USA > Missouri > Encyclopedia of the history of Missouri, a compendium of history and biography for ready reference, Vol. II > Part 34
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"fashion expert" advises ladies referring to her in matters of taste. Mr. Crawford has long provided medical attendance, free of charge, for his saleswomen and cash girls, and now has a medical department with two doctors in charge to treat any customer fall- ing ill while in his store. On Christmas, 1898, he made arrangements with a life in- surance company to insure every married man in his employ. Each policy is for $1,000, made out in favor of the man's wife, the first year's premium to be paid for by the firm.
The two sons of Mr. Crawford have been trained to commercial pursuits under his wise guidance. To begin with, these two sons, John Forsythe Crawford and James Malcolm Crawford, had the commercial in- stincts of the father, but this was not suf- ficient to admit them at once into full fellow- ship and partnership with the prudent and sagacious Scotch merchant. Each has been required to serve his apprenticeship to the business which he is to aid in perpetuat- ing and still further expanding. After famil- iarizing himself with all the details of the business in its various departments, John F. Crawford, the elder of the sons, was admit- ted to partnership with his father, and to his shoulders the elder Crawford shifted a large portion of the burden of management. In the discharge of those duties he has proven himself a worthy successor of his father, and has taken a leading place among the younger merchants of the city. James M. Crawford, the younger son, is in charge of one of the leading departments of the store, is a buyer for the house, and enjoys wide popularity in commercial circles.
There is much romantic interest in an ac- count of the building of a great commercial institution from small beginnings, and the personality of its builder is equally interest- ing. Hence it is appropriate in this connec- tion to write of Mr. Crawford's early life, and of some things outside of his business career. He was born February 2d-Candle- mas day-1830, at Strone Point, under the shadow of the Cowal Hills, at the junction of the Kyles of Bute and Loch Striven, Argyleshire, in the Highlands of Scotland. His more remote ancestors came from Ayr- shire, and through successive generations were worthy people, who did credit to the name they bore. His father was James Crawford, who was engaged in trade, and,
incidentally, identified with the agricultural and cattle interests of Argyleshire. His mother's maiden name was Janet Weir, and she belonged to the family of Weirs which for over 200 years kept the ferry on Lochgyle. It was one of the ancestors of Mr. Crawford, in the maternal line, who was immortalized in the poem, "Lord Ullin's Daughter," writ- ten by Thomas Campbell, in 1809. This an- cestor was "the hardy Highland wight" who, when appealed to by "the chief of Ulva's Isle" and Lord Ullin's daughter to row them- across the "dark and stormy waters" of Lochgyle, gave answer :
" I'll go, my chief ; I'm ready ; It is not for your siller bright, But for your winsome lady."
The story of that adventure of one of the Weirs is a family tradition, and a member of the family still lives and keeps the ferry at the place which was the scene of the tragic episode. Gaelic was the language spoken by both the parents of Mr. Craw- ford, and he knew no other until he was nearly three years old, when he went with the family to the lowlands, and there began to acquire a knowledge of the English. At Rothesay, in the Isle of Bute, Buteshire, his boyhood was passed, and there he attended regularly until he was fifteen years old the. best schools of that region, receiving in these schools the thorough and practical training which is the distinguishing feature of Scotch education. At fifteen he was apprenticed to a merchant of Glasgow, and was trained to the calling in which he has since been so eminently successful, in a city whose mer- chants and financiers are world renowned for their sagacity and commercial acumen. At the expiration of the term of his ap- prenticeship he became connected with one of the leading mercantile houses of Dublin, Ireland, and for several years afterward that city was his place of residence and business headquarters. For several years he was a department buyer in two of the Dublin "Monster Houses," so termed, and his trav- els in that capacity familiarized him with the scenic beauty of the British Isles, with his- toric spots and the associations and traditions clustered about them, and stored his mind with the knowledge which has always given to his conversation the flavor of poetic sen- timent and spiced it with the Scotch humor
