It was our privilege to hear many stories of pioneer adventure – new to our ears, when we interviewed one of Lincoln’s highly respected farmers, Mr. Grant Crawford.
Mr. Crawford arrived in Lincoln county on October 2, 1877, his father, William Crawford, having come to Kansas the preceding June. Nine brothers, four sisters, and the mother followed the husband and father to Kansas shortly after; Robert K., Mrs. J.K. Stevenson and John H. came in August and Mrs. William Crawford and her younger children came in the fall. One brother remained in Pennsylvania. One of the sisters died the first winter the family lived in Kansas.
The Crawfords, natives of Williamsport, Pennsylvania, were naturally quite impressed by the new territory to which they came. A man from Lincoln met the family at Ellsworth and brought them across the intervening hills to their new home in his hack, a spring wagon with three seats. The hack-driver told the children to watch for a wonderful prairie dog town at the head of Spring creek. Grant recalls that his own curiosity was greatly aroused by the aspect of seeing a prairie dog "town" and apparently his preconcepted idea of how it should look far exceeded the unassuming picture which actually met his bewildered gaze. For one accustomed to seeing prairie dog mounds, however, it must have been an usual sight to behold hundreds, perhaps thousands of such mounds which covered an entire section of land.
According to Grant Crawford, his real thrill came when the hack crossed the Saline River near Lincoln. There was no bridge on which to cross, and the water was deep enough to enter the bed of the wagon. Except for the fact that twelve people and some of their personal belongings served to weigh down the wagon sufficiently, it would probably have been swept down the stream. Elias Rees, the grandfather of Elias, Jack and Howard, eventually built a towbridge for the safety of travelers across the river about where the present substantial bridge is located south of the Rees mill.
The William Crawford family settled on a farm now occupied by a younger Mr. Bill Crawford. As is true of many of the old buildings and landmarks of Lincoln county, an interesting story is attached to the old stone house, the walls of which remain on the Crawford homestead. A Canadian, Ed [Canary], was traveling through the country and desired work, even if it meant work without pay. Having noticed a lot of rock on the land which [part of sentence missing] proposed the building of a stone structure in which to house the family. Having agreed to build a stone house for Crawfords for $50, Mr. Carney immediately set to work and made the walls for the house. When the building was completed, the Canadian mason started traveling again with $5 in his pocket as down-payment for his work. Fifty years or more elapsed before any of the Crawfords heard from Ed Canary. Canary, whose home was then in Wyoming, wrote to the postmaster at Lincoln to inquire if there were any people by the name of Crawford living in or near Lincoln yet. H.R. Starbuck, postmaster at the time, handed the letter over to Grant Crawford. R.K. Crawford sent a draft for Crawford Brothers covering the bill which Mr. Canary had not bothered collecting sooner. A short time later, a letter of appreciation was received from Mr. Canary’s banker who stated therein that he was convinced there were still "some honest men in existence."
Having lived on the old homestead about 10 years, the Crawfords moved to the "Old Perry place" which they bought in the spring of 1886. They also bought the adjoining farms belonging to Napoleon Bonaparte Rees, a Mr. Duryee, and a Mr. Gunn. Mr. Grant Crawford recalls having hear the late Mrs. Anna C. Wait remark frequently that she enjoyed nothing better than to spend an afternoon with Mr. Gunn at [his] farm home whenever possible "Just for the sake of resting in a comfortable house." Mr. Gunn had erected a nice stone house, the like of which were few in the pioneer days of Lincoln county.
Immediately after his arrival in Lincoln county, much of Grant’s time was occupied in herding cattle, both on horse-back and afoot, for several of the nearby farmers, including Joshua Simmons, Damker, Herb Stoner, and William Tilzey.
During the first summer after he came to Kansas, Grant was employed by a Joshua Simmons. July 27, 1878, Mr. Simmons accompanied a harvest-hand to Ellsworth where the latter boarded the train for Abilene. During Mr. Simmons’ absence a big rain which fell west of here cause the Saline River near Lincoln to be swollen before he returned. Because he had crossed the river on his old bay mare dozens of times during high water, Mr. Simmmons decided to come across on the memorable occasion. The horse he was leading, however, held back, thus causing the rider and his mount to be caught in a powerful swirl of water. The horse Mr. Simmons was riding was tossed over and over like a rolling barrel in a rapids. Both Mr. Simmons and his horse were drowned, and Mr. Simmons’ body was not located until three days later at which time it was found about a quarter of a mile below where he had entered the stream lodged in some brush. A Mr. Koons, brother-in-law to Mr. Chas. W. Stites, was an eye-witness to the tragedy from where he stood on the river bank; he was powerless to aid the unfortunate rider and horse.
