The Crawford papers consist of correspondence and several manuscripts.  The Correspondence Series, arranged chronologically, consist of two parts.  The first part consists of 127 letters dated from 1867 to 1880.  It is comprised of letters between John and Henry Crawford, who were brothers, and other family members.  The early letters recount when, in 1867, Henry Crawford assembled about 80 sheep from various farmers in the Putney, Vermont area to ship to Chicago in order to sell them at a profit.  Unsuccessful there, he continued on to Madison, Wisconsin and finally Rochester, Minnesota.  He later returned to Vermont and John Crawford went to Rochester to take over the sale of the sheep.  He also worked in the area and decided to stay in the west.  In 1870 he returned to Vermont to marry Louisa Gorham.  They settled in Rochester and later moved to Eyota, Minnesota where they lived until 1881 when they homesteaded in Dakota Territory.

The letters document very well their life in Rochester and Eyota as well as their families in Vermont.  The other part of the correspondence series consists of 42 letters dating from 1881 to 1894 covering the “Dakota period”.  They consist mainly of letters Robert Crawford and his father wrote to their relatives in Vermont, and are very descriptive of pioneer life in Dakota for that period.  Several of the letters are copies written by Mrs. Crawford while at the Jamestown State Hospital.  The 1943 and 1950 letters are copies and relate to comments on The Checkered Years.  The later correspondence is with Mr. Leonard Sackett concerning the donations of the papers as well as biographical material.  The major part of the collection consists of Mr. Crawford’s manuscript relating the life of his parents and himself in Minnesota and North Dakota.  It is a handwritten, 734 page manuscript which is quite legible.  He used these family letters and his memory to recount this history.  It is very detailed and gives an excellent look at the life and problems of a pioneer farm family.  The first fifty pages are devoted to Vermont and genealogical information.  Pages 52-151, approximately, concern his uncle and father in Minnesota and the family at Rochester and Eyota. The Dakota era, up to 1893, is related from page 152 until the end.  Subjects of note (with beginning page) include Breckenridge, Minnesota and Wahpeton, North Dakota (p. 176), Fort Abercrombie (p. 185), breaking sod (p. 235), mirages (p. 201), farm building (p. 259), threshing (p. 280, 326, 385, 633), prairie fires (p. 335), blizzards (p. 358, 515, 586), Bonanza farms (p. 369), mail order catalogs (p. 398), women pioneers (p. 404, 685), alcohol (p. 570, 643), wildlife, fowl (p. 436, 476), insects (p. 496A), and the Chicago World’s Fair of 1893 (p. 721).  Another manuscript by Mr. Crawford is “The First Pioneer Years in Dacotah Territory, 1881-1882” which is a typed 28-page copy recounting pioneer experiences.  It was written in 1951 and parts were published in the Wahpeton paper.  The other manuscript is a 34-page, typed copy of notes by Mr. Crawford related to The Checkered Years, which was excerpts from the diary of Mary Dodge Woodward while living on the Dodge bonanza farm in Cass County.  This manuscript includes comments, clarifications, and contradictions of Mrs. Woodward’s book as well as comparison events in his own family.  The final item is a list by section, township, and range of property in Richland County owned by the Dwight Farm and Land Company.
 
 

Robert Crawford Papers  |  Frontier and Pioneer Life