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which are as notable characteristics as his genius for the conduct of commercial enter- prises. A Scotchman's love of Scotland is an absorbing passion, and, feeling that he could not at once sever the ties which bound him to the land of his nativity, he returned to Scotland, and for some time was in the employ of Arthur & Co., of Glasgow, the largest wholesale and retail dry goods house in Great Britain. He enjoyed to the fullest extent the confidence and esteem of these employers, and a life position with them was assured, but the Irish capital had attractions for him, and he went back to Dublin. There he again formed satisfactory trade connec- tions, but the independence of his nature and the ambition to make a name for himself in the commercial world prompted him to seek a field in which his talents could be utilized to the best advantage. This brought him to America, and the first two or three years after his coming to the western hem- isphere he spent in Canada. Then, in 1864, he came to St. Louis and entered the em- ploy of C. B. Hubbell, Jr., & Co., old-time . dry goods merchants. Later he was em- ployed for over a year in the house of Barr, Duncan & Co. In 1866, as previously stated, he laid the foundation of the vast business of which he is now the head, and which will cause his name to be long remembered in a city to the commercial importance of which he has been a large contributor. At seventy- one years of age he is a splendid specimen of well preserved manhood, physically and mentally vigorous, and still giving to his large business interests constant supervision and the benefit of his garnered wisdom and ripe experience. In manner and appearance, and in his methods of doing business, he is the typical Scotch-American, coupling tenacity of purpose and rugged honesty with true Western tactfulness and enterprise. He is the generous, warm-hearted Scotchman in his impulses, full of the poetry and sentiment which pervaded the atmosphere breathed by him in childhood and early manhood, a lover of Scotland's hills and dales and history and traditions, but none the less a lover of his adopted country and its institutions. He has long been a conspicuous figure in the Scot- tish societies of St. Louis, is an honorary member of the Scottish Clans, and for over twenty years has been president of the Cale- donian Society. He is a member of the Mer-
cantile and St. Louis Clubs and the Legion of Honor. He was reared a Presbyterian, but later became a Congregationalist, and is now a communicant of Pilgrim Church of that denomination in St. Louis, of which he has been a member for more than thirty years. For twenty years he has been vice president of Bethel Mission, and one of its most liberal and helpful friends. He has been a trustee also of Drury College, of Springfield, Missouri, and has contributed over $15,000 toward clearing its debt. When the Congregational City Missionary Society of St. Louis was organized he became its first president, and retained that position for eight years, making liberal use of his time and money to promote church extension and advance the cause of religion through that agency. Such, in brief, is the story of the busy life of Dugald Crawford, which presents an object lesson well worthy of the careful study of young men of the present day. Mr. Crawford married, in 1861, Miss Jane For- syth, born in Aberdeen, Scotland, where her father was engaged in merchandising for sixty years or more. At the time of her mar- riage Mrs. Crawford was a school-teacher in Toronto, Canada, and they were wedded in that city. Six children were born of their union, four of whom survive. They are Mrs. D. O. Hill, of Chicago; John Forsyth Crawford, Mrs. George H. Pegram, of New York City, and James Malcolm Crawford.
Crawford, John Daniel, dealer in real estate, farmer and stock-raiser, was born in Pettis County, five miles northwest of Sedalia, March 1, 1838, a son of John Edward and Sarilda Jane (Donnohue) Crawford. His father, a native of Cumberland County, Ken- tucky, was descended from Scotch-Irish an- cestors, who first settled in Pennsylvania. He came to Missouri in 1827, and almost imme- diately started for the lead mines of Illinois and Wisconsin. Two years later he came down the Mississippi River to St. Louis with flatboats loaded with lead. Soon afterward, in 1830, he settled at Boonville, Cooper County, where he married Miss McFarland. They became the parents of two children, Christopher Columbus, deceased, who served in the Forty-fifth Missouri Volunteer In- fantry in the Civil War; and William O., a contractor, of Sedalia. Mrs. Crawford died in 1834, and in 1836 Mr. Crawford married
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Miss Donnohue, who became our subject's mother. She was born in Kentucky, a daugh- ter of Daniel Donnohue, of Mt. Sterling, a pioneer of Ste. Genevieve County, Missouri. Her parents afterward returned to Kentucky to live. In Cooper County, Mr. Crawford engaged in farming. For some time he was adjutant of a regiment of Missouri State militia, and afterward became colonel. Soon after removing to Pettis County, in 1836, he organized a volunteer company for the Mor- mon War, and participated in the expedi- tion. A staunch Whig, he represented Pettis County in the Legislature in the forties. Though reared in the Presbyterian faith, for the last forty years of his life he was actively interested in the welfare of the Baptist Church, and helped to build many churches for that denomination. He was a man of the strictest integrity and wielded a powerful in- fluence for the good of his community. Though a slave-holder, he was a strong Union man. His death occurred in Pettis County, in 1891, at the age of eighty-nine years. The children born of his second mar- riage were John D., the subject of this sketch; Ann Eliza, now the wife of James J. Ferguson, of Pettis County, Missouri; Cynthia Minerva, now the wife of Rev. B. F. Thomas, of Lafayette