Colorado 

              Colorado
first settlers  1833
became state    1876
first ancestor  1873
last ancestor   1945
# of ancestors     3
# of immigrants    0
# born in state    0
# died in state    3
  • CRAWFORD family (1873-1945)

    Spanish explorers came to Colorado in the 16th century, long before the Jamestown Colony in Virginia and Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts. Traders and trappers established some trading posts along the Arkansas and South Platte rivers as early as 1832. The first permanent village of San Luis was settled in 1851. The Pike's Peak gold rush started in 1857 and brought the first major wave of settlers into the territory. Denver was started in 1858 and became the major supply town in the region. The railroad arrived in Denver in 1870. The territory became the Centennial State in 1876.

    The CRAWFORD family (1873-1945) 
                              |-James Harvey Crawford
   |-John Daniel Crawford-|
   |                      |-Margaret Emerine Bourn
   |-Minnie May Welch


    James Harvey Crawford - Margaret Emerine Bourn - John Daniel Crawford - Minnie May Welch

    The Crawford family, consisting of JAMES HARVEY CRAWFORD (JHC), his wife MARGARET, and three children Lulie, Logan, and JOHN, left Missouri by wagon train in 1873. Their life exploring in Colorado and founding the town of Steamboat Springs has been well documented by their granddaughter, Lulita Crawford Pritchett (see www.LulitaCrawfordPritchett.com) and greatgrandson, James Logan Crawford (see www.CrawfordPioneersOfSteamboatSprings). The following is a brief summary of their life in Colorado. They spent their first winter in Beaver Brook, west of Denver, and the second in Hot Sulphur Springs, in Middle Park west of the Continental Divide. They were the first wagon to cross Rollins Pass, even before the road was completed to the summit, and JHC won a race to build the first permanent house in Hot Sulphur Springs. During the spring of 1874, JHC took an exploratory trip west to the Yampa River with Missouri friends. When he saw the springs at the big bend in the river, he immediately knew that was where he wanted to live, and staked his homestead claim at the site that became Steamboat Springs. In the spring of 1876 the Crawford family returned to live permanently in Steamboat Springs, living a few weeks in the Little Cabin while an Indian trader occupied their Big Cabin. Over the next five years, they were the only permanent family in the area. Margaret reflected later in life about how the hardest part of these years was that she would for months at a time "not hear the sound of another woman's voice". Their most frequent visitors were the Ute Indian families that often camped nearby to enjoy the many springs. The Crawfords became friends with the Indians, in particular the elderly sub-chief Yahmonite, and often traded with them, fed them, and tended to their medical needs. More than a hundred Indians came to the cabin on July 4, 1876, for the raising of the American Flag for Steamboat's first Fourth of July celebration.



    The first three Crawford houses in Steamboat Springs: Little Cabin - Big Cabin - Frame Cottage

    Over the following years the Crawford cabin became the center of a growing settler community. It was the first post office, the first school, the first church, the first library, and the first newspaper office. During the scare of the Meeker Massacre, the cabin became a haven for the area. Governor John Routt appointed JHC as the first county judge of Routt County (1877), the first Postmaster (1878), and the first Superintendent of Schools (1879). He was twice elected to represent the county in the Colorado legislature (1879 and 1887), and once elected as county judge (1883). When Routt County became a separate county, he was the foreman for the first grand jury to convene (1885). On March 27, 1882 their fourth child Mary was born while they wintered in Boulder. In 1883 the first school was built near their cabin, with their daughter Lulie as the first teacher. In 1884 Margaret helped organize and build Union Church, a non-denominational church that was the first church building in northwest Colorado. Also in 1884 JHC organized the Steamboat Springs Town Company with financial backing of several investors from Boulder. The company laid out the town, sold lots, built a bathhouse, and promoted the town in diverse ways such as running the brickyard and financing the first printing presses for the Steamboat Pilot newspaper. With the addition of the Suttle sawmill in 1883, the town grew rapidly over the late 1880s and 1890s. The Crawfords built a small frame house in 1887, followed in 1893 by their "stone mansion", where they lived the rest of their lives. In 1900, the town was incorporated, with JHC as the first mayor. He continued to be instrumental in developing the land for the new town: half of the original town site lies on his homestead. He was also active with developing coal and mineral resources in Routt County. He discovered one of the large coal deposits north of Hayden, leading to the Elkhead Anthracite Coal Company. He discovered the largest onyx mine in Colorado and managed the Colorado Onyx Company, which supplied the onyx used to form the columns and walls at the entrance to the Colorado Mineral Exhibit at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904. The family spent their winters in Denver, where they bought a second home at 663 Gaylord Street. They traveled to Mexico to visit their daughter Lulie Pritchett, California several times, and once sailed to Hawaii. JHC and his two sons went on a fishing trip to Louisiana in the summer of 1912. JAMES and MARGARET celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1915. JHC lived another 15 years until he died at home on June 24, 1930. MARGARET spent much of her last years living with her daughter Lulie in Denver, but she also died in the home on June 12, 1939.


