St. Cloud Democrat. [volume] (Saint Cloud, Stearns County, Minn.) 1858-1866, 1861-03-14
From the St. Peter Tribune.
The Murder of Crawford.


The Pioneer Of the Oath inst, publish.
es the memorial of our Legislature which
Senator Wilkinson presented IN the U. s.
Senate, and comments upon it as follows
"We find in this precious petition, the state
ment that "citizens of Minnesota have been
"tarred, feathered, banished, and many even
murdered, by lawless mobs," and their proper
ty confscated without any process Of law" by
tho citizens, aided by ''the connivance of the
authorities" Of the Southern States! Is it not
terrible, citizens Of Minnesota, that such mon
strous LIE should be presented to Congress, at
this time, endorsed by the signature of every
member Of the Legislature of our State There
liza wicked lie; and those who signed it,
did it either through ignorance or misreprcsen-
tation of its contents, or willingly consented to
endorse an apparent falschood."
We would ask the attention Of the Pr
oncer to the case of Crawford, which We
mentioned few weeks since, but have
since learned the full particulars from a
reliable person who had the facts direct
from his wife, who is now at Elysian, a
few miles from here. Sometime last sum-
mcr Mr.. Crawford with his wife and boy
went to Texas to reside, where he COM
menccd farming. Last fall one Of his
nearest ncig hbors called at his house, ap-
parently on friendly visit, and informed
him that he must leave the State within
thirty days. Mrs. Crawford says he evil
IDENTIFY considered it joke, as the matter
was never alluded to afterwards by him.
But when the thirty days had passed, MIR.
Crawford, while working in the field with
his boy, was called upon by neighbor,
and asked to 90 short distance with him
to assist iii putting a log on a wagon. Mr..
G. sent the boy home with load of hay,
and himself accompanied the ncighbor.
When they had gone short distance,
thirty men rose up from the graas and
shot him dead!
The boy heard the report of the guns,
md saw what had happened. Being
frightened, he made loud cry, when
they told him to go home Immediately, or
they would shoot him. He ran to the
house and told Mrs. Crawford what had
occurred. She, almost frantic, ran down
to the spot, and found her husband hang
ing on tree, the men having twisted
rope Of grass for that purpose Then they
informed her that she must go back to the
house at once, and leave the State within
Eve days or they would kill her. The
dead body was left hanging in the tree till
ten o'clock next day, when she prevailed
upon them to take it down and bury it.
At the expiration of the five days COM
mittcc accompanied her to the nearest
steamboat landing, and sent her off, she
being obliged to leave her own team on
The levcc.
Mr.. Crawford was Democrat in politics,
and not at all inclined to make disturbance
Of any kind. He was we'll known in this
vicinity, having resided at Elysian, LIE
Suer Co., where Mrs Crawford is now living
We have these facts so direct from Mrs.
Crawford, that there is no chance for mis-
take. We have no comments to make,
but would now ask the Pioneer whether
tho petition Of our Legislature should "be
branded as lie in the Senate Chamber
Of tho Nation 2" Would it not be better
to take measures for the protection of North
ern citizens in Southern States?
M0TICE.-Notice is hereby given that The
~ undersigned will apply to the District
Court for the Fourth judicial District, county
of stearns, State Of Minnesota, at the next
general term thereof, to beholden at the Court
room in st. Cloud, on the LIST day of April A.
D. 1861, at the opening Of Court on that day,
or as soon thereafter az counsel con be heard,
to null and vacats the town-site Of WOOD.
STOCK, in said county Of Stearns.
P. G. RANSOM.
St. Cloud, Jan. 21st, 1861. jan24-tapl