County, Missouri ; James H., a resident of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, who served as lieutenant in the Sixth Cavalry Regiment of Missouri State Militia, under command of Colonel John F. Philips, during the Civil War; Henry A., who died in Middle Park, Colorado, in 1882, and Grant Crawford, assistant cashier of the Citizens' National Bank of Sedalia. The edu- cation of the subject of this sketch was ob- tained in the district schools of his native county and in William Jewell College, his course at college being concluded in 1859. For two terms he taught school, but upon the outbreak of the Civil War he joined General Lyon, of the Union Army, as guide and helper on his trip through central Mis- souri. In 1862 he assisted in the enrollment of the State militia, and by his tactfulness and personal popularity succeeded in keep- ing large numbers of men from entering the Confederate ranks. The Fortieth Regiment, in whose organization he assisted, was under Colonel Rush R. Spedden, and our subject was mustered in as captain of Company C. He was afterward made provost marshal at
Warrensburg, and later became captain of Company K, Fifth Missouri Provisional Regiment. In 1863, Colonel Spedden having resigned, he was commissioned colonel of the Fortieth Regiment, and served on de- tached duty in central Missouri. The nu- merical strength of the regiment was greatly lessened by the enlistment of its members with the regular volunteer service, until, in 1864, there remained but two hundred fit for duty. In the meantime, Colonel Crawford received a commission to raise a company of artillery, but did not do so. In Septem- ber, 1864, the Fortieth Regiment was called into active service by Brigadier General E. B. Brown. Colonel Crawford took command of the post at Sedalia during the famous raid of General Sterling Price, and for some time was completely isolated from all other Federal troops, all of southwest Missouri for a distance of fifty miles being in the hands of the enemy. Under Colonel Crawford's di- rection, citizens were pressed into service, and earthworks were thrown up. When Price crossed the river at Jefferson City, General Brown telegraphed Colonel Crawford that the telegraph wires would soon be cut, and directed him to secure all the horses and val- uables, leave Sedalia, and keep in the open field, or he would be captured. Realizing the error in judgment committed by his general in issuing such an order, he put out pickets and remained in town for several days, or un- til the Federal cavalry under General San- born passed within three miles of Sedalia. To General Sanborn he reported that he had remained to defend the place, contrary to orders, and was highly complimented for the course he had taken. The latter's cavalry then passed on, opening the gap which per- mitted the raid of General Jeff Thompson. Colonel Crawford heard of Thompson's ap- proach when the latter was but fifteen miles away, and made everything ready for the evacuation of the post, though he determined to stay and see the enemy. On the evening of October 14, 1864, having sent the horses and valuables to the rear, they went out and met the Confederate raiders two miles from the town, which by this time had been nearly surrounded. While his men were skirmishing, Colonel Crawford, accompanied by two hun- dred men, rode quietly through the ranks of the enemy, but was soon stopped by the inquiry : "Are you a Confederate or a Fed-
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eral?" "I am a Federal," replied he, and, drawing his pistol, compelled his challenger to ride quietly away with one of the orderlies. The captive was subsequently sent to the St. Louis prison. Colonel Crawford then took his force and joined the Federals in Lafayette County, with the loss of only two or three men in the skirmish with Thompson. Return- ing to Sedalia with his command the day after the Confederates had abandoned the place, he remained in the service until the regiment was disbanded in November, 1864. By disobeying the orders of General Brown, he had saved all the stores and horses in his charge. Colonel Crawford was married, June 21, 1865, to Miss Annie Eliza Parberry, a native of Pettis County, and a daughter of Nathaniel N. Parberry, a native of Virginia, a pioneer farmer and stock-raiser of Pettis County, and a Union man. In the same year he settled on a farm of six hundred acres, five miles south of Sedalia, where he began farming and stock-breeding. During the campaign of 1870 he identified himself with the Liberal wing of the Republican party, and as its candidate was elected recorder for Pettis County, which office he held for eight years. Since 1879 he has been en- gaged in the real estate, abstract and loan business with Major A. P. Morey, as Morey & Crawford. In 1889 he was elected mayor of Sedalia by the Republicans. He is a Mas- ter Mason, for twenty-five years has been a trustee of the First Baptist Church, and for eighteen years, has been vice president of the Citizens' National Bank. Colonel Craw- ford has been, for over twenty-five years, a regular visitor to Colorado and other States of the Rocky Mountain regions, and now goes to the Rockies every year. To these trips he attributes his good health. He is a great lover of the sports of the field, and his resi- dence is adorned by numerous trophies of the chase, secured by himself.
