Crazy Life and was very difficult to locate were it not for work that Leo G. Doyle had done in the late 1980's. James J. Craven shares a grave with his Sister-In-Law although his name doesn't appear on the marker, which was placed 40 years after his burial.

Potentially a big link to many families as he had 2 kids with Florence Thompson and then 13 kids with Florence Feather. He died in a State Hospital (The Long Island Hospital, out on Harbor Islands of Boston Harbor) after his marriage and life fell apart in the mid 1920s. Thirty Grandchildren followed him, with potentially more from the first child he had outside of his marriage, a boy born on 4 Jun 1906, who was adopted out.

He apparently was big burly red-headed Irishman with a love for liquor and the girls. God bless him! He was 6 foot tall, which was very tall for these times, and he was a brawler who always won. (Hence, Gorilla Jim). However, he had a troubled life. Here's the story: He married Florence Thompson, the daughter of an East Boston cop in Dec 1904. He had two sons with her (Winfield S and Louis C). During his marriage, he was cheating on his wife at the time with Florence Feather of Dorchester. The first baby to come outside of his marriage was a boy born between Winfield and Louis Carroll Craven in 1906. This baby was adopted out based on the urging of the Feathers. At the time, it was a serious scandal as James Craven was an Irish Catholic, married, with child - and Florence Feather was an Episcopalian from an English middle class family. Adoption was how these problems were handled in the day.

Well, of course, James Craven still had a thing going for Florence Feather. She got pregnant again and had a baby just 7 months after Louis Carroll Craven was born. For this, James Craven was forced to flee Massachusetts. He left with Florence Feather for New York City where he lived with his brother Joe Craven for a good 5 years. While in NYC, still legally married to Florence Thompson, he had James Craven Jr, Florence and Edith. In 1912, Florence Thompson had moved to Maine with her sister, and filed for Divorce. Having been granted divorce, in late 1912, James Craven moved back to Massachusetts, married Florence Feather, and went to live for awhile at his father's farm in Lincoln. The timing was right, because his Father in Law from his first marriage, the East Boston Police Chief, also passed away in 1912. Good timing! They eventually moved back to Dorchester.

James Craven found work through his cousin's, the Curley's, who lived on 5 Linden Ave in Hyde Park. Like the Curley's, he worked for the MTA as a train conductor, and later as a car mechanic. Many more children continued to come, and their marriage began to fall to pieces in the 1920s due to his drinking, which killed him.

James Craven died in an Almshouse Hospital in Boston Harbour (Long Island) in 1937. His brother, Martin, claimed his body and had him buried in a grave lot in West Roxbury he had bought for his own family. Martin Craven's wife, Adelaide, was buried there much later, in 1977.

Burial records at the cemetery office was the only place to find his death information. Death records with the Commonwealth list his death as Joseph James Craven, which made locating him quite difficult.