 29^th, 1842, Enoch A. Craft was a new born, bright-eyed baby reposing on the arms of Aunt Lettie Webb Craft.  Uncle Arch stood closely by and with quivering lips blessed the new boy.  And he was christened Enoch after his mother’s older brother, who afterward attained prominence as a rugged officer in the Southern Confederacy.  Enoch grew as others of deep-tangled wild woods of that day did, into a strong, robust and highly intelligent man.  From his youth he stood as a model to those who grew up around him.  Honor, integrity and truth predominated him.  He was clean, sober, discreet and over all a man.

            “Returning from the Civil War’s stringency, dangers and strife, he forgot all these and became the idol of all who knew him.  He visited the family of Elder John A. Caudill, a noted Baptist minister of that day, and sought and won the hand and heart of Polly Ann, a spry young daughter.  They settled to a noble Christian farmer life.  Only a short while ago Aunt Polly Ann was lifted from the earth, leaving the nobleman to look to the moment when he could follow the bright path she had taken.  Surely the angels and archangels clasped glad hands and the jasper wall resounded as in that day when Jacob struck glad hands with Rachel.  Again, firm as iron in knowing that we meet one another over there, why should I not write as to the glorious ascension of the earth’s veteran Heaven claimed and owned.”

Leon Webb inserted the following poem in the same issue of The Neon News;

“Long shadows fall, the earth is still;

And giving pause on yonder hill,

The weary sun is drooping low;

The light is dying in the snow.

A race is won, the path was long,

Filled both of sorrow and of song

Now day is gone and gone the light

And evening darkens into night.

The din of battle now is past

And Peace dwells on the fields at last.

Throughout the night the sentinel cries out the message: All is well!”

No hurried march, no charge at dawn,

No battle cry to urge you on,

Uncle Chunk, the charge is o’er,

And Peace by yours forever more!”

            Uncle Chunk Craft and his Polly Ann had many children: Rachel married Israel Adams.  Sabrina married Elder Elbert Bentley.  Mattie married Maryland Bates.  Drucilla (Sillar) married Isom Sergent Sr.  Lettie married Joe Hall, Ebbie married John Q. Holbrook.  Sarah Jane married Ben Franklin.  Benjamin married Emily Swindle, Archie married Pricie Adkins.  Of the immediate family, only Maryland Bates is still with us.  He lives in Florida with a son, Daniel.  Many of their children and grandchildren still live on Millstone.  They include Isom Sergent, Bennie Franklin, Bill Sergent, Maudie Hoskins and Morgan Craft.  Elder Basil Hall lives at Roxana.  Elder Lewis Craft lives at Hazard and Archie Craft Jr. Lives in Springfield, Ohio.  A great-grandson, Jerry Bentley, grandson of Lettie and son of Otho and Nancy Alice (Nan) Hall Bentley, still lives on Millstone.  Rachel Bates Berry and Enoch Franklin live in Florida.  Still following the good advice and example set down by their forefathers.”