Crawford, Stephen Gray, physician and surgeon, was born in Hartford, Ohio County, Kentucky, July 27, 1842, a son of Hugh Culwell and Rebecca (Foreman) Crawford, both native Kentuckians. Hugh C. Crawford was a son of Hugh Crawford, a native of Virginia, of Scotch and English an- cestry, and a soldier in the Revolution. He married Jane Gray in 1788, soon afterward settled in Kentucky at Bardstown, Nelson
County, where he helped to build the first courthouse in the State. Subsequently he re- moved to Ohio County, Kentucky, where he died in 1848, at the age of eighty-two years. In 1828 Hugh C. Crawford married Rebecca Foreman, a daughter of Thomas Foreman- a soldier in the War of 1812, holding a lieu- tenant's commission at the battle of New Or- leans-and a granddaughter of Abraham Foreman, a Revolutionary soldier and a pio- neer of Kentucky. The Foremans were of English descent. Five years after his mar- riage, H. C. Crawford moved to Hartford, Kentucky, where he farmed and built and operated a distillery. For some time he was a captain in the Kentucky State Militia. I11 1850 he removed to Grayson County, Ken- tucky, where he died in 1875, at the age of sixty-five years. His wife died in 1880, in her sixty-fifth year. The subject of this sketch spent most of his early life on the home farm, and attended the public schools of Hartford. Upon the outbreak of the Civil War he en- listed in Company C, Forty-fifth Kentucky State Militia, and was elected second lieu- tenant. A year later he entered the regular service, and July 22, 1863, was made United States marshal of Leitchfield, Kentucky, with the rank of captain, and was stationed at Camp Calloway. November 9, 1863, Governor Bramlette commissioned him lieutenant col- onel of the Forty-fifth Kentucky State Militia. In the spring of 1864 he was sent to Louisville, where he remained until the close of the war. Upon the declaration of peace he engaged in merchandising in Ohio County, but soon afterward returned to his old home, where he conducted a farm, bought and shipped tobacco, and was interested also in the lumber business. In 1872 he began the study of medicine, in which he had been in- terested when a youth. After a course in the Medical Department of the University of Louisville, he engaged in practice for a while, then he returned to college and concluded his studies, receiving his degree in 1880. Bor- rowing money to pay the expenses of his journey, he removed to Missouri in that year, locating in Russellville. Four months later he settled in Syracuse, Morgan County, and two years later in Smithton. Since July 2. 1888, he has been engaged in practice in Sedalia, where he has been very successful. From 1873 to 1875, Dr. Crawford preached in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Ken-
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tucky, and in 1874 was ordained bishop in that denomination. He is now a member of the Presbyterian Church in which he served as elder for some years. Fraternally he is identified with the Odd Fellows, the Macca- bees, the Woodmen of the World, the Select Knights of Ohio, and the Ancient Order of United Workmen. In politics he is a staunch advocate of Republicanism. Professionally he holds membership with the Kentucky Alumni Association and the McDowell Med- ical Association. In 1900 he received the de- gree of bachelor of science. Outside of his professional labors he deals extensively in real estate, and is now the owner of fifteen houses in Sedalia. Dr. Crawford was mar- ried November 6, 1862, in Grayson County, Kentucky, to Sultana Stinson, a native of that State and a daughter of Colonel William Stinson, a native of South Carolina, and a soldier in the War of 1812. His father and all his brothers were killed by the Indians in South Carolina early in the nineteenth century. Dr. and Mrs. Crawford are the parents of three children : Mary R., wife of J. O. Carpenter, of Sedalia, and Alice and Ada, residing at home. Though the subject of this sketch has resided in Missouri but a little more than twenty years, the uniform success which has attended his practice en- titles him to a place in the foremost ranks of the medical profession.
