The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-12-27
NOTED PIONEER DEAD.
Capt. Medoren Crawford, One
OF Oregon's Founders.
WALT WHITMAN SINKING FAST
speaker Crisp Greatly Exhausted-con.
gresham Mills Condition Unchanged
Actor Seaman Breaks Down.

MoMrNNvILIE. Or, Dec. 26.-rspecial. +
Medorem Crawford, pioneer of 1870 d;ad
a. ms nome III this county today of cancer
VI tue throat. For several months he had
been patient sufferer, only waiting for
.he end, and realizing that his condition
old.
1aptain Medorem Crawford was born in
orange county, n. Y, June "a 1910 In
early lie he was apprenticed to a farmer I'm
seneca county, with whom he lived from his
18Th TO his 10th year. He left hi, home in
Havana, Schuyler county, on March II. Is4o.
pound Tor Oregon. His route OF travel led
lnroush seneca lake. Lake Erie Pfttsburg,
cincinnati, st. Louis and Indepeudence
ana the trip is well described in his
occasional Address to the Association of Pic.
heers, delivered at Portland on June Is. 1891
, Du nis ARRIVAL In oregon the young traveller
located at Salem, and Taught the Mission school
LOT nine months. In the following year he mar.
rled Miss Brown, and purchased a claim cover
lug the present site of Wheatland Polk COUNTY
where he resided until the fall of 1874 AT the
"heatiand farm, in January, 1874, his oldest son
NOW ID the United States army was born being
the first male child of American parentage born
on the west side of the Willamette river. In
April, ls45, he removed to Oregon City, where
ne resided Tor seven years, engaged in trans
porting merchandise and produce around the
willamette falls. he was a member of the pro-
visional legislature in lS47, during which ses-
sion the Whitman massacre occurred, and
again In lSi9, the last session under
the provisional government In 1852 he re-
moved to the mouth of Yamhiu river
ana settled permanently on the "Joe McLaugh-
IN claim, one OF the earliest settled farms in
the valley, 10 which he subsequently acquired a
patent under the donation law He was elected
TO the first state legislature but was counted out
Dy his partisan opponents; was again elected in
1860 and took an active interest in the election
oil oregon's first Republican senator, Colonel E.
ID. Baker He visited his father In New York in
1851 and on returning Westward. across the
plains, was taken into government ser
vice and made assistant 10 Captain
haynadier, q. s. A., who commanded the emf
grant escort. In the following year he went
East again and received from President Lincoln
the appointment of assistant quarteEynaster,
with the rank of captain. and was ordered West
to organize, arm and equip 100 men, and to pro-
ceed westward over the Rocky mountains for
the purpose OF assisting and protecting the emf
grants. The company performed that duty
throughout the season, and disbanded at Walla
Walia in october. 1862 Returning East again in
1863, he, for the third time crossed the plains
westward IN charge of emigrants. and in the
next year resigned his commission. President
Lincoln then conferred upon him the appoint
ment of collector of internal revenue at Port
land. which Office he filed With marked ability
Tor nearly eight years. In 1871 he was appointed
by President Grant appraiser of merchandise for
the port of Portland. which Office be admins
tered for about five years. He then retired to
his farm at the mouth of the Yamhill
river, where he spent the remaining years
OF his life, surrounded by the members of bis
family, actively engaged in the pursuit he en-
joyed the most, filling the soil. Mrs. Crawford
died early in 1879, and in 1850 he married Mrs.
Z. Burrows. He served as president of the Ore
gon Pioneer Association, and did mucn in the
way of preserving record OF the early pioneer
days in Oregon. His public address before that
association in 1891. heretofore referred to, and
his contributions to the press at various times
throw much light on the earliest attempts to
carry civilization to the shores of the Pacific.
Captain Crawford leaves four sons and two
daughters, all grown. The Oldest son. Medorem
jr., is lieutenant in the regular army, now
stationed at Fort Adams, Newport. q I. He and
younger sister, who has been visiting in the
East, left New York on the 2ist inst for Oregon,
little expecting they would arrive too late to see
their father alive. The funeral will take place
on Monday. Il. c. Crawford, of this city, q
brother of the captain. has gone to Oregon TO at
tend the funeral Captain Crawford was an
uncle OF Messrs. s. l. Crawford and r. NJ. Craw-
ford, of Seattle.