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<em>Charles Crawford</em>, born in Coshocton, Ohio, was the fourth son of a vigorous Irish family that gave him an inheritance of a strong body, a keen and active mind, and courage for living life in the full measure of pioneer tradition.</p>
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Some of his earliest memories were of the trip made from Ohio to Miami County, Kansas, his first great adventure to a new and strange place.</p>
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Crawford’s early education was in the Kansas country schools. At eighteen he placed second in a competitive examination at Iola, Kansas for cadetship at West Point rating less than one per cent behind the young man who stood first. The young man who was third in the competition was Fred W. Funston, later the General Funston of the Philippine Insurrection. The winner of the competition was unable to cope with the mathematics course at West Point and Crawford was appointed to fill the vacancy by E. H. Funston, a representative from Kansas and father of Fred Funston.</p>
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After graduation from West Point in 1889, Crawford was sent to Oklahoma to help maintain order while the new state was getting started. He was in command of an escort of soldiers that accompanied the “Cherokee Commission” that visited the Kickapoo, Iowa, Sac and Fox, Shawnee, Cheyenne, and Arapahoe Indians and arranged for the final breaking up of tribal relations of these peoples, their taking their lands in severalty and their becoming citizens of the United States.</p>
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He spent four years in New Mexico later on the same type of duty. Here he enlisted and organized an Indian company of Apaches, commanding these Indians until they were fully organized and trained.</p>
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In 1898 Crawford was in the Santiago campaign of the Spanish American War. He participated in the battle of San Juan Hill, Cuba, in which his captain in an official report commented on his fearlessness under fire. As Captain of the 20th Infantry he spent three years in the Philippines. The first year he was in command of the Santa Cruz district in Manila, an arduous and important duty as there was an outbreak threatened daily. Manila of all places in the islands had to be governed quietly and with regular justice. Later transferred to Narvacan, Ilocos Sur he was in command of a district containing some 20,000 people, many of them active insurgents. He was in charge of civil affairs in the provinces of Ilocos Sur, Ilocos Norte, Alera, and Union under the command of General Bell.</p>
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In 1903 he was detailed as assistant instructor in law at the Infantry and Cavalry school at Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas. After a year and a half he was transferred to position of instructor in the Department of Military Art.</p>
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Another period in the Philippines was followed by three years on the General Headquarters staff in Washington.</p>
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General Crawford was recalled to the United States from Panama at the opening of World War I and was given charge of the 6th Brigade, which was sent to Europe.</p>
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A major operation in a war hospital in France in September, 1918, cut short his career and led to his retirement in 1919, not long after his return to the United States.</p>
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Shortly before General Crawford’s retirement his very charming and gracious wife died after a brief illness.</p>
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Recovering from his serious illness, suffering the grief of the loss of his wife, retiring from some 30 years of the full and active life of the army, Charles Crawford came home to Miami County, Kansas.</p>
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The next twenty-six years he lived a life which, though it may have seemed simple and quiet on the surface, was filled with many and varied activities.</p>
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As a young boy he had lived on the farm. Now starting with a farm inherited from the estate of his father he decided to become a farmer. Some of the family doubted a soldier would ever make much of a farmer. That he finally owned and managed personally in a scientific and modern manner four farms totaling more than 1,400 acres proved this soldier could be a farmer also.</p>
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During his years of retirement he spent much time in reading and study. Education never ceased for him. He enjoyed collecting and organizing material on subjects in which he was particularly interested. He wrote and published two books— “<em>Six Months With The Sixth Brigade</em>” and ‘‘<em>Re-Stating Economic Theory</em>”. He also completed and published a genealogy of the Thomas Crawford family in the United States.</p>
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He had no children of his own but he took an unusual interest in the children of the men who worked on his farms. He personally made it possible for several of them to have educational opportunities which otherwise they might not have enjoyed. He believed firmly in plain and practical training for youth which would fit a young man to meet the demands of his circumstance.</p>
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In December, 1945 General Crawford suffered a severe head injury as the result of a motor car accident. Three weeks later on December 28th, he passed away at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City, MO. He was buried at Paola, Kansas.</p>
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Charles Crawford, who came from a pioneer family, lived as befit one of this heritage. His life was one of courage, adventure, and satisfaction with an understanding of toil, grief, and misery. His career began with experiences and dealings with the Indians and ended with keen interest and wistful desire for participation in the last great conflict which ushered in the Atomic Age.</p>
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