Emily Hunter Craig Murder Update

In my last post, I talked about finding Edna Craig in the 1900 Census living with Mrs. Emily Snyder and how I initially thought that Emily Snyder was Edna's mother, Emily Hunter. Further research showed that Emily Snyder was not Emily (Hunter) Craig. However, I did not know who Emily Synder was nor why Edna and her brothers were living with the Snyders.

Once I learned that Emily Craig was murdered by her husband, John Craig, I thought again about who the Snyders could be. My mother was orphaned by the time she was six. She and her brother and sister went to live with their paternal grandparents. Thus, I wondered if Emily Snyder was a relative.

Besides being named Emily, Mrs. Snyder was born about the same time as Emily Hunter, therefore, Mrs. Snyder could not have been a sister. It was possible that Emily Snyder was a paternal aunt.

As I noted in my previous post, I was unsure that Emily Snyder's mother was born in California as indicated in the 1900 Census because her mother would have been born in Mexican California. From the newspaper accounts of the hanging of John Craig, I had learned that his father was Daniel Craig, who in 1896 was living and residing in Illinois. Unless there was an error in the 1900 Census concerning the birthplace of Emily Snyder's mother, Mrs. Snyder probably was not John Craig's sister.

As it turns out Emily Snyder was Emily Hunter, Edna's mother's first cousin. Emily (Hunter) Snyder's parents were Asa and Petra Hunter. I found their marriage record. Asa Hunter and Petra Ortiz were married in California. Therefore the information concerning Emily Snyder in the 1900 Census was accurate.

Indeed, she was born in California, had no children in 1900 and her mother was born in California. Furthermore, I found that the Hunter family settled around what is now Glendale very early in the history of the State of California. The family had acquired substantial property that included a portion of the southern part of Rancho San Rafael and the adjacent 1200-acre Rancho Cañada de los Nogales. Over the years, the Hunter family sold parts of the property. Tropico, California, where Emily (Hunter) Craig was murdered, was located in what was once the family property.