Mr. Simmons had expressed a desire to be buried on a certain knoll overlooking his homestead, and his wish was fulfilled. The bodies of his mother and father and two of his children are also buried near his, the fence which once enclosed the small burial lot has been destroyed and there is no longer a marker of any kind to direct one to the exact spot of the graves. The graves are somewhere slightly east of the tile house which stands on the Cromwell property near the township line and north of the highway between Lincoln and Vesper.
Mr. Crawford has a vivid recollection of the day in March, 1879, when a prairie fire destroyed the northwest part of Lincoln county and extinguished three human lives. Grant was herding a bunch of Texas Longhorn cattle for Herb Stoner when he noticed what he supposed to be storm clouds gathering in the northwest. The cattle realized almost as soon or sooner than he did what was wrong and with heads thrown backward, started for the river in full haste. Marion Lowry, also working for Herb Stoner, started out to help Grant round up the cattle when he saw threatening clouds gathering rapidly in the northwest; but before he could reach Grant the cattle had reached the shelter of their corral in the bend of the river bed two miles distant, directly east of where Vesper is now situated. Mr. Crawford, who never before or after that day saw cattle stampede, doubts if there was a horse in Lincoln county that could have kept near those cattle on the occasion fear prompted them to seek safety in a familiar shelter.
While herding cattle for William Tilzey, Mr. Crawford killed 137 snakes, 35 of which were rattle snakes. Dave Spencer, who was herding cattle for a Mr. Williams, was with Grant one day about one-half mile south of where Hobby lake is located. Dave had a very intelligent little shepherd dog, "Don," who was unusually quick to follow instructions. On this particular day, however, he refused to lay near a certain clump of grass that Dave had indicated. Twice, the dog walked to the psot and returned to his master without making any sounds or outward sign to betray the reason for his strange behavior. Investigation revealed a huge rattle snake coiled in the clump of grass. Declaring it to be the largest rattle snake he ever saw, Grant described it as being as big around as the upper part of his own arm above the elbow. The two young men were handicapped in fighting the dangerous reptile which raised itself high in the air and struck at them time and again because they had only rocks and little whips with which to defend themselves. Having finally killed the snake, they discovered 18 rattles still intact, and estimated that it had had 26 or more as they had broken off about 10 of the rattles during the course of the battle. Dave cut off the 18 rattles to save. Dave’s brother, Dr. B.E. Spencer, informed Grant recently that Dave dropped dead in the corral on his Oklahoma farm home two years ago.
Mr. Crawford recalls that Vesper was originally named "Nimo" after Mr. A.M. Nimmons. The name was changed when the old Vesper post office on Mr. Harmon’s place was moved to the present site of Vesper. Old Vesper was located two miles west and one-half mile north of the present-day Vesper.
Grant’s father, William Crawford, carried mail from Vesper on a route which went through Denmark where Jim Broadwater was postmaster, Pottersburg, where Mr. and Mrs. William Harlow kept a country post office, Alemede, where "Doc" Patterson was postmaster, Ingalls where the Catell brothers ran a store and took care of the post office, Cedron where Porters kept a post office, and Freewill, an English settlement inhabited by the Berrys, Tilzeys and Jacksons.
Presumably the worst experience by Grant’s father while the latter was carrying mail occurred near Ash Grove one April morning when rain and snow filled the air. In trying to cross Bacon Creek, Mr. Crawford lost his pony but managed to save the mail. Because he was unable to swim a stroke, Mr. Crawford clung to the back of a tree with one hand and held up the mail bag with the other. Thinking that the water, which in reality was shoulder deep on Mr. Crawford, was much deeper, he clung desperately in the icy water for five or six hours until a Horner boy came to his rescue. This episode occurred only a quarter of a mile from the Metzger farm, but Mr. Crawford was unaware of the exact location until after he had reached solid ground again.
William Crawford and his sons possessed only one overcoat between them. The boys often alternated for their father so that which ever one was carrying mail got to have the coat for the day during cold weather.
Grant’s career as a school teacher began with the term of 1885-86 and lasted for five terms. Lula Beverly was mentioned as having been one of his first students. Mr. Crawford distinctly remembers the cause for one enforced school vacation in January. He had eaten dinner at the Porter home; the afternoon was very pleasant and gradually became hazy, which a few snow flakes as big as half-dollars fell at infrequent intervals. The storm broke in blizzard proportions at midnight; visibility was only 10 to 15 rods. The first blizzard subsided for one nice day, but was immediately followed by an even more severe storm.
Many more are the interesting stories that Mr. Crawford could divulge if given ample opportunity, and we hope that in the not-too-distant future we shall be privileged to visit him again.
Mr. Crawford and his wife, the former Miss Rosa Clinton of Tescott, Kansas, have lived in their hospitable farm home near the northwest corner of Lincoln Center for the past 38 years. Mr. and Mrs. Crawford, who extend a friendly welcome to their callers, are very pleasant people to know.
