Samuel J. Crawford

Infobox Governor
name= Samuel J. Crawford
small

order=3^rd
office= Governor of Kansas
term_start= January 9, 1865
term_end= November 4, 1868
lieutenant= James McGrew
Nehemiah Green
predecessor= Thomas Carney
successor= Nehemiah Green
birth_date= April 10, 1835
birth_place= Lawrence County, Indiana
death_date= October 21, 1913
death_place= Topeka, Kansas
spouse= Isabel Marshall Chase
profession= attorney, politician, soldier, real estate
party= Republican
religion= Episcopalian (preference)
footnotes=

Samuel Johnson Crawford (April 10, 1835 - October 21, 1913) was an American General and the third Governor of the state of Kansas (1865 – 1868). He also served as one of the first members of the Kansas Legislature.

Early life

Crawford was born in Lawrence County, Indiana and grew up on a farm while he attended school in Bedford, Indiana. He later attended law school at Cincinnati College. His parents were William and Jane (Morrow) Crawford, who were natives of North Carolina and had moved to Indiana Territory in 1815. His paternal grandparents were James and Mary (Fraser) Crawford, his grandfather having been a Revolutionary soldier. In remote ancestry the Crawfords were Scottish.

Arrival in Kansas

Samuel J. Crawford arrived in Kansas Territory and began the practice of law at Garnett, Kansas on March 1, 1859. In May of the same year of his arrival he attended the Osawatomie Convention and participated in the organization of the Republican Party in Kansas. In September of the same year he was a delegate to the Republican state convention at Topeka, which placed in nomination state officers under the Wyandotte Constitution.

In November 1859, he was elected a member of the first state Legislature, and assisted in putting the state government into operation.

Military career

Toward the close of the first session the country was involved in war. He resigned his legislative seat to become captain in the Second Kansas Volunteer Infantry. He participated in the 1861 Southwest Missouri campaign led by General Lyon, and took part in all the engagements, including the crucial Battle of Wilson Creek. In March 1862, Captain Crawford was assigned the command of Troop A, Second Kansas Volunteer Cavalry, and soon afterwards the command of a battalion in the same regiment.

With the Second Kansas he was with General James G. Blunt in Southwest Missouri, Arkansas, and Indian Territory until early in the fall of 1862. During that time he participated in the battles of Newtonia, Old Fort Wayne, Cane Hill, Bald Peak, Cove Creek, Prairie Grove and Van Buren. At Old Fort Wayne he led his battalion in the charge which resulted in the capture of an entire battery of artillery.

On March 12, 1863, he was assigned to command the Second Kansas Volunteer Cavalry and soon afterwards joined Blunt at Fort Gibson for an expedition south through the Choctaw Nation. This campaign ended with the taking of Fort Smith, Arkansas and Colonel Crawford was instrumental in capturing a number of prisoners, wagons, horses, a Confederate paymaster and $40,000 of Confederate money.

In November 1863, he was appointed colonel in the Eighty-third United States Colored Infantry. In March 1864, he joined General Frederick Steele on an expedition to the Red River under the general command of General Nathaniel Banks. At Jenkins Ferry his command lost heavily and his own horse was shot.

Governor

While still in active service, on September 8, 1864, Colonel Crawford was nominated for governor of Kansas. On October 1st he was granted a leave of absence, the first he had had since entering the service at the beginning of the war, but on arriving in Kansas learned of Price's Missouri Raid. Instead of entering the canvass for office, he at once reported to and was assigned to the staff of General Samuel R. Curtis. For meritorious services on the field of battle he was brevetted Brigadier General on April 13, 1865.

On November 8, 1864, he was elected governor, and on January 9, 1865, took the oath of office and on September 5, 1866 became the first person to be re-elected governor of Kansas.

Governor Crawford resigned on November 4, 1868 to take command of the 19th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry which was to join the 7th United States Cavalry in the Custer-Sheridan Winter Campaign of 1868-69.

Retirement

After retiring from the governorship Crawford was in the real estate business at Emporia, Kansas until 1876, when he removed to Topeka and undertook the prosecution of certain claims against the United States for indemnity school lands, and in this he rendered much aid to Kansas. Subsequently he moved to Washington, D.C., and practiced law there for a number of years. Among other activities Governor Crawford published "Kansas in the '60s," a work which attracted much attention as a picture of conditions in early Kansas history, and which will always be an important source of history.

References

* [http://skyways.lib.ks.us/genweb/archives/1918ks/bioc/crawfosj.html A Standard History of Kansas and Kansans, written and compiled by William E. Connelley, Secretary of the Kansas State Historical Society, Topeka.] Chicago: Lewis Publishing Company, copyright 1918; transcribed by Ryan Cannon, student from USD 508, Baxter Springs Middle School, Baxter Springs, Kansas, September, 1997.
* [http://www.kshs.org/research/collections/documents/personalpapers/findingaids/crawford.htm S. J. Crawford Copies of Letters Sent and Essay, 1868–1905, Miscellaneous Manuscript Collection, Kansas State Historical Society]
* [http://www.kansascavalry.org/awards.htm Kansas Cavalry Awards]

External links

* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=5993557 Find-A-Grave profile for Samuel Crawford]