Newton "Nute" Craig was born June 4, 1849 in Perryville, Perry County, Missouri. At age fifteen he served in the army in the Civil War. He was a buffalo hunter at eighteen and a farmer at nineteen. When he was twenty-two-years old Craig was building bridges in the Rocky Mountains and working as a telegrapher in Wyoming Territory.
Craig married at twenty-eight, was a territorial legislator at thirty-three, he was elected sheriff of Laramie County in November 1884 at thirty-four taking over the Cheyenne office in January 1885 serving one term. Craig moved to California after leaving office. He remained in that state until his death some fifty years later.
Information obtained from Wyoming Territorial Sheriff's, by Ann Gorzalka.