Who were the Crawfords?
Sarah Byerly Crawford (probable)
Picture embossed with Sacramento in bottom right hand corner. Picture taken in the 1860's.
John Washington Crawford married Sarah Byerly in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on February 23, 1848. Sarah was born to parents who came from Wurttemberg, Germany; John's father was born in Pennsylvania and his mother was born in Ireland according to the 1880 Census. The Record of Marriages for St. Paul's Episcopal Church in Philadelphia states that Sarah was born in Lancaster City, Pa. John worked as a laborer in Philadelphia on the 1850 Census, and after coming to Sacramento by wagon worked as a drayman there by 1860. He was listed in the 1861 directory as living on G Street.
The Crawford family was complete by the 1860 Census, with Mary, George and William born in Pennsylvania and Sarah having been born in California. These names and ages all correspond to the entries in the Crawford Family Bible.
Sarah Elizabeth Crawford (probable); in 1863 she would have been 6 years old. The off the shoulders dress and ringlets date this photo to the early 1860's.
The S.V.R.R. was the Sacramento Valley Railroad, the forerunner to the Central Pacific Railroad. As constructed, the Sacramento Valley Railroad ran from the Sacramento River levee at Front and "L" Street in present day Old Sacramento and terminated at Folsom. On February 22, 1856, the first train operated over the entire 22.9 mile line.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacramento_Valley_Railroad
It looks like John was driving a dray (a low flatbed wagon without sides pulled by either horses or mules) that was used to transport goods to and from the railway.
The Great Flood of 1862 Sacramento California www.redlandsdailyfacts.com
November of 1861 dropped heavy snow in the Sierras and December saw a rise in temperatures which melted the snow. Then, storm after storm struck the west coast in January 1862 setting up conditions for a mega flood. Sacramento, the state capitol, was underwater as much of the central valley became an inland sea. Towns, farms and ranches were wiped off the map, and the state experienced a tremendous loss of cattle. After the waters receded, Sacramento began a program of raising entire city blocks with dirt transported from the river banks and the work was not completed until 1873. I wonder if this event precipitated the move to San Francisco after 1870. The city the Crawfords lived and worked in must have been a scene of chaos for quite some time and I can't imagine the living conditions they experienced in the aftermath of the flooding. They stuck it out until 1867 when John Crawford was registered in the Sacramento County Great Register. The family was still in Sacramento in 1870 when they were registered in the 3rd ward on the census. John was working as an express driver. 19 year old George was working as a news vender.
Sometime after 1870 the family moved to the bustling city of San Francisco where an 1876 Voter Registration list showed John Washington Crawford as well as George Byerly Crawford and a William Cummings Crawford working as draymen and teamsters and living on Freelon Street.
An 1880 Voter Registration list shows John Washington working as a drayman living at 40 1/2 Zoe Street, George Byerly Crawford working as a teamster living at 40 Zoe Street, and William Cummings Crawford working as a drayman and living at 541 Fourth Street.
The current location of Zoe, Freelon and 4th Streets...several blocks away from Oracle Park. Imagine that! Home of the San Francisco Giants...our favorite baseball team.
A large condominium complex now sits in the vicinity of where the Crawfords lived.
An 1888 Voter Registration List shows William Cummings Crawford working as a teamster and living on Park Avenue. I couldn't find a Park Avenue, but Park Street is just .03 miles from Zoe Street. This was most likely his home. William's son William disappears in the records, but Etta may have stayed in the area, as a Miss Etta Crawford was listed in the S.F. Directory in 1900 as working as a stenographer and living on Ellis Street. This is the same information on the 1900 Census. After 1896 William was listed in the Fresno Voter Registrations as living in Merced and working as a laborer. It looks like he moved to the Fresno area after that, and the last record for him was the 1907 City Directory for Fresno, California.
Mary Amelia Crawford married Francis M. Thompson in 1867 and the family was found on the 1880 Census living in Walla Walla City. That would explain Hattie's birth in 1883 listed in the bible as Spokane Falls Washington. The family had obviously moved around in that area. But, they were back in San Francisco by 1886 when Hattie died. Francis died in 1898 and Mary died in 1903. Son Edward died in 1967 in Santa Clara and daughter Mabel died in 1962 in Napa.
George Byerly Crawford married Sarah Christina Maddox in Sacramento in 1873 and they were still living there by the 1880 Census. They eventually had 4 children:
*Emma Mason Crawford (the only child of George and Sarah to be recorded in the bible) was born in Broderick County which was a former town in Yolo County, California, and now forms a part of West Sacramento. She was born in 1874.
*Varena J. Crawford was born in 1878 in San Francisco, lived in the Berkley area and died in 1956.
*George Dudley Crawford was born in 1881 and lived in the Bay Area where he died in 1977. I share DNA with his grandson, as does AuntieJ and several cousins. We share a large portion of Scottish DNA which could be a clue to origins further back in time.
*Clarence Raymond Crawford was born in 1890 in San Francisco and died very young at the age of 34 in 1925, in San Francisco.
Sarah Elizabeth Crawford was born on the 17th day of October, 1856 and was my great great grandmother. I will add more about her life with Franklin Hayes in later posts. I also have more Crawford pictures which I am trying to date and identify.
I'm so thankful that we have the Crawford Family bible. Finding family records written in bold and sometimes faint handwriting by several unknown and known hands brings this family that much closer. I can now try to go back even further...to Wurttemburg....to possibly Scotland!
Relationship Reference:
Me:--Margaret Hansen Boothby--Margaret Elizabeth Hayes Hansen--
The parents of Margaret Hayes Hansen were Emma Lavinia King Hayes VanDuzer and Lester Franklin Hayes.
(they had three daughters: Dorothy, Francis and Margaret)
The parents of Lester Hayes were Sarah (Sallie) Elizabeth Crawford and Franklin Hayes
The parents of Sallie Crawford were John Washington Crawford and Sarah Byerly of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, married in 1848.
