The entire medical career of Dr. Alexander Craig, Jr.,  this eminent physician of Columbia, belongs to that town. His practice extended over a period of thirty-four years, beginning immediately after graduation and continuing until death closed his usefulness in the summer of 1899. During that time he was one of the prominent figures in the medical history of Lancaster county, contributing largely to the current professional literature, eminent as a surgeon, honored repeatedly by the various medical societies, of which he was a member, and exerting a wide influence in the community where his mission was cast. His medical career was preceded by a term of military service during the Civil War.

Dr. Craig the son of Alexander and Sybilla Kern, and grandson of Samuel Craig, a soldier of the Revolution. The family were of Scotch-Irish extraction. Alexander Craig, the father, was a woolen manufacturer and a landowner of Westmoreland County, . He died in 1869, aged seventy-four years. Sybilla, his wife, survived until 21 June 1888, passing away at the age of eighty years at the residence of her son, Alexander Jr.

Dr. Alexander Craig, Jr. married Eleanor Margaretta Righter, daughter of Washington Righter. Eleanor was born 25 April 1843 in Columbia, and died 15 December 1921, also in Columbia. Eleanor, her father, Washington, and her mother, Elizabeth Mayer Cottrell, are interred in the same mausoleum as Dr. Craig at Mount Bethel.

Dr. Craig’s grandfather, Samuel Craig, Jr. (1757-1808), as a First Lieutenant, Samuel was a noted Indian fighter, always working for the safety of the Westmoreland community, but he was once taken prisoner, along with many others, by Indians in 1781. He was taken to Detroit and sold to the British. While there, he was the only prisoner to escape death at the hand of the same Indians. He was saved only because they liked his singing. He returned to Westmoreland and married Elizabeth Shields, daughter of Colonel John Shields, in 1784. 

Alexander Craig, the subject of this sketch, was educated in the public schools of Westmoreland County, and at Eldersridge Academy. The pathway to learning was rugged, and he continued his studies at night while engaged in teaching school. Choosing medicine as his profession, he began a course of reading in 1859, in the office of Dr. Eli Ferguson, at New Derry, Pa., and continued after his army service with Dr. C. D. Hottenstein, then of Columbia.

In 1862 he patriotically abandoned his studies to enter the service of his country. In that year he enlisted as a private in Company F, 135th P. V. I., and was soon afterward appointed hospital steward of the regiment, in which capacity he completed his nine months term of service. He then joined the 57th Regiment State Militia, serving as second lieutenant of Company A.

The young student then attended two courses of lectures at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, from which he graduated in 1865. On May 1st, of that year, Dr. Craig entered upon his long medical practice in Columbia, Pennsylvania. His military service gave him a predilection for surgery, and, while a general practitioner, he was especially recognized by his colleagues as an authority in surgery. His practice increased steadily and in a few years he became one of the most successful physicians of the city. His abilites were recognized by the profession throughout the State and even beyond its borders. In 1890 he was honored with the presidency of the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania, having previously filled the offices of vice-president in 1870, and of corresponding secretary in 1880-81. He was, in 1878, elected president of the Lancaster City and County Medical Society, of which he had for many years been an active and prominent member. In 1879 he was also honored by election to the presidency of the Pennsylvania and Maryland Union Medical Society.

Among other professional organizations with which he was actively associated was the National Association of Railway Surgeons. In an honorary capacity he was a member of the York County Medical Society and of the Grand Rapids Academy of Medicine of Grand Rapids, Michigan. From 1869 he was surgeon at Columbia for the Pennsylvania Railroad. He prepared many papers and reports of surgery, which were presented at the various medical societies with which he was connected.

Dr. Craig was identified with a number of fraternal and social orders, including the Grand Army of the Republic and International Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, and the Scotch-Irish Society of America. He served as a member of the borough council of Columbia from 1869 to 1878, and in the latter year was president of that body. He was one a key organizer of the Columbia Electric Light & Power Company, in 1883, and two years later was elected its president.

From 1887 and, until his death, he was a director of the First National Bank of Columbia.