"Portrait & Biographical Record of the Willamette Valley Oregon."  Chapman 
Publishing Company, 1903. p. 1342.
 
THOMAS HENRY CRAWFORD, A. M.

     has been actively identified with the educational interests of this section
of Oregon for fully four decades, and has taken pleasure in witnessing and
assisting the development of our school system from the time when the three R's
were its only essentials until the present high plane of instruction has been
reached. Obtaining his knowledge of the higher branches of learning in Oregon,
he has since been associated with some of its more important schools and
universities as a teacher, and is now connected with the Oregon Agricultural
College as head of the department of commerce, and with its official management
as clerk and purchasing agent.
     Of substantial Scotch-Irish ancestry, Professor Crawford was born June 24,
1840, at Clarksburg, Ind., a son of the late Dr. Robert H. Crawford. His
grandfather, Andrew Crawford, was as born in Londonderry, Ireland, a son of
Robert Crawford, who emigrated from Londonderry to America in 1770, settling in
South Carolina. Andrew, then but a year old, was there reared to agricultural
pursuits, and when becoming of age, located, as a farmer, in Abbeville District.
Robert H. Crawford, the professor's father, was born in South Carolina, in 1808,
and there acquired his early education. He subsequently attended Miami
University, at Oxford, Ohio, later being graduated, in 1837, from the Ohio
Medical College, at Cincinnati, with the degree of M. D. The ensuing fifteen
years he practiced medicine at Clarksburg, Ind., removing from there in 1852 to
Oregon, bringing with him his wife and four children, crossing the plains with
ox-teams, from St. Joseph, Mo., following the old overland trail, and being
seven months on the road. Locating in Linn county, he took up a donation claim
of three hundred and twenty acres at the foothills, and there improved a good
estate, at the same time practicing medicine. Disposing of his farm in 1870, Dr.
Crawford settled in Brownsville, where he continued the practice of his
profession until his death, at the age of eighty-two years, in 1890. He was very
prominent in public and religious matters, serving as state senator from Linn
county from 1866 until 1874, and being one of the prime movers in uniting the
Associated Presbyterians and the members of the Associate Reform Church into one
religious denomination, the organization being called the United Presbyterian
Church. The meeting at which this organization was completed, was held, about
1854, near the home of Dr. Crawford, his father-in-law, Thomas Henry, being one
of the elders at that time. Dr. Crawford married Elizabeth M. Henry, a native of
Kentucky, and a daughter of Thomas Henry, who removed from Pennsylvania to
Jessamine, Ky., thence to Rush county, Ind., where he engaged in farming for a
number of years. In 1852, in the company of which Dr. Crawford was captain, Mr.
Henry came to Linn county, Ore., with his family, where he carried on farming
until his death, in 1865, aged seventy-seven years. Mrs. Henry, whose maiden
name was Margaret Scott, survived him, dying in 1870, aged eighty years. Mrs.
Crawford died in 1897, aged eighty-two years. Of the union of Dr. and Mrs.
Crawford, five children were born, namely : Thomas Henry ; Andrew, who died in
1859; Robert, a prominent horseman, died in 1900, at San Francisco, Cal., while
on his way home from the Philippine Islands, where he had been on government
service; Mrs. Lizzie Smith, of Portland, Ore.; and Mrs. Monrovia Starr, of
Benton county.
     Coming with his parents to Oregon in 1852, Thomas H. Crawford here
continued his studies in the district school, later, in 1859, entering
Willamette University, at Salem, where he worked his way through, college, being
graduated in 1863, with the degree of A. B. Beginning his professional career in
Sublimity, Ore., he taught there three years, being afterward principal of the
public schools in Salem eighteen months. Going then to the Portland Academy and
Female Seminary, he was professor of mathematics for two and one-half years, and
then principal of what is now the Atkinson school until 1872. The following four
years he was professor of natural science at the Willamette University.
Returning to Portland, he served as principal of the old Central school one
year, then as city superintendent of schools for eleven years, after which he
had charge of the Park school as principal for six years. From 1894 until 1896,
Professor Crawford was principal of the Woodstock schools, and was then
connected with the old Portland University for a short time, leaving there in
1897, when he was appointed clerk and purchasing agent at the Oregon
Agricultural College, and later took charge of the literary commerce course.
     Professor Crawford married first, at Salem, Ore., in July, 1864, Emily B.
Crandall, a native of Wisconsin, who came to Oregon with her parents in 1852,
and settled near Silverton. She died in August, 1882. Four children were born of
their union, three of whom, Maude, Merton and Pearl, died in Salem in 1875,
while the youngest child, Ruby, is now the wife of Henry McConnell, of Salem,
and has one child, Ruth McConnell. At Portland, in 1891, Professor Crawford
married for his second wife, Miss Eva Grounds, who was born in Oregon, a
daughter of Capt. Brazil Grounds, who removed from his native state, North
Carolina, to Illinois, thence, in 1845, to Oregon, becoming captain of a
steamboat on the Columbia river.
     Professor Crawford is prominently identified with several fraternal
organizations, belonging to Willamette Lodge No. 1, F. & A. M., of which he is
past master ; to Portland Chapter, No. 3, R. A. M.; to Oregon Commandery No. 1,
K. T.; to Al Kader Temple, N. M, S.; to Hassalo, Lodge, I. O. O. F.; to Ellison
Encampment, I. O. O. F., No. 1, of Portland; and is a past grand representative
for Oregon, having represented his state grand lodge at the sovereign Grand
Lodge at Indianapolis, Ind., in 1875. He is also a member of the  state and
county teachers' association; and is a member of the State Pioneer Association;
and. of the State Historical Association. Politically he is a stanch supporter
of the Republican party.
     
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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in June 2008 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.