Crawford County .- A county in the southeast-central part of the State, bounded on the north by Gasconade and Franklin, east by Washington and Iron, south by Iron and Dent, and west by Dent, Phelps and Gas- conade Counties ; area, 475,000 acres. The surface of the county is generally rough, ranging from long strips of level bottom land to high hills. The Meramec River tra- verses the county in a tortuous course from the southwestern part to the northwestern corner. Its chief feeders from the south, some of which are subtributaries, are Crook- ed, Yankee, Dry, Huzza and School creeks, and Fourche a Courtois and Fourche Brazil. The branch of Bourbeuse and its many tribu- taries water and drain the northwestern part. Many large springs abound throughout the county. Along the Meramec the bottoms are of great fertility, the soil being a rich black loam. In the valleys a light brown loam abounds, well mixed with sand. In the up-
lands yellowish clay predominates. About only two-fifths of the area of the county is under cultivation, much of the remainder be- ing wooded land bearing growths of white, post and black oak, hickory, ash, elm, white and black walnut, sycamore, maple, cherry, yellow pine, cedar and less valuable woods. There were in the county, in 1899, about 4,000 acres of government lands subject to entry under the homestead act. There are also several thousand acres of railroad land, originally granted to the Atlantic and Pa- cific Railroad Company, of which the St. Louis & San Francisco is the successor. The minerals of the county are iron, lead, zinc, copper, coal, fireclay and sandstone ex- cellent for building purposes, and onyx of superior quality, taking a fine polish and suit- able for interior decorations. The most profitable pursuits are agriculture, stock- raising and horticulture. In 1898 there were shipped from the county cattle, 1,936 head; hogs, 12,400 head; wheat, 18,495 bushels; flour, 905,645 pounds; lumber, 41,200 feet ; logs, 12,000 feet; cross-ties, 88,853; cord wood, 3,741 cords ; cooperage, II cars; iron ore, 920 tons; clay, 96 cars; wool, 10,922 pounds ; poultry, 739,956 pounds ; eggs, 978,- 970 dozen; tallow, 1,395 pounds ; hides and pelts, 28,319 pounds; apples, 334 barrels; strawberries, 154 crates; fresh fruit, 2,050 pounds; dried fruit, 14,327 pounds; vege- tables, 1,860 pounds; nursery stock, 4,320 pounds; junk, 22 cars ; furs, 2,197 pounds; feathers, 1,177 pounds; charcoal, 56 cars; broomcorn, 3,535 pounds. Other exports from the county were honey, molasses, cider and nuts. It is not positively known who was the first white man to make his home in the territory now comprising Crawford County. It is supposed William Harrison was the first, certainly one of the first. He located in the county about 1817. In Marclı, 1821, James Sanders, from Kentucky, set- tled on Huzza Creek. At that time there were living in the same neighborhood Peter Brickey, William Fulbright and a number of others, most all natives of Kentucky. These settlers had reached the territory pre- vious to Sanders a few years. Harrison, in company with one Reeves, in 1818, opened up an iron furnace on the Thickety, in the northwestern part of the county. Harrison also made the first land entry on September 20, 1823. The same day entries were made
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by William Crow and John Wright, all of whom took up land in Township 39, Range 2 West. During the following year a number of other entries were made, the greater num- ber of which were for land in Townships 37 and 39, Range 2 West. West of Steelville, in what is now Union Township, was another of the earliest settlements. Crawford Coun- ty was organized by legislative act approved January 23, 1829, out of territory that had previously been attached to Gasconade Coun- ty for civil and military purposes. January 4, 1831, the bondaries of the county of Craw- ford were further defined, and on the 18th of the same month a resolution was passed pro- viding that all unorganized territory south and west of Crawford County be attached to the county for civil and military purposes. On March 3, 1869, an act was passed fixing the boundaries of Crawford County as they now exist. The creative act of 1829 named John Staunton, of Franklin; John Dunnica, of Cole, and Hugh Barclay, of Gasconade, commissioners to locate a permanent seat of justice, and directed that until a perma- nent county seat be located the courts meet at the house of James Harrison, who lived near the old town of Jerome, in what is now Phelps County, and there a postoffice was established at Little Piney. It was located on the Gasconade, near the mouth of the Little Piney. The General Assembly, on February 13, 1833, ordered the county court to select a suitable place for holding courts, "which place shall be as near the center of popula- tion of said county as circumstances will per- mit." The members of the first county court were William Montgomery, Barney Lowe and John Duncan. The records of the pro- ceedings of the county court from 1829 to 1835 have been lost. Up to May, 1836, the court met at the house of James Harrison, at Liberty Hill, Little Piney Creek. On De- cember 18, 1835, the county court pur- chased from James Steel forty acres of land, now part of the town of Steelville, for $50. This was laid out in lots. The original plat shows that the town was laid out in thirty-six blocks, each block having four lots. A small courthouse was built of logs by James Steel, at a cost of $500 and was used until 1857, when a brick courthouse, two stories, 36x48 feet in dimensions, was built. February 15, 1873, this courthouse was burned and the fol- lowing year another courthouse was built, at
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