Lang, H. O., ed.  "The History of the Willamette Valley, Being A Description 
of the Valley and its Resources, with an account of its Discovery and 
Settlement by White Men, and its Subsequent History; Together with Personal 
Reminiscences of its Early Pioneers."  Portland, OR, Geo. H. Himes, Book and 
Job Printer, 1885.  p. 607.

MEDOREM CRAWFORD

     Born in Orange County, New York, June 24, 1819.  In early life was
apprenticed to a farmer in Seneca County, with whom he lived from his thirteenth
to his sixteenth year.  Left his home in Havana, Schuyler County, on March 17,
1842, bound for Oregon.  His route of travel led through Seneca Lake, Lake Erie,
Pittsburg, Cincinnati, St. Louis and Independence, and the trip is well
described in his Occasional Address to the Association of Pioneers, delivered on
June 15, 1881.  On his arrival in Oregon, the young traveler located at Salem,
and taught the Mission School for nine months.  In the following year he married
Miss Brown, and purchased an interest in James A. O'Neil's claim, covering the
present town of Wheatland, where he resided until the fall of 1844.  At the
Wheatland farm, in January, 1844, his oldest son was born, being the first male
child of American parentage born on the west side of the Willamette River.   In
April, 1845, he removed to Oregon City, where he resided for seven years,
engaged in transporting merchandise and produce around the Willamette Falls.  He
was a member of the Provisional Legislature in 1847, during which session the
Whitman massacre occurred, and again, in 1849, the last session under the
Provisional government.  In 1852 he removed to the mouth of the Yamhill river,
and settled permanently on the "Joe McLoughlin claim," one of the earliest
settled farms in the valley, to which he subsequently acquired a patent under
the Donation Law.  He was elected to the first State Legislature, but was
counted out by partisan opponents; was again elected in 1860, and took an active
part in the election of Oregon's first Republican Senator, Col. E. D. Baker.  He
visited his father in New York, in 1861, and on returning westward, across the
plains, was taken into government service and made assistant to Captain
Maynadier, U. S. A., who commanded the emigrant escort.  In the following year
he went East again, and received from President Lincoln the appointment of
assistant quartermaster, with the rank of captain, and was ordered west, to
organize, arm and equip one hundred men, and to proceed westward, across the
Rocky Mountains for the purpose of assisting and protecting the emigrants.  The
company performed that duty throughout the season, and were disbanded at Walla
Walla in October, 1862.  Returning East again, in 1863, he, for the third time,
crossed the plains westward in charge of emigrants, and in the next year
resigned his commission.  President Lincoln then conferred upon him the
appointment of collector of internal revenue, which Captain Crawford held for
five years.  In 1871 he was appointed by President Grant appraiser of
merchandise for the port of Portland.  This office he administered also for
about five years, retiring, in 1876, to his farm on the Yamhill, where he has
since resided.  Mrs. Crawford died, May 20, 1879, and in the following year he
married Mrs. E. Burrows.  His children, all of whom are by the first wife, are:
Medorem, Frederick A., Mary E. (Mrs. H. C. Stevens), John M., Albert, and
Henrietta.  Medorem, Jr. (who, as before mentioned, was born at Wheatland), was,
in 1862, appointed by President Lincoln to West Point, and without other
educational advantages than the then primitive schools of Oregon afforded,
passed his examination and was admitted as a cadet.  Graduating with honor, in
1867, he took rank as lieutenant in the Second Artillery, where he still
remains.

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in June 2005 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.