Alfred W. Craven

Alfred Craven was the ideal of a republican gentleman. A worker all his life, he stood at the level of princes as their equal associate. Whatever he thought or did took from his nature the stamp of manliness and honor. He was the stuff that earls were made of, in the day when rank stood for fact and act, and title was the crown of natural lordship. When our farewells attended him to Europe, they were blended with feelings of affection and pride that there should be seen there an example of what our country could produce as a finished man. Such as he then was, before the strength waned and the shadow fell, the real Craven whom we knew and loved passed away from among us. Such as he then was, will he always be remembered.

Augustus R. Macdonough
1880 Century Association Reports