Hines, H. K. "An Illustrated History of the State of Oregon." Chicago: Lewis
Pub. Co. 1893.  p. 369.
 
THOMAS HENRY CRAWFORD

     a pioneer of Oregon, educated in her institutions, is an enthusiastic and
competent teacher, who for several years has been principal of one of the public
schools of the city of Portland.  He is of Scotch ancestry, who removed to
Londonderry, Ireland.  His great-grandfather, Robert Crawford, emigrated with
his family to the colony of South Carolina about the year 1770.  His son, Andres
Crawford, was the father of Robert H. Crawford, who was born in South Carolina,
June 12, 1808, graduated as a physician at the Ohio Medical College, in 1837,
married Miss Elizabeth M. Henry, a native of Kentucky, born February 21, 1815,
and settled in Indiana, where the Doctor practiced till 1852.
     Professor Crawford, the subject of this notice, the eldest of the five
children in the above family, was born in Indiana, June 24, 1840. In 1852 his
grandfather, Thomas Henry, his son and three daughters and their families, came
across plain and mountain to the distant Pacific coast, Dr. Crawford and his
family being a part of the company. The children made themselves useful in
driving the loose stock; and our subject, then twelve years of age, assisted in
the same on horseback. He was attacked with cholera, however, and the train was
delayed two days, to give him time to die; but he recovered and came on with the
company.
     Arriving safely, they settled on donation claim lands in Linn county,
building log cabins and beginning pioneer life. The father was both doctor and
farmer. While in Indiana he had been a member of the State Legislature, and in
Oregon he served two terms in the State Senate, of four years each. In 1870 he
retired from the farm and resided in the village of Brownsville until his death
in 1890. He was a man of wide information, full of generous impulses, and a
competent and successful physician, who for fifty-three years had spent his life
in caring for the sick and suffering; both by day and night, in storm and in
darkness, he made his faithful journeys to the bedside of the suffering, no
matter whether they were rich or poor. It was enough for him to know that they
were in need of a physician. In addition to his kindness of heart, both in his
family and toward all others, he was a man of the highest integrity of
character, and all who had the honor of his acquaintance esteemed him highly.
     In 1863 Professor Crawford graduated at the Willamette University, and at
once began the profession of teaching, which he has ever since made the business
of his life. He first taught three years in the public schools of Sublimity;
next he was principal of the public schools of Salem for a year and a half; and
in 1867 he went to Portland, and for two and a half years taught in the Portland
Academy and Female Seminary; the next two years he was principal of the North
public school, now called the Atkinson school; the next four years he was
Professor of Natural Science and a teacher of other branches in the Willamette
University.
     In 1876 he returned to Portland and was principal of the Central school for
a year, and was then elected Superintendent of Schools of the city, which
position he held by re-election for eleven years, until 1888; since that time he
has been principal of the Park school. During his connection with the schools of
the city, there has been a steady improvement in appliances, methods and
results; he has enjoyed the co-operation of the School Board and of the
teachers. The schools of the city of Portland are second to but few in any of
the States,÷a source of great satisfaction not only to Professor Crawford but to
all others who are interested in the public schools. Recently the Professor
devoted considerable time and research to the collection and compilation of a
valuable history of the founding and growth of the schools of Portland. His work
is opportune, interesting, valuable and praiseworthy.
     Professor Crawford has been a member of the I. O. O. F. for twenty-five
years, has passed all the chairs in the subordinate branch of that order, and
has represented his lodge in the Grand Lodge of the State, and also his State in
the Sovereign Grand Lodge, in 1875. He is also a member of the Masonic
fraternity, having taken the York Rite Chapter and Commandery degrees. He is
also a member of Al Kader Temple, Mystic Shrine. He is a Past Master of
Willamette Lodge, No. 2, of Portland. In politics he is a Republican, and has
been one ever since he became a voter, for which he gives the credit to his
mother's line of relatives÷all Free Soilers÷as his father was a consistent
Democrat.
     In 1864 Professor Crawford married Miss Emily B. Crandall, a native of
Wisconsin, born in 1846. They had four children, three of whom they lost by
diphtheria, in Salem, in 1875; the surviving child, born in 1880, is named Ruby.
In 1882 Mrs. Crawford died, and in 1891 Mr. Crawford married Miss Eva Grounds, a
native of Washington.

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in April 2008 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.