Dilsey Craig

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 10 dated events in the chronology →

During their lifetime

1. by 1818 The Puckett house stands on East Franklin Street across from Hooper's John Puckett, a former postmaster, bought the lot at 501 East Franklin Street from John Craig in 1817, and by early 1818 his widow lived in a two-story Federal house there; Denison Olmsted bought it from her about 1820 and remodeled it. Before the Civil War it was the home of mathematics professor James Phillips, whose family held Ben and Dilsey Craig in slavery; the Craigs lived in a brick kitchen in the back yard. People: James Phillips, Denison Olmsted, Dilsey Craig Place: 501 East Franklin Street, Chapel Hill · Also named: Jane Puckett, John CraigSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 15 · Also: Battle, History of the University, vol. 1, pp. 271, 299-300
2. about 1826 James Phillips buys Ben and Dilsey, an enslaved married couple, soon after reaching Chapel Hill Soon after he arrived in Chapel Hill, professor James Phillips bought a married couple, Ben and Dilsey. They lived with the family for decades and appear throughout Spencer's letters. People: James Phillips, Benjamin Craig, Dilsey Craig Place: Phillips household, Chapel HillHope Summerell Chamberlain, Old Days in Chapel Hill (1926), scan p. 43
3. 1865 James Phillips hides the family silver in Dilsey's cabin as Union troops arrive When a detachment of Sherman's army reached Chapel Hill, Professor James Phillips boxed the family silver, jewelry and watches and left the box at the cabin of Dilsey, a woman enslaved in his household, expecting the soldiers to leave her cabin alone. She buried the box for safety; it came back intact except that rainwater seeping in ruined the watches and harmed some jewelry. People: James Phillips, Dilsey Craig Place: Dilsey's cabin, Chapel HillJames Lee Love, Recollections (1920-1921), scan p. 277
4. 1866 James Phillips pays Dilsey her first wages as a free woman Dilsey and her husband Ben stayed with the Phillips family after emancipation, and in 1866 James Phillips paid Dilsey her first wages as a freedwoman with the first five-dollar gold piece he received after the war. People: James Phillips, Dilsey Craig Place: Phillips household, Chapel HillSearch the index · Hope Summerell Chamberlain, Old Days in Chapel Hill (1926), scan p. 43
5. February 1868 Ben and Dilsey leave the Phillips household to live on their own Ben and Dilsey, held by the Phillips family since the 1820s and kept on as servants after emancipation, left Cornelia Phillips Spencer's household in February 1868. Spencer wrote that she hoped the parting was only for a time. People: Benjamin Craig, Cornelia Phillips Spencer, Dilsey Craig Place: Chapel HillSearch the index · Hope Summerell Chamberlain, Old Days in Chapel Hill (1926), scan p. 163
6. April 15, 1878 St. Paul AME buys a church lot from Benjamin and Dilsy Craig The congregation paid fifty-five dollars on April 15, 1878 for a church lot bought from Benjamin and Dilsy Craig, and was raising money in December 1879 and January 1880 to finish a church there. In 1892 it built its present church across Merritt Mill Road from the earlier one, on land the 1983 Carrboro inventory says the Hargraves and Caldwell families gave about 1890. People: Benjamin Craig, Dilsey Craig Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Dilsy Craig · Also mentions: Merritt Mill RoadSt. Paul AME Chapel Hill: History · Also: The Chapel Hill Ledger, December 6, 1879, p. 3; Brown, McSwain and Florin, Carrboro Inventory
7. 1894 Dilsey Craig, enslaved in the household of professor James Phillips, dies Dilsey Craig (1802-1894) and Ben Craig were enslaved by the family of mathematics professor James Phillips and lived in the brick kitchen behind 501 East Franklin Street. Dilsey remained with the family long after freedom, and a memorial marks her in the old Chapel Hill Cemetery. People: James Phillips, Dilsey Craig Place: Chapel Hill · Also mentions: Chapel Hill Cemetery, 501 East Franklin StreetSearch the index · NC Digital Collections: M. Ruth Little, The Town and Gown Architecture of Chapel Hill, 1795-1975 (2004), p. 31
8. June 1894 Cornelia Phillips Spencer leaves Chapel Hill to join her daughter in Cambridge After finding a lump in her breast, Spencer packed and left Chapel Hill at the Loves' urging for surgery in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which succeeded. Since 1890 she had kept house alone in the Loves' Chapel Hill home with Rebecca Mason, a Black cook, and she had put off leaving until Dilsey Craig died; she did not live in Chapel Hill again. People: Cornelia Phillips Spencer, James Lee Love, Dilsey Craig Place: Love house, Chapel Hill · Also named: Rebecca MasonSearch the index · James Lee Love, Recollections (1920-1921), scan p. 299

After their death in 1894

Later events: estates and burials, and the buildings, honors and histories that remember them.

1. 1909 June Spencer Love sets a stone on Dilsey Craig's grave in the Chapel Hill cemetery When June Spencer Love placed grave markers in the Chapel Hill cemetery for her mother, her grandparents, and her uncle Samuel Phillips and his wife, she also put one on the grave of Dilsey, who had been enslaved in the James Phillips household and stayed on as its cook after freedom. Love writes that both June and her mother had looked after Dilsey in her old age. People: Dilsey Craig, James Phillips, Samuel Field Phillips, June Spencer Love Place: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, Chapel Hill · Also named: Samuel PhillipsSearch the index · James Lee Love, Recollections (1920-1921), scan p. 276
2. probably 1930s A Phillips grandchild sets a headstone for Dilsey Craig A small granite headstone was placed over the grave of Dilsey Craig, who died in 1894 after sixty years enslaved, mostly in the household of Professor James Phillips. Its inscription says a Phillips grandchild erected it, and its style suggests the 1930s. People: James Phillips, Dilsey Craig Place: Section B, Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, South Road (NC 54) and Country Club Road, Chapel HillNC State Historic Preservation Office: Old Chapel Hill Cemetery, National Register nomination (OR0496), p. 11