Early Life, Adventures, & Career, 1822-61: Morse, Gold Rush, Medicine
Civil War Medical Corps Commander, 1861-66: Lincoln, Davis, Johnson
Creating an International Stir, 1867-81:Prison Life..., Freezers, Wealth, Fame
An Active Retirement, 1881-93: Founder, President, Patchogue Library Assn.
So the authorities called in Craven, the senior medical officer, placing him on the case, on May 24, 1865. Craven had the manacles removed, treated Davis' wounds, had the manacles left off, got the prisoner moved to less damp living quarters, and through recommendations in his reports, influenced President Andrew Johnson to issue an order for more humane treatment of and better living conditions for the prisoner. Fortress officials probably didn't care for Craven's going over their heads. Perhaps there were radical Republicans among them, who felt strongly that the South and its leader, Davis, had earned the severest treatment. In any event, they seem to have viewed Craven as becoming too chummy with the late enemy, and implicitly thereby, a security risk, and he was removed from the case in Dec. '65, and in Jan. '66, was honorably discharged. Their mistake. After each of his meetings with the ex-Confederate President, Craven had been secretly keeping a meticulous diary of their conversation.
Returning to private life, Craven found himself appointed U.S. postmaster of his hometown, Newark, by President Johnson (who needed his friends). In this sinecure, by June '66, Craven had found the time to convert his diary into what would quickly become an international bestseller. In June 1866 The Prison Life of Jefferson Davis appeared, taking the U.S., London, and Paris (as La vie de prison de Jefferson Davis, translated by Wallace Jones) by storm. The book built sympathy for Davis' plight, and called for his release. It served as a catalyst that mobilized a the public and coalition of powerful publishers and politicians, led by Thaddeus Stevens, Horace Greeley, Gerrit Smith and others, who took up the cause and secured Davis' release, on May 13, 1867. Davis, ever combative (even after his release), would heavily annotate his copy, mercilessly criticizing the factual accuracy of most every assertion in Craven's work. (Then again, Davis, over his career, was not generally renowned for unpartisan, charitable positions toward those with whom he might find himself in disagreement.)
Meanwhile, Craven quietly returned to medicine in 1867 (to Jersey City, NJ), and occasional invention. At their request, he came up with sanitizing and recycling processes (successfully patented, 1871-72) that saved the local Communipauw slaughterhouse from condemnation. This was followed by a more far-reaching patent of a refrigerator compartment for use on railroad cars and ships (1876), which he and his son used to quickly corner the dressed beef trade with England.
Retiring comfortably, in 1881, he chose Patchogue, N.Y., a lively summer resort and convention, industrious mill, and shipbuilding town, next to the home of the Blue Point oyster, conveniently located on the southern branch of the Long Island Railroad. There, he purchased John S. Havens home (corner of Route 112 & East Main St.). Dropping medicine in favor of tinkering, the celebrity became instantly active in village civic, social, cultural, educational, and political life. His renown, tact, and acumen enabled him to dominate village affairs, to the extent that it was said of him that nothing significant happened in Patchogue, without his approval. When, in 1883, Rev. S. Fielder Palmer (of the Congregational Church) was observing village reading habits and canvassing for support, he went to see J.J. Craven. When Rev. Palmer suggested to him that the village could use a free library, Craven responded that it was "...just the thing" needed, and to subscribe him for $25.00. An article appeared to this effect in the Patchogue Advance. On June 18, 1883, the initial meeting that created the Patchogue Library Association, elected officers, and made plans for the library, was held at his house. At that meeting, J.J. Craven became the Patchogue Library Association's first President, serving until his death, a decade later, on February 9, 1893. Well-liked, universally mourned, Dr. Craven was buried in Patchogue's Cedar Grove Cemetery (not far from two other now under-appreciated national luminaries, Elizabeth Oakes-Smith and Seba Smith). His obituary in the Patchogue Advance, said of him, "He was possessed of a phenomenal memory, and being a wide reader was a mine of information." The free library was built on this bedrock.
He was succeeded in office for a time by his friend, Hon. Wilmot Smith, whose wife, Elizabeth Mott Smith, would become first President of the public library. The first library fell on hard fiscal times in the 1890's. Mrs. Smith became president of the local chapter of Sorosis, a women's civic, social, cultural organization, (founded 1898), and with the backing of her influential organization, championed the library's revival. Between 1898-1900, Sorosis temporarily took over the collection, hired the first trained librarian, set it on a firm foundation, lobbied for voter approval, obtained a state charter (Dec. 20, 1900), and returned it to the district as a public library. Mrs. Smith was unanimously elected to the board. Justice Smith would be the first (in 1903) to approach Andrew Carnegie for a grant to build the library's first permanent home. But that's another story. The library created and guided by the genius of John Joseph Craven became the kernel of the new library, the foundation for the events of 1900, and bedrock for the library that has arisen and grew from those good beginnings.
Biographical Encyclopaedia of New Jersey. Philadelphia: Galaxy Pub. Co., 1877: 537- 39.
Craven, John Joseph. 'Fiction Distorting Fact": The Prison Life, Annotated by Jefferson Davis, ed. by Edward K. Eckert. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1987. 168 p. bibliog.: 151-54. index.
Annotated ed. of the next entry, below. In which Davis excoriates almost every statement made by Craven. But, then, Davis was not exactly an unbiased source.
Craven, John Joseph. Prison Life of Jefferson Davis. New York: Carleton Press, 1866.
"Craven, John J.," In Portrait and Biographical Record of Suffolk County (Long Island, N.Y.). New York: Chapman Pub. Co., 1896: 1024-26.
Bradley, Chester D. "Dr. Craven and the Captivity of Jefferson Davis at Fort Monroe" (Tales of Old Fort Monroe), Virginia Medical Monthly, 83 (My 1956): 197-99.
Bradley, Chester D. "Dr. Craven and the Prison Life of Jefferson Davis," Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, 62 (Ja 1954): 50-94.
Bradley, Chester D. "Dr. John J. Craven, Physician to Jefferson Davis,," Virginia Medical Monthly, 78 (Ag 1951): 433-37. bibliog.: p. 5.
Bradley, Chester D. "Le Docteur Craven et la vie de prison de Jefferson Davis," Bulletin et Memoires de la Societe Internationale d'Histoire de la Medicine, I (1954): 58-64.
Heitman, Francis B. Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army. Washington, DC: U.S. G.P.O., 1903: 336.
"John Joseph Craven, M.D." (Portrait and Biographical Record) In ?. [?]: [?], [n.d.]: 1024-26.
Kimberly, J.B. Fortress Monroe. New York: Albertype Co., 1895.
Palmer, [Rev.] S. Fielder. "Mental and Social Culture," Patchogue Advance, no. 37, Sat., May 19, 1883.
"T." "The Flame Gone Out -- That Burned Low in the Mould -- Dr. J.J. Craven's Active Life Ends in Peaceful Sleep," Patchogue Advance, Fe 18, 1893: 1. port.
U.S. Patent No. 111,910, February 21, 1871, for Treating Blood for the Manufacture of Fertilizers and Ammoniacal Salts, Issued to John J. Craven. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent Office, 1871.
U.S. Patent No. 131,429, September 17, 1872, for Rendering and Drying Apparatus in the Treatment of Animal Matter, Issued to John J. Craven. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent Office, 1872.
U.S. Patent No. 175,939, April 11, 1876, for Refrigerating Chamber, Issued to John J. Craven. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent Office, 1876.
Mark Rothenberg, Senior Reference Specialist,