Thomas Crawford

Early Crawfords, either Scots or Scots-Irish, entered via Virginia mainly. John Crawford had arrived with his son David from Ayrshire in 1643 and they became landowners and tobacco farmers. John was killed during Bacon's rebellion of 1676. David survived. This family later built their home at Tusculum in Amherst county. It was here that William H. Crawford, the Senator for Georgia and 1824 Presidential candidate, was born. Another Crawford family settled in Grayson county, Virginia. A descendant, Dr. George Crawford, was an early pioneer in Oregon. And a William Crawford from Orange county, Virginia was a combatant in the Revolutionary War. But he was brutally tortured and burnt at the stake by Indians before the war was over.

Colonel John Crawford settled in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Robert and Catherine Crawford of this family lived through the oil boom times of NW Pennsylvania in the late 19th century. Herbert Crawford, the President of the Crawford Coal Company, was a well-known mining man in West Virginia in the early 20th century. His forebears had originally come to Pennsylvania from Scotland.

A Crawford family in the South traces back to William Crawford who had arrived as a young boy in Charleston, South Carolina in 1779. Many Crawfords later moved onto Georgia and then to Texas. Those who made it to Texas included:

   * William Carrol Crawford, who was the last surviving signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence.

   * ET Crawford and his five brothers, cotton farmers who settled in Panolo county.

   * Jesse and Hannah Crawford, who settled in Nacogdoches county.

   * William H. and Charles F. Crawford, sons of Jesse Crawford, who settled in Tyler county.

   * William Nelson Crawford, who moved to Texas in the 1840's and after whom Crawford in McClennan county is probably named.

   * Thomas and Martha Crawford, who arrived in Texas in the 1860's.  Their son Lewis later took over their cattle ranch in Day county, Oklahoma.