Solon William Craigue was born in Vermont 20 October 1827. Throughout most of his life, he went by “S.W. Craigue” or “S.W. Craigue, Esq.”.
In “The Argonauts of California” (a self-published book from 1890), he is listed as ex-member of the San Francisco Pioneer Association – one of the “forty-niners” who came for the gold in Northern California. in Tuolumne, he married Sarah Hathaway in 1863.
He appears to have moved to “Big Oak Flat” in San Diego County shortly thereafter, and he appears to have become quite prominent in society. In 1865 we was elected as County Recorder and served for two years in that position. He was active in the Masons, becoming the Junior Grand Warden of the Grand Lodge (of California) in 1873, and the Deputy Grand Lecturer in 1878.
in 1870, he was nominated by the Republicans. San Diego was a Democratic stronghold, but even the partisan papers lauded him as a “high minded, honorable man”. In 1871, he was elected and served a full 4 year term as Sheriff.
In 1872, he purchased the Horton House hotel from Alonzo Horton and was its proprietor for several years. His frequent ads touted it as the “Finest Hotel in Southern California”. In 1875, Sarah Craigue suffered a serious accident, falling 22 feet through a skylight into the kitchen.
While serving as Sheriff, he continued some gold mining activities, co-owning “Cranberry Quartz Mining” and “Rutherford Quartz Mine” in Maricopa County with a Mr. Otis Perrin.
He was apparently a good shot with a rifle. The Oakland Tribune (14 October 1876) reported on a deer shooting party at the “Temescal Hot Springs”, where they reported “Judge Eastman is a dead shot, while Solon W. Craigue could perform Tell’s exploit with a Remington and not half try.”
In 1872, a Mr. “McDonald” started a subscription to build (or expand?) a jail with a proposed cost of sixty thousand dollars. This at a time when Sheriff Craigue was “boarding” prisoners in McDonald’s current jail at “seventy cents per diem”.
After his term as Sheriff, Craigue purchased additional hotels in Los Angeles – the “Santa Monica” hotel and the “St. Charles” hotel, which he touted as “The St. Charles is located in the business centre of the city, and is the largest, most elegant and completely organized Hotel in Southern California.”
He was also active in the liquor and tobacco business, operating a wholesale liquor house with J.B. Boyd in the “Brick Building” at the corner of 4th and K Streets in San Diego. In 1871 “Messrs. Smith & Craigue” shipped 10,000 pounds of wines and liquors to Arizona. In 1881 he published ads claiming to be the “… only exclusive liquor merchant in San Diego”. Later, he partnered with Mr. C.C. Lips (a Los Angeles City Councilman) and operated “Lips, Craigue & Co.” – referred in news articles as a “well-known” Los Angeles firm specializing in liquor and tobacco products.
By 1887, he had returned to San Diego, where he died in 1902 and is buried with Sarah (who died in 1897) in Mount Hope Cemetery here in San Diego.