    Crawford Stone House when first built in 1896 and in 2010 - 663 Gaylord St., Denver

    John Daniel Crawford, the focal point of this web site, was born February 8, 1873 on his parents' farm near Sedalia, Missouri. He was three months old when the family started by covered wagon to Denver, and he was just two and a half years old when they arrived in Steamboat Springs. For the rest of his life, his home was Steamboat. JOHN spent his early years hunting, fishing, and guiding in the mountains, and helping with the Crawford cattle and horses. In 1893-94, he lived in Sedalia with his Uncle John while he studied business and bookkeeping at Central Business college at Sedalia. Fortunately, in the fall of 1894 he was back in Steamboat Springs, living in the Crawford frame house while the Crawford stone house was built. His future wife, Minnie May Welch came to Steamboat that year as a school teacher. (Welch ancestors). She taught for only one year before spending the next ten years teaching in Denver. JOHN spent those ten years principally as a miner. He worked several months around Hahn's Peak in Little Red Park, Columbine, and the Master Key mine. In 1897 he discovered a copper vein at Yellow Creek just a few hundred yards from the continental divide. He got some financial backing from Sedalia relatives, hired a crew of friends, built a log cabin and lived there over two winters and a summer while they dug the Sunset Mine tunnel. In 1899 JOHN joined his sister Lulie in Mexico where he worked in mines for his brother-in-law Carr Pritchett. In 1904 he sailed from San Francisco to Hawaii with his parents and sisters. In Steamboat he spent a lot of his time camping, hunting, fishing, trapping, and mining. He often guided parties into the mountains and would be gone for two or three weeks at a time. In 1904 the Elkhead Anthracite Coal Company was sold to a N.Y. syndicate for $200,000. The shares of the Company were divided by 6 people: JOHN, his father, his brother, two Denver lawyers, and a Denver investor. JOHN's share was over $30,000, and he finally had the money to support a family. JOHN and Minnie were married June 21, 1905 in a double wedding with her sister Grace at the Episcopal Church, just a block from the Welch house in Denver. They moved into the Crawford stone house with his parents for a year. In 1906 they purchased a house half a block away on Crawford Avenue where they lived the rest of their lives.


    John Crawford house, Steamboat Springs

    In 1908 their only child, James Daniel Crawford, was born. JOHN tried his hand at real estate, selling lots for his father in the North Highlands and Crawford Additions. He was also involved with selling lots in the Stearn's Addition to Steamboat, land which was outside his father's homestead. He bought a small house and lot north of their home in North Highlands, and rented it for awhile. John's major effort in real estate was a new addition to Steamboat which he tried to develop. The land was originally owned by his uncle John, north of the Pritchett Ranch. In 1908, there was much talk that a sanitarium might be built around the lithia spring when the railroad came to Steamboat. JOHN put together a group of investors to buy the adjacent 40 acres from uncle John and hold it for speculation. Before the year was out, uncle John died, and John ended up buying the land from uncle John's wife, Annie, for $6000. In 1910, he surveyed and plated the land as the West Side Addition. Unfortunately, the sanitarium was never built and there were no buyers for the land or house lots in the West Side Addition.

    In July of 1910 John tried his hand at business, and ran The Pioneer Bakery along with John C. Schwenk. They lasted for two summers before the Pioneer Bakery closed permanently. John worked the next summer on the Pritchett Ranch before his big break came: the county court house moved from Hahns Peak to Steamboat Springs and John became deputy clerk for Routt County in 1912. He was also elected to two 2-year terms as Steamboat Springs Town Trustee. After 4 years of serving as deputy clerk, John was elected 14 times as Clerk of Routt County, a career that lasted longer than any other county clerk in Colorado. His salary was $2,100, far more than he made with the bakery. He served the county well, often getting calls at night or on the weekends by somebody desperately wanting a license of some sort, and never turning them down. His busiest time of year was always the end of December, when he had to spend New Years Eve at the Court House handling all of the late-minute filings that needed to be recorded in the old year. Minnie died of cancer in 1932. John continued living in their house and working at the court house. His brother Logan retired and returned to Steamboat to live with John, and for one year, son James lived at home after graduating from the U. of Colorado in Boulder. In 1944 he chose to retire and not seek re-election. Unfortunately instead of enjoying retirement years he died of cancer less than 3 months after leaving office, March 21, 1945.


    Steamboat Springs Cemetery: James and Margaret Crawford's gravestone and military stone by an old cottonwood tree - John Daniel Crawford
    For more information:

    www.LulitaCrawfordPritchett.com
    www.CrawfordPioneersOfSteamboatSprings