Alameda County
Biographies
HOMER A. CRAIG
Was born in Farmington, Van Buren County, Iowa, December 24, 1846, and is the son of George M. and Laura (Forbes) Craig. His parents moving to California by way of the plains, with ox-teams, in April, 1852, they arrived in Grass Valley, Nevada County, in the month of September of the same year, where they resided, save during the summer of 1854, which was passed in Forest City, Sierra County, until 1856. In that year they moved to Bear River, Yuba County, near where the town of Wheatland has since arisen, but which then was an immense stock range given over to large bands of horned cattle, huge elks, and other game. Here Mr. Craig, Senior, engaged in farming for about a year, whence he removed to the Feather River, Butte County, and there was employed in freighting and farming operations until 1861, in conjunction with our subject. In 1862 Mr. Craig, Senior, died, his wife’s death having occurred in the previous year, when the gentleman of whom we write engaged in a grocery business until 1873, during three years of which he was agent for the Home Mutual Insurance Company of California. In the last-named year he joined the company’s office in Oakland, and took the Alameda County agency, in association with J. F. Steen for about eighteen months, when, that gentleman seceding, Mr. Craig retained the office for six months longer, when the Alameda County Branch of the Company was formed, and our subject installed as its secretary. That position he filled until June, 1878, at which time, becoming associated with Edward Brown, W. P. Thomas, and W. W. Haskell, in a General Insurance Agency business, the firm of Brown, Craig & Co., of San Francisco, was established, and now consists of Messrs. Brown and Craig, the interests of Messrs. Thomas and Haskell having been purchased by these gentlemen. The address in San Francisco is No. 215 Sansome Street, where they transact a business of about a quarter of a million dollars per annum, being agents for some of the oldest companies in the United States, among them being Phoenix Insurance Company of Brooklyn, New York; Star of New York; Insurance Company of State of Pennsylvania. In Mr. Craig we have an exemplification of what a business aptitude combined with energy can attain; without these desiderata, no one may hope to reach to the position of honor in a community which this gentleman holds. He married, October 16, 1870, Miss Dora E. Posey, a native of St. Louis, Missouri, and has five children, viz.: Dora L., Homer T., Corydon M., Woodson L., and Wesley P.
History of Alameda County, California…, Oakland, M.W. Wood Publ., 1883
p. 865
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler