DOCTOR SAMUEL F. CRAIG (C 7 W.Va. Inf.) "Died at home July 30, 1865." - Service Record: "Drafted man." Drafted & mustered in as a Private Mar. 13, 1865 at Wheeling to serve 1 year; age 27; occupation, physician. Born in Greene County, Pa. Shown on the company muster-out roll at Munson's Hill, Va. on July 1, 1865. - The war was over, and his service record contains no other information. His widow, Mary B. Parriott Craig, applied for a government pension, and via that process, affidavits shed light on the cause of Dr. Craig's death. Two men from his company stated that he became sick shortly before they were discharged; one states "at the beginning of June, 1865." Dr. Samuel Stidger of Marshall County attended Dr. Craig during the course of his illness "at his home in Marshall County" until his death from Chronic Diarrhea on July 30, 1865. Captain Beagle of his company stated that while in the service, Dr. Samuel Craig had "attended his own case until permitted to go home. He never reported to an army surgeon and therefore there is no proof as to his disease of which he afterwards died." Following muster out on July 1, 1865, the men were taken to Wheeling and were permitted to return home on July 4. The soldier arrived home but, according to an affidavit, was bedridden until his death that same month. His widow, a resident of Bellton, Marshall County, applied for a government pension. By an Act of Congress, Mary B. Craig, of Marshall County, West Virginia, was admitted to the pension roll (#117.802). One page of the pension application, dated July 14, 1868, and witnessed by Joseph S. Parriott and Abraham Brock, states that "the soldier died on the 30th day of July 1865 at Marshall County, West Va. The death was caused by Typhoid Fever with chronic diarrhea." From the marriage information in her pension file: Samuel F. Craig, a resident of Wetzel County, and Mary Bell Parriott, a resident of Marshall County, were married at Marshall County on February 26, 1865, at which time he was 27, and she was 20. Born in Marshall County, she was the daughter of Joseph S. and Hannah Parriott. His parents were John and Anna Craig. (Possible: At the time of the 1850 census of Wayne, Greene County, he was 15 and lived with his parents, John and Ann, and siblings, William, Albert, James, Thomas, Milton, and Caroline. Also 1860; father deceased.) According to Headstones Provided for Deceased Union Civil War Veterans, a stone was ordered for this soldier in 1894 to be placed at a cemetery in Bellton. He is found in this writer's list of burials at Meadowdale Cemetery, near Bannon, Marshall County. For this soldier, Marshall County was only his "home" for a short time, from his marriage until his death. But he died in Marshall County mere weeks after his discharge, from disease contracted while in service. His eternal resting place is in a Marshall County cemetery. - His widow married Dr. George W. Hoskinson in Marshall County on May 25, 1870. Her death occurred in 1892.

Note from Linda Fluharty: I sent this biography to Moundsville historian, Joe Parriott, for his birthday in February 2018. Knowing he was in the process of revising his Parriott family history book, I wanted him to have this to include. This widow, Mary Belle Parriott Craig, was Joe's paternal aunt, but he didn't know that Samuel Craig was a doctor, that he was drafted into the army, or that he had died as a result of disease contracted while in service. - I also informed Joe that Dr. Craig's Civil War medal, issued by the State of West Virginia, was unclaimed at the State Archives. - Upon receiving this information in February 2018, Joe Parriott promptly contacted Robert Hoskinson, a descendant of of Mary Belle Parriott and her second husband, Dr. George Washington Hoskinson. Mr. Hoskinson filed a successful claim for Samuel Craig's unclaimed medal and received it in